GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
There are some very good movie sequels that start immediately after, or soon after, the original film ended in movie time – Halloween II, John Wick Chapter 2, The Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and The Godfather Part II, to name a few.
The Florida-Florida State football national championship game in the 1996 season at the Sugar Bowl was also a sequel that started – in football time – just after Florida lost, 24-21, at Florida State on Nov. 30 in the regular season. Florida won the sequel and the title, 52-20, on Jan. 2 in New Orleans.
As far as LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson and his returning players are concerned, they would like to pick up the 2025 sequel season right where the 2024 season left off – two outs from a Super Regional in Alex Box Stadium.
That’s where the movie, “2 Outs Away” ended on June 3, 2024 at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the NCAA Regional round. The Tigers – as the home team in the championship game – led 3-2 in the top of the ninth with one out and a North Carolina runner on second.
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LSU had one of its top pitchers on the mound in sophomore left-hander Gage Jump, who was 6-1 and had just struck out his 100th batter in 81 innings for the first out of the inning after giving up a lead-off double to Gavin Gallaher. The No. 2 seed Tigers had learned before the game that they would be hosting No. 3 seed West Virginia in a best-of-three Super Regional at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge the next weekend – if they could beat No. 1 seed North Carolina, which had lost 8-4 to LSU the day before.
But Jump allowed an RBI single to ninth batter Colby Wilkerson as the Tar Heels tied the game, 3-3. North Carolina took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th. LSU’s Jared Jones drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the 10th and stole second, but Josh Pearson flew out to center field. And it was over.
“We have one of the best pitchers in the country on the mound to close out a Regional, and we didn’t,” Johnson said Friday afternoon at LSU’s Media Day in Alex Box. “The focus of North Carolina’s at-bats there in the ninth and in extra innings were at an all-time high. I’m telling you, and I don’t want to go back to ’24 very long, but other than losing the national championship game in 2016 (while Arizona’s coach), losing that Regional last year was the hardest loss of my entire career.”
That loss kept defending national champion LSU out of playing at Alex Box with Omaha on the line at an NCAA Regional or at a Super Regional, which began in 2000. Of 23 of those home opportunities from 1986-2023 to reach the College World Series, LSU advanced 17 times. The Tigers would have been a heavy favorite to beat West Virginia last season, which would have meant back-to-back Omaha trips for the first time since 2008 and ’09.
Returning home would have completed a dramatic turnaround for LSU from a 22-15 start overall and including a disastrous 3-12 in the SEC – to two wins from Omaha.
“What they did from where we were to where we got to, I wanted to keep going,” Johnson said. “I wanted to get back here, host a Super Regional and see what we could do.”
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Instead LSU finished at 43-23 and went home with no games to play.
“I’d be lying if I say I didn’t use it for motivation,” said sophomore pitcher Kade Anderson, who struck out three and allowed one hit in an inning and a third in the seventh and eighth of the 8-4 win over North Carolina to set up the Regional title game.
“It was a tough part in my career, honestly – not being able to play in the Super Regional. That was something I’ve always dreamed of,” said Anderson, who grew up in Madisonville and went to St. Paul’s High in Covington. “I’ve used it as a chip on my shoulder. I think this season will show that we can bounce back for sure.”
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LSU will have more available upper line pitching to get those last two outs this season with the lefty Anderson expected to start in the weekend rotation along with sophomore Chase Shores, who is back from 2023 Tommy John surgery, UC-San Diego transfer Anthony Eyanson, and left-handed, Pearl River Community College transfer Conner Ware.
Those four are the candidates to be the Friday night starter.
“Growing up in Louisiana, that’s kind of been my dream,” Anderson said. “Being the guy that coach Johnson would go to to open a series would be really special, but you’ve got to win every game. And I truly mean that. If I have to close out the Tuesday night game, too, I’ll be ready for it.”
There are a slew of other pitchers from the left side and right side for a lot more depth this season.
The Tigers, who open the season on Feb. 14 at home against Purdue-Fort Wayne, are No. 2 in Perfect Game’s preseason rankings with the No. 1 freshmen class by D1 Baseball and one of the top portal classes.
LSU returns five position players who started 40 or more games in 2024 – senior shortstop Michael Braswell (.311, 4 HRs, 36 RBIs, 64 starts), who may move to third base, junior first baseman Jared Jones (.301, 28 HRs, 59 RBIs, 66 starts), sophomore switch-hitting second baseman Steven Milam (.326, 8 HRs, 40 RBIs, 60 starts), who may move to shortstop or third, senior outfielder Josh Pearson (.244, 8 HRs, 34 RBIs, 52 starts) and sophomore outfielder Ashton Larson (.298, 3 HRs, 16 RBIs, 40 starts).
Also back is lefty hitting sophomore Jake Brown (.264, 4 HRs, 13 RBIs), who started 21 games, mainly late in the season. He will likely be in right field.
From the portal comes junior Daniel Dickinson, who is expected to play second base after hitting .363 with 18 home runs at Utah Valley last year. He is the No. 2 transfer in the nation by Baseball America. Senior Luis Hernandez will likely be the catcher. He hit .359 with 23 home runs and 76 RBIs at Indiana State last season at catcher, DH and first base. He is the No. 32-ranked transfer by Baseball America.
Junior Chris Stanfield has something no other LSU transfer has – SEC experience. He hit .276 at Auburn last season and will start in center field. Baseball America tabbed him the No. 79 transfer.
Senior outfielder Dalton Beck hit .377 with 18 home runs at Incarnate Word last season. He is the No. 34 transfer by Baseball America and contending for playing time in an overly talented outfield that goes eight deep.
Freshman Derek Curiel, the No. 10 high school player in the country by Perfect Game out of West Covina, California, in the Los Angeles area, could start in left. He hit .314 and stole 19 bases as a senior at Orange Lutheran High.
There is also incoming freshman Cade Arrambide, the No. 1 prep catcher in the nation in MLB.com’s 2024 draft rankings. He hit .430 with 12 homers at Tomball High in Tomball, Texas, in the Houston area last year.
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Johnson has an interesting mix of new players who were not in North Carolina, but enough who were and remember.
“What I learned from last year was if you have the right response to failure, which our players did, it’s not the failure that anybody remembers,” Johnson said “It’s the response.”
That response was halted last June, but it continues where it left off on Feb. 14 and again perhaps with the sequel on June 6-9 at a Super Regional – preferably in Alex Box.
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