GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU freshman pitcher Casan Evans had just pitched the eighth inning how a great set-up reliever might – on back-to-back strikeouts of the No. 2 and 3 hitters with the bases loaded to keep the Tigers up 7-6 on Missouri Saturday night at Alex Box Stadium.
Evans had just thrown his 32nd pitch and had also gotten the last out in the seventh with a runner on third to preserve No. 1 LSU’s one-run lead.
LSU EDGES MISSOURI BEHIND CASAN EVANS AND MICHAEL BRASWELL III
So, time to bring on LSU’s experienced ace closer – junior Gavin Guidry – right?
Only Guidry was not available because of a back injury and has not pitched all season.
Junior Zac Cowan (2-0, 1.12 ERA, 1 save) was warming up in the bullpen. He could close it out.
Or LSU coach Jay Johnson could stick with Evans, but Evans had just done what baseball seam-heads call an “adrenaline dump” to finish the eighth with a flourish with more than 12,000 wild LSU fans screaming in classic Box, Super Regional fashion.
“That was as high a leverage as possible – 13,000 people on their feet going crazy,” Johnson said. “And battling through that and striking out two of their better guys. The adrenaline dump thing, at least that’s what I call it when a pitcher gets super fired up, it’s usually a bad move to bring him back out there. But I trust him.”
And Johnson had side eyed Evans after LSU went three up and three down in the bottom of the eighth to keep it a one-run game.
“I did peak down the dugout looking at his general disposition,” Johnson said. “And he had got himself back under control. I could see the focus that was going to be needed to finish the game.”
And Evans, all 6-foot-2 and 194 pounds of him, still had some adrenaline in the tank.
He struck out cleanup hitter Brock Daniels on a full count to start the ninth as the suddenly awake crowd began to sense the kill. Not long before that as Missouri rallied for two in the seventh to get within 7-6 while LSU went scoreless from the sixth through the eighth, most of the noise permeated from Missouri’s third base dugout.
Then Evans fanned Brady Picarelli on three pitches. Jackson Lovich singled for his second hit of the night, but Evans got Trey Lawrence to bounce back to him. And it was over. LSU (19-1) eked out a 7-6 win to go to 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference.
“Strikeout, strikeout, ground out to him, he just took the last inning himself. That was just awesome,” Johnson said.
In Evans’ mind, he was not coming out.
“For me, I’ve got adrenaline the whole game, even if I’m in or not,” he said. “So, I went back into the dugout. If you would’ve seen me, I was pacing up and down. The adrenaline was still there. I know I’ve had adrenaline dumps often in big situations, but at that moment, it was such a tight situation. I was going back out there. I was planning on going back out there either way, unless he told me not to. I was mentally prepared. I was able to contain myself.”
Still, Evans had never been in a situation quite like Alex Box on on an SEC Saturday night when he was pitching at St. Pius X High in Houston.
“It was crazy,” he said. “I had never experienced it before. Just being able to go out in the seventh inning being in front of all those fans. It’s amazing. Coming from high school, I mean it’s baseball there, but it’s nothing like this. It’s hard to explain.”
Many pro players like to say they block out all the sounds in such moments. Not Evans.
“Oh yeah, I could hear them,” he said. “If you can’t, you’re crazy.”
There was another reason Johnson sent the 19-year-old Evans back out there.
“Big recruiting win for us,” he said. “There’s some guys, when you get ’em, you just know that it’s going to be a big deal. And he was one of them. He’s got a ton of talent. He was running a fastball up there at 96 or 97 tonight, three-plus pitches. But it’s just the competitive nature of the person, and you have to have that in your guy who leads on the weekend, and the guy that finishes games.”
Evans allowed two hits and two walks, but no runs in two and a third innings and struck out four. He threw 44 pitches with 25 strikes to earn his fourth save of the season to go with a 1-0 record and 0.73 ERA through seven appearances and 12 and a third innings.
“It’s just a different feeling being out there that you can’t get anywhere else,” he said. “I imagined it, but I didn’t think I’d be in this big of a role. I thought Gavin Guidry would have this role.”
Now Guidry, who has a chance to return this week, is going to have to earn it back.
“It’s insanely fun. I can’t even explain how much,” Evans said. “Sometimes I sit back, and I can’t even believe that I’m at LSU. I mean the powerhouse of college baseball, one of the biggest programs in college baseball history. I kind of sit back and say, ‘This is crazy that I made it here.'”
Be the first to comment