LSU’s Starters Improved Over The Weekend, And There Were Those ‘2 Killers’ Out Of Bullpen

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

LSU’s pitching remains top heavy at the moment.

The No. 5 Tigers first two weekend starting pitchers have been solid. Kade Anderson is 5-0 with a 3.52 ERA and 61 strikeouts for third in the Southeastern Conference in 38 and a third innings with a .221 batting average allowed. Anthony Eyanson is 4-0 with a 3.89 ERA with 58 strikeouts in 37 innings and a .230 average allowed.

No. 3 starter Chase Shores is 4-1, but he has been a little off as evidenced by his 5.40 ERA and .299 opponent batting average in 31 and two-thirds innings. He allowed four runs on four hits and hit a batter in the second inning on Saturday against Mississippi State before settling down.

And LSU (26-3, 7-2 SEC) swept Mississippi State (16-12, 1-8 SEC) over a Thursday-Saturday weekend, 8-6, 2-1 and 17-8 to stay a game out of first place in the league behind Arkansas, Georgia, Texas and Tennessee, which are all 8-1 in the SEC.

Don’t look for any changes in the weekend rotation this weekend when the Tigers play at No. 9 Oklahoma (21-5, 5-4 SEC) from Thursday through Saturday. The Thursday game will be televised by ESPN2 at 6 p.m. The 6:30 game Friday and 2 p.m. finale on Saturday will be on SEC Network+

LSU hosts Louisiana Tech (17-11, 4-2 Conference-USA) on Tuesday (6:30 p.m., SEC Network+)

Bailing out LSU’s starting pitchers here and there this season have been two wicked relievers in freshman Casan Evans (1-0, 0.90 ERA, 5 saves) and junior transfer Zac Cowan (2-0, 1.07 ERA, 3 saves). Evans has struck out 34 with eight walks in 20 innings. Opponents are batting .186 against him. Cowan has struck out 36 and walked only three in 25 and a third innings. Opponents are hitting .146 against him.

Both of them were basically middle relievers, set-up men and closers in the Tigers nail-biting wins on Thursday and Friday. Cowan one-hit the Bulldogs through four innings of shut-out pitching with seven strikeouts and no walks on Thursday for the save of the 8-6 win. Evans shut out and two-hit the Bulldogs over four innings despite three walks as he struck out six on Saturday for the save of the 2-1 win.

“Only reason we did that was we had two killers on the mound for the last four innings of both games,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said.

Two killers who likely could both be very good weekend starters. Cowan was 10-2 with a 3.35 ERA as a starter last year at Wofford, and Johnson has said Evans may be a starter this season.

“But I’m just a big believer, man, in the end of the game is where you need your guys,” Johnson said.

After his dudes Cowan and Evans, though, there are a lot of question marks and walks. On Saturday, for example, LSU’s bullpen was a revolving door of mess after Shores left after four innings. Johnson wanted to pitch Shores into the fifth after he allowed no runs with one hit and one walk in the third and fourth with two strikeouts.

But Shores took a hard grounder off his face before getting the last out of the fourth, and Johnson decided to take him out as a precaution.

“He had a cut on his eye,” Johnson said. “Very impressive was his toughness to continue on. He’s OK.”

But the next six pitchers – Conner Ware, Mavrick Rizy, DJ Primeaux, Connor Benge, Cooper Williams and Jaden Noot – were not. They combined to walk five and allow four runs on three hits. LSU’s relievers other than Cowan and Evans were the reason why the Tigers lost two leads and fell to Texas in the middle game, 11-7, before losing on Sunday, 6-2, when the bats went cold.

Benge has a 6.94 ERA with 10 walks in just 11 and two-thirds innings. Primeaux has a 4.70 ERA and six walks in just seven and two-thirds innings. Ware’s ERA is 6.39 with eight walks in 12 and two-thirds innings. And Rizy has a 5.06 ERA with eight walks in 10 and two-thirds innings.

Look for some of those pitchers to possibly get some work against Louisiana Tech to try to get themselves right.

“Just a weird weekend all the way around,” said Johnson, whose team started after 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday because of bad weather and played until after midnight on Friday and until nearly 2 a.m. on Saturday.

“Really proud of how they handled all of that,” he said. “I was very pleased with the way our team performed overall. We take a lot of pride in being able to win any type of game, and we accomplished that in the series with a comeback win, a win in a pitchers’ duel and a great offensive performance in the final game.”