GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
(Second of a 5-part series “First Pitch Fever” on LSU opening baseball season on Friday.)
One of the many things that sets baseball apart from other sports is the non-uniformity of the stadiums. A home run in Stadium A may not be a home run in Stadium B.
The Southeastern Conference is full of home run ballparks, including Alex Box Stadium, which will have opening day on Friday at 2 p.m. when the No. 2 preseason Tigers host Purdue-Fort Wayne.
“I love bunting,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “But these freakin’ fields we play on in the SEC are popcorn machines. Most are home run ballparks, so you’re not going to bunt that much.”
But the Hoover Met in Birmingham, Alabama, which has been SEC Tournament headquarters since the 1990s, is bigger and tends to be more difficult to hit home runs. So is Charles Schwab Field, home of the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, and clearly a no-popcorn, pitcher’s park. LSU is planning on extended stays in both this spring and summer.
To get to Omaha, a team has to navigate every kind of stadium and play every kind of team. In his three years as LSU’s coach, Johnson’s Tigers twice did not weather storms well enough to host NCAA Regionals in 2022 and ’24 and never made the best-of-three Super Regional round to get to Omaha. In between, Johnson won it all for LSU’s seventh national championship in 2023.
In 2025, Johnson believes he has a team for all seasons in a season. After being too right-handed heavy on offense last season, he has eight left-handed hitters this season, including a pair of stud freshman in projected starting left fielder Derek Curiel and first baseman/designated hitter Ryan Costello.
KADE ANDERSON LIVING OUT HIS BOYHOOD DREAMS
Left-handed pitchers are somewhat rare in college baseball, but Johnson could start two in the weekend rotation with sophomore Kade Anderson and junior transfer Conner Ware. If Ware is not in that rotation, he will relieve on weekends. Left-handed hitting sophomore right fielder Jake Brown may also pitch.
Johnson has more outfielders than he knows what to do with, but it will be fun trying to figure that out, and the surplus gives him several DH options in addition to righty-lefty strategy. After Curiel, Brown and Costello, other lefty-hitting outfielders/DHs are senior Josh Pearson, redshirt sophomore Mic Paul, senior transfer Dalton Beck and sophomore Ashton Larson.
Auburn junior transfer Chris Stanfield is a right-handed hitter and a spectacular defender who will start in center field. Another right-handed hitting outfielder in the mix is junior Ethan Frey,
“I do think the quality of players, quality of pitchers is in a really good spot,” Johnson said. “There is some competition, but there’s also some lineup flexibility and versatility. One of our Achilles heels last year was we were too right-handed. We were too reliant on the homer, and we were too reliant on one-dimensional players. This year there’s a better combination of speed, power, solid hitting skills and left-right balance. There’s definitely some sorting out to do. But I look at that as a positive.”
Johnson has his mad scientist lineup hat on – mixing a little of this with a little of that.
“The outfield is probably where the most depth and competition lies right now,” he said. “But I think there are ways to utilize all of them – right, left, type of ballpark we’re playing in, type of pitcher we’re facing. I like where we’re at. And it’s very strange, with as many new players, I feel like I have such better feel for this team than I did last year.”
The infield is expected to have switch-hitting sophomore Steven Milam, the starter at second base last year, moving to shortstop with 2024 starting shortstop and right-handed hitting Michael Braswell III moving to third base. Junior Jared Jones returns at first base after leading LSU with 28 home runs last year and finishing second in RBIs with 59 from the right side. Junior Utah Valley transfer and right-handed hitting Daniel Dickinson will be at second base. He stole 32 bases last year and hit .367.
Junior transfer Tanner Reaves will be a utility infielder after helping Blinn College of Brenham, Texas, win the junior college national title last year with a .374 average and 56 RBIs.
Luis Hernandez, a senior Indiana State transfer who hit 23 home runs from the right side last year, is the new catcher, but also can play first base and DH. Cade Arrambide is one of LSU’s top freshman and will also catch along with junior Blaise Priester, a transfer from Meridian Community College. All are right-handed.
“I feel good about the entire roster – the left-right mixture, the different types of hitters, the speed factor,” Johnson said. “The threat of the ability to run is far greater on this team than any team we’ve had personnel wise.”
Most of the roster is athletic and versatile, which will help on defense and protect Jones in the lineup.
“When you’re more athletic, it should make you better on defense, which I think we’ll be exceptional in the outfield, and really good in the infield,” Johnson said. “So the threat of being able to do more things is there with more left-handers you can stack around Jones in the lineup. And then of all the solid players we have, somebody will be in front of him with the ability to get on base.”
Johnson’s goal is to have a player or two and a pitcher or two for every possible situation.
“I take a lot of pride in being prepared for the game, making the right moves. They don’t work all the time, but what coaching is,” he said and paused.
SKIP BERTMAN HAS MENTORED JAY JOHNSON
“I stole this,” Johnson, 47, said. “Coaching is inspiring learning and getting players to do what you need them to do for the team to be successful. Give the player a good blueprint, coach them in that so they’re prepared, and then help them do it when it matters.”
Johnson borrowed that line from his adopted mentor and former LSU coach Skip Bertman, who did that on a regular basis in winning five national championships from 1991-2000, reaching Omaha 11 times from 1986-2000 and winning seven SEC titles from 1986-97.
“I don’t feel like it’s pulling strings,” Johnson said. “It’s getting a player to execute what winning requires. I love stealing bases, but I’m not getting Dylan Crews hurt.”
Crews, the second player picked in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft behind LSU pitcher Paul Skenes, hit .426 with 18 home runs and 70 RBIs in LSU’s 2023 national title season. He had exactly zero sacrifice bunts and stole only six bases in six attempts.
The more talent Johnson has, the less he tries all the tricks – bunting, stealing, double stealing and manufacturing like he did when coaching Nevada in 2014 and ’15 before going to Arizona, where he reached the national championship series in 2016 and returned to Omaha in 2021, then LSU.
“At the end of Arizona and beginning here, I’ve had better players than I’ve ever had, so as a coach, you don’t manipulate the game as much,” Johnson said.
But you don’t let the specifics of a ballpark or an opponent manipulate your team either.
“Develop your offense for any type of pitcher, any type of game – slugfest, pitcher’s duel,” Johnson said. “And be able to do everything well.”
Johnson calls Bertman regularly, particularly during the season.
“Skip and I talk about it all the time – whatever we need to do,” he said. “The first time in Omaha at Arizona (2016), we led the country in sacrifice bunts. Second time (2021), we led the country in slugging. Here, we were sluggers in 2023, but also walked a lot. The plate discipline on that team was amazing. All of them had played so much, and we had a second year with most of them. You hope Jake Brown, Steven Milam, Ashton Larson on this team make that jump. Guys usually make their biggest jump in their second year. Hopefully, we’ll have some of that to go with the transfers.”
On paper, though, there is not a lot of power after Jones and Hernandez, who is new to the SEC. Tommy White is gone after hitting 24 home runs with 70 RBIs last season.
“We’re not like we were in 2023 when he we hit like 150 home runs. That was unbelievable,” Johnson said. “We’re somewhere in the middle of that – very balanced attack on offense. And the roots of my coaching was on the other extreme. Nobody realizes it, but it was way more Augie Garrido (small ball) than Skip Bertman (small ball early at LSU, then gorilla ball).”
The way Johnson sees it, he’ll play all types of ball.
“You have to be a little different to win in the SEC and to win in Omaha,” he said. “And so my goal is, let’s take the factors out of it. Let’s be proficient at doing everything well. Omaha is more small ball. You have to be able to hit a line drive between the mound and second base with two outs. But any type of field – big or small. Any conditions – wind in, wind out.”
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