GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU coach Jay Johnson was one of only three Southeastern Conference baseball coaches to vote against going to single elimination in the SEC Tournament this year.
He liked the double elimination, because with a top eight national seed clinched going in for home field advantage in the NCAA postseason, which was the case this year, he would be guaranteed two games to throw his top two starting pitchers in order to get them primed for the NCAA Regional and Super Regional.
Johnson lost the vote, but he still pitched his top two starters – Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson – on Friday night in No. 1 LSU’s SEC Tournament opener, just in case he didn’t win. And he still won, 4-3, over Texas A&M to advance to the semifinals on Saturday afternoon in Hoover, Alabama, with Anderson getting the win and Eyanson his first save of the season in his first relief appearance of the season.
“I wanted to play more than one game here,” Johnson said when asked why he closed with Eyanson, who was 9-2 with a 2.88 ERA as a starter coming in. “It was the plan. I decided last Saturday, if the game dictated that.”
The No. 3 seed Tigers (43-13, 19-11 SEC, 1-0 SEC Tournament) will play at approximately 1:30 p.m. Saturday against No. 7 seed Ole Miss (39-18, 16-14 SEC, 2-0 SEC Tournament) on the SEC Network. No. 4 seed Vanderbilt (40-16, 19-11 SEC, 1-0 SEC Tournament) and No. 8 seed Tennessee (43-15, 16-14, 2-0 SEC Tournament) play in the other semifinal at 10 a.m. Saturday The two games were moved up because of bad weather in the forecast later Saturday. LSU’s game will start 30 minutes after the conclusion of the opener.
The two winners play at 2 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2 for the SEC Tournament title. Texas A&M (30-26, 11-19 SEC, 2-1 SEC Tournament) is not expected to play in the NCAA postseason.
Johnson was asked if Eyanson, who threw 46 pitches in three innings of scoreless relief with four strikeouts and a walk, would be available for the remainder of the SEC Tournament, which was a ridiculous question. Not that he couldn’t, but because Johnson threw Anderson (84 pitches in six innings) and Eyanson shorter than usual so as to rest them for next weekend’s NCAA Regional play, which are real games.
For a likely top seed going in like LSU, the SEC Tournament is glorified scrimmaging.
“He will not be available for the rest of the weekend,” Johnson said.
“They’re the reasons why we’re not getting on an airplane to go play from this point forward (before the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska),” Johnson said.
LSU is expected to receive a national eight seed on Monday. D1Baseball’s latest projections – made before the end of LSU’s win over the Aggies – had the Tigers hosting as a No. 5 national seed.
“I felt this was a good week to minimize what we asked of them in their load to get them fresher and better for next week,” Johnson said of Anderson and Eyanson, who each have thrown over 84 innings. “The second is we now have the option to do whatever we want next Friday.”
Brilliantly, Johnson now likes the idea of starting either Anderson – a left-hander – or Eyanson – a right-hander – in either the NCAA Regional opener on Friday or the second game on Saturday, which will be against a higher ranked opponent should LSU win the opener.
“And when you don’t know who your opponent is, you want to have the option to choose,” Johnson said. “I have that.”
All the above would have been available had LSU lost to Texas A&M. But the Tigers also won, while getting their best two starters primed – but not extended – for next week.
“It took our best to win tonight, clearly. And our best is these two guys. Kade Anderson is the best pitcher in the country. I’ll give him a tie for first with Anthony Eyanson,” Johnson said.
And, no, neither will be pitching before the real postseason begins.
“It’s fun to win, man,” Anderson said. He picked up the victory to go to 8-1 after striking out 12 in six innings. He allowed three runs on four hits with one walk.
“This is the Big Leagues for me,” he said.
Ethan Frey hit his 12th home run – a two-run shot to left-center field in the bottom of the third inning to give LSU a 4-0 lead. Frey’s double to right field put the Tigers up 2-0 in the first inning.
The Aggies cut LSU’s lead to 4-1 in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Jace LaViolette, who played despite breaking a finger in the Aggies’ win over Auburn on Thursday and having a pin surgically placed in the finger. Gavin Kash’s sacrifice fly off Anderson then drew A&M within 4-2 later in the inning. LaViolette’s sacrifice fly in the sixth cut LSU’s lead to 4-3.
Anderson threw just 84 pitches with 62 strikes after usually has throwing into the 100s this season, but Johnson did not want to extend him with an NCAA Regional start looming on Friday. And he replaced him to open the seventh with Eyanson, who made his first relief appearance as a Tiger.
Johnson borrowed a page from the Skip Bertman Playbook in his pitching strategy.
“I didn’t care about the SEC Tournament,” Bertman said on Tiger Rag Radio last week when asked what his approach to the tournament was if he knew he would be hosting in the NCAA postseason as Johnson knew.
“I didn’t care about winning it. I just wanted to go and play two games, so that my first two pitchers could pitch,” Bertman said. “No, I’m not pitching my best pitcher to win the tournament in the championship game or something else (later on the weekend) when you need to use him the very next of week.”
Bertman, like Johnson on Friday, also liked to use his top starting pitchers as starters and relievers in College World Series games, flip-flopping their roles – a supposed no-no by conventional wisdom goofs – with great success five times.
The Skipper did that in winning the 2000 World Series with CWS MVP Trey Hodges relieving after starting throughout the season and starter Hunter Gomez starting and relieving; in taking the 1997 CWS with starters Doug Thompson and Patrick Coogan in both roles and regular starter Kevin Shipp relieving; in winning the 1996 World Series with Coogan relieving after starting all season and Shipp starting and relieving; in winning the 1993 World Series with ace Mike Sirotka starting and relieving and starter Scott Shultz relieving; and in winning the 1991 CWS with ace Chad Ogea starting and relieving.
It’s called pitching your best pitchers regardless of the situation. Eyanson, a starter, got the save Friday like LSU starters got CWS saves – Shipp in 1996 twice, Coogan in 1997 and Gomez in 2000.
Eyanson, the junior transfer, did have trouble to start his relief role, which he did for Team USA and at UC-San Diego. Kash tripled to center field to start the seventh inning, but LSU center fielder Chris Stanfield should have been charged with an error as he let the ball get by him. Ben Royo then apparently tied the game, 4-4, when LSU third baseman Michael Braswell III fielded his grounder and threw to the right side of first base for an apparent error with Kash scoring from third.
But after Johnson called for a review, runner’s interference was called on Royo, who obviously ran far to the left side of the first base line and touched the white-colored first base as opposed to the green one on the right. Green bases were installed last season to prevent injuries and make it easier for runners not to get called for interference. Royo was then called out at first, and Kash had to return to third base, and LSU stayed ahead, 4-3, with one out.
After a sacrifice bunt did not score Kash, Eyanson struck out Hayden Schott to end the inning.
“He’s the best pitcher in the country at wiggling his way out of trouble,” Johnson said. “The odds of getting out of a runner-on-third-no-outs situation without a run scoring are very low.”
Eyanson then roared through the eighth – one, two, three. In the ninth, he struck out LaViolette swinging and Bear Harrison looking. But he walked Kash and gave up a single to Royo, only to wiggle out as he got Terrence Kiel II to bounce into a force out at second, and it was over.
Eyanson struck out four and allowed two hits and one walk in three innings for his first save.
“He’s Mr. Clutch,” Anderson said of Eyanson. “I have full faith in that dude.”
LSU likely did not need to beat A&M to secure a top eight national seed for home field advantage, but since it has been hovering around No. 8 in the nation in RPI, the win will make the Tigers breathe easier. And they clearly do not need to win on Saturday or Sunday, should they advance.
So look for Johnson to throw a plethora of pitchers Saturday, possibly starting with freshman right hander Casan Evans (3-1, 1.96 ERA, 6 saves).
That was his other reason for going with Anderson and Eyanson.
“The next thing is we’re going to need more than those two guys,” he said. “So, now, this is going to thrust a few guys into pitching well against teams capable of winning the national championship, which will make us better.”
At trying to win the national championship in a few weeks.
Mastermind Jay Johnson … like Skip Bertman before him.
The final four in the SEC Tournament have won four of the last five national titles – Tennessee (2024), LSU (2023), Ole Miss (2022) and Vanderbilt (2019)- have won four of the last five national titles (Mississippi State in 2021, canceled by COVID in 2020).
“I told the guys, ‘Let’s get after it, and see if we can be the champion of the champions,'” Johnson said.
While resting your top two starters so as to win the real championship.
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