GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
No. 1 LSU has a handful of games remaining that are basically meaningless before the NCAA postseason begins next month.
The Tigers (40-12, 17-10 Southeastern Conference) are already considered a lock for a top eight national seed for NCAA Regional and Super Regional play. And thus, they will have playoff home field advantage in Alex Box Stadium, barring a disastrous three-game sweep at the hands of South Carolina (27-26, 5-22 SEC) in Columbia Thursday through Saturday.
Then it’s the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama, next week with the Tigers likely not playing until Thursday or Friday and likely not needing to win a game.
JAY JOHNSON LIKES WHERE HE IS WITH THE TIGERS
So, LSU is playing with house money, and therefore will not be stressing its pitching staff much. LSU coach Jay Johnson and pitching coach Nate Yeskie will be mixing things up a bit.
First off, sophomore ace left-hander Kade Anderson (6-1, 3.57 ERA, 114 strikeouts, 70 and two-thirds innings) will not start the opening game of an SEC series for the first time this season on Thursday (6 p.m., SEC Network). He will start the Friday game (6 p.m., SEC Network+) instead to stay on his Friday routine of the previous three weekends. South Carolina will start sophomore left-hander Jake McCoy (4-4, 6.71 ERA) on Friday.
Usual game two weekend starter for LSU, junior right-hander Anthony Eyanson (7-2, 3.16 ERA, 105 strikeouts, 68 and a third innings), will start the third and final game of the series on Saturday (2 p.m., SEC Network+) for the same routine reason.
The LSU starter for Thursday night is to be announced.
That could be freshman right-hander Casan Evans (3-1, 2.03 ERA, 6 saves, 53 strikeouts, 40 innings), who has started the last three Sunday games. But Johnson and Yeskie may want him available for key short relief instead. Or junior right-hander Zac Cowan (3-2, 1.85 ERA, 6 saves, 52 strikeouts, 43 and two-thirds innings), a bullpen ace like Evans but a starter last year at Wofford, may start.
Or perhaps former Sunday starter Chase Shores (5-2, 5.33 ERA, 52 strikeouts, 49 innings), a right-hander who has pitched well in middle relief, may get a turn. And Johnson mentioned more high leverage usage in this series for blossoming freshman left-hander Cooper Williams (0-1, 1.46 ERA, 14 strikeouts, 12 and a third innings, .167 batting average allowed).
Or, depending how the game goes, LSU could use all of the above or others just to get work in as South Carolina has the No. 174th earned run average in the nation at 6.28 and has allowed double-figure runs in the SEC 13 times, including the 20s twice in the last two weeks.
South Carolina will start sophomore left-hander Ashton Crowther (2-2, 4.13 ERA) on Thursday.
“Every game presents something different,” Johnson said on Tuesday on Tiger Rag Radio. “It’s the blessing and the curse of being in our league. The blessing is we’re not worried about RPI for one second. Or we’re not worried about strength of schedule for one second. And you’re going to get exposed in a way that you know how to develop and make your team better. The down side is you’re in a lot of tough games.”
But maybe not this weekend.
In addition to Thursday’s pitching mystery, Johnson said he may also consider getting Anderson and/or Eyanson out of their games earlier than usual for preservation purposes. And he is already considering not pitching either much at the SEC Tournament, which is not important for LSU this season.
“I don’t think we would do that to compromise a game at this point, but if we are successful in this weekend, maybe you view the SEC Tournament a little bit differently,” Johnson said.
That’s what happened in the 2023 SEC Tournament. LSU (42-13, 19-10 SEC) was ranked No. 3 going into Hoover in 2023 and needed no wins to keep its top eight national seed status. So when ace Paul Skenes got extended early against Arkansas in game two, Johnson took him out in the fourth inning with the bases loaded of a close game as he had thrown 88 pitches.
“We were a clear cut national seed,” Johnson said. “He had happened to throw 29 or 30 pitches in that inning, and I would never take Paul Skenes out with the bases loaded. No coach in their right mind would ever do that. But, given what we had ahead of us, it was the right move to do to insure that he was good for the Regionals and the stretch run. Sometimes you do make decisions like that. The game always tells you what to do.”
Skenes went on to win a game in the NCAA Regional, the Super Regional and at the College World Series, where he took MVP honors and LSU won the national championship.
If the runs start coming in droves at South Carolina, LSU may go to second and third tier pitchers and rest their aces for the real games.
“If we have a really good day on offense, you can do that,” Johnson said. “It’s just really hard in our league.”
But the Gamecocks have been swept in their last two SEC series against Auburn and Florida.
PAUL MAINIERI BRACES FOR HIS OLD TEAM
“It’s not a weekend I necessarily look forward to,” South Carolina coach Paul Mainieri said on Tiger Rag Radio Tuesday as he coached LSU from 2007-21 and recruited such current top LSU players as Jared Jones, Jake Brown, Steven Milam and Kade Anderson before he retired briefly.
“I have such a keen interest in watching those kids and proud of how they’re doing,” Mainieri said.
He has seen how good they are.
“I’ve tried to keep it (playing LSU) out of my mind until it’s absolutely necessary,” Mainieri said. “We’ll have a big path trying to beat the Tigers because they’re just so talented. They have a great team and obviously a team that could win it all.”
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