GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
True freshman pitcher Casan Evans was amidst his first pressure situation in a Southeastern Conference game as LSU opened the league season last March.
An Alex Box Stadium crowd of 11,675 stirred as the Tigers’ 7-4 lead suddenly became 7-6 in the top of the seventh on Saturday night, March 15, against Missouri. Freshman reliever William Schmidt had allowed a home run and walked two, and DJ Primeaux had hit and walked a batter and allowed another run.
And in came Evans with the tying run on third. This is likely to happen again soon for Evans, a reliever and starter now, as the No. 1 Tigers (49-13, 19-11 SEC) open postseason play on Friday (6:30 p.m., SEC Network) at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama, against an undetermined opponent. Evans is 3-1 on the season as a starter and a reliever with a team-low 1.96 ERA and six saves.
“I love the adrenaline for sure,” Evans said of that seminal moment in March. “I mean, it’s just a different feeling that you can’t get anywhere else.”
Not quite where Evans was last year at this time at St. Pius X High in Houston.
“Sometimes I sit back, and I can’t even believe I’m at LSU,” he said. “I mean, the powerhouse of college baseball, one of the biggest programs in college basketball history. I’m just like, ‘This is crazy that I made it here.’”
Just breathe. That’s what sports psychologist consultant Karlene Pick tells the baseball team in regular sessions.
Evans got Missouri’s Jackson Lovich to ground out to third to end that seventh inning.
But in the eighth, he allowed a lead-off single and walked the next batter. After a sacrifice bunt, he walked the next batter to load the bases.
“Just started controlling my breath again,” Evans said. “Karlene comes to us about once a month, and she talks to us about the mental game. And that’s big with me – controlling my breath and being able to stay composed. In that moment, it was just catching my breath, and being able to calm down, so I wasn’t trying to do too much.”
CASAN EVANS DELIVERS IN CRITICAL MOMENT AGAINST MISSOURI
And Evans struck out No. 2 and No. 3 hitters Mateo Serna and Cayden Nicoletto to end the eighth. Then he opened the ninth by striking out cleanup hitter Brock Daniels and Brady Picarelli. After allowing a single, he ended the game on a grounder back to him for his fourth save of the season at the time. He allowed two hits and no runs with two walks and four strikeouts in two and a third innings.
Evans has been breathing right and blowing away hitters for basically all season. As the postseason begins, he has struck out 53 with 16 walks. Through 16 appearances and 41 and a third innings, he has allowed a .232 batting average and no home runs. In SEC games, he was 2-1 with three saves and a 2.30 ERA and .254 batting average allowed through 10 appearances and 31 and a third innings.
He also became an SEC starter for three games late in the regular season, going 1-1 and finishing with 34 strikeouts and 13 walks.
“I don’t know if there have been a lot of freshmen who have rolled through this league like Casan Evans has in the last five years,” LSU pitching coach Nate Yeskie said.
“One of the best pitchers on the team, if not the best on the team,” Johnson said.
That’s big talk, considering LSU has probably the best 1-2 starting rotation punch in the nation in sophomore left-hander Kade Anderson (7-1, 3.47 ERA) and junior right-hander Anthony Eyanson (9-2, 2.88 ERA). They’re No. 2 and 3 in the nation in strikeouts with 133 and 121, respectively.
“Casan’s got great poise and a great mental game for a young player,” Johnson said.
Thanks to Pick, and former LSU coach and pitching master Skip Bertman, in a way.
The name of the Alex Box field is “Skip Bertman Field,” and that sign faces the pitching mound.
“I look inside of the ‘p’ in Skip and focus on that,” Evans said of his breathing routine. “Then I’ll do three seconds in, three seconds out before every first pitch of an inning, and if I’m in situations like that (vs. Missouri). That’s proven to calm your body down, and you’ll have less stress.”
And it’s working.
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