Tag: Jay Johnson

LSU baseball fan gives hilarious interview after he was hit in the head by a Tommy White home-run ball

“Friday I’ll probably go get Tommy White to sign it for me and maybe kiss my boo-boo.”

LSU had no issues dispatching Nicholls on Tuesday night, winning 9-0 to keep momentum on its side after capturing its first series win of the season.

[autotag]Tommy White[/autotag] sealed the win in the bottom of the eighth when he hit a three-run bomb to deep left field to give the Tigers a decisive nine-run lead. However, it wasn’t good news for every LSU fan in the stands that night.

One who tried to catch the ball unfortunately took it right off the head. Luckily, he seemed to be alright and in fact gave an interview during the game to Geaux Nation’s Pat Timlin, and the results were absolutely hilarious.

“I mean it was on a rope,” the fan, identified as “Cory,” said. “And I’ve been carrying this glove with me for years, and I was like ‘OK, now’s my time. I’ve got one coming.’ And hole in the glove man, what can I say? Beaned off my dome.”

The fan proceeded to show off the “goose egg” the ball left him with.

“It don’t feel good,” Cory said when asked if it hurt. “It felt like every bit of a 109 mile-per-hour home-run ball, yes.”

Unfortunately, Cory wasn’t able to retrieve the ball, which bounced over the fence. But Tigers outfielder Josh Pearson later gave him a warm-up ball between innings.

“Friday I’ll probably go get Tommy White to sign it for me and maybe kiss my boo-boo.”

Godspeed, Cory.

[autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] was asked if he realized what happened after the game, and he had a fantastic response, as well.

“I saw the guy up on the board rubbing his head and then I kind of put two and two together,” Johnson said. “I hope he’s okay. “It reminded me of that scene from the movie Tommy Boy where David Spade whacks Chris Farley in the face.”

Hopefully, Cory’s doing alright and is able to get that ball signed on Friday.

Jay Johnson gives an update on Brady Neal’s injury status for LSU baseball

Jay Johnson said Brady Neal has been playing through a shoulder injury that he aggravated over the weekend.

[autotag]Brady Neal[/autotag] has seen a lot of playing time for LSU this season from behind the dish.

The sophomore catcher from Tallahassee, Florida, has played in 33 games so far for the Tigers, and after starting out hitting pretty well at the plate, his production has fallen off.

Starting with the Vanderbilt series, Neal is 3-for-19 (.158) from the plate. That has led to a lot of people wondering what is going on with Neal. Today, LSU head coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] said that Neal has been dealing with a shoulder injury and he re-aggravated it against Missouri last weekend.

LSU is blessed with a plethora of talented catchers as the Tigers have three guys who could be the No. 1 guy at most other schools. [autotag]Hayden Travinski[/autotag], [autotag]Alex Milazzo[/autotag] and Neal all have the talent to be starting catchers at any school in the country.

We have entered the back half of the season and LSU is fighting for a spot in the SEC tournament so it’s all hands on deck for the Tigers right now. Hopefully, Neal will heal sooner rather than later.

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LSU baseball wins 1st conference series against Missouri

Jay Johnson and the LSU Tigers finally got the monkey off of their backs this season.

[autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] and the LSU Tigers finally got the monkey off of their backs this season. LSU won Game 3 against Missouri 6-2 to secure their first conference series win of the year.

Missouri drew first blood in the bottom of the third inning when an error led to two runs for them. The score remained that way until the top of the fifth inning when [autotag]Paxton Kling[/autotag] hit a two-RBI double to score [autotag]Alex Milazzo[/autotag] and [autotag]Stephen Milam[/autotag] and tie the game 2-2.

In the top of the sixth inning, [autotag]Michael Braswell III[/autotag] walked with the bases loaded to extend the LSU lead to 3-2. In the top of the seventh inning, [autotag]Ashton Larson[/autotag] hit a solo homer to extend the lead to 4-2.

 

In the top of the eighth inning, Braswell hit an RBI double to extend the lead to 5-2, and in the top of the ninth inning, Milazzo scored on a throwing error to give LSU a 6-2 lead.

LSU will be back in action on Tuesday night against Nicholls.

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Jay Johnson implements a no-cell phone policy for LSU baseball

Jay Johnson has implemented a policy that might be able to keep distractions at bay.

[autotag]LSU baseball[/autotag] is in rough shape at the moment. The Tigers have lost six of their last seven games as they lost two of three to Florida, got swept by Arkansas, and lost to Southern at home Monday night.

Coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] knows that something has to give. Something has to change to get this team to play at the level he wants them to play at. So, he has come up with a new policy for the players moving forward. A policy that might be able to keep distractions at bay: No more phones in the locker room.

When the players are at [autotag]Alex Box Stadium[/autotag], Johnson wants them to focus fully on baseball. The Tigers will host Vanderbilt starting on Thursday and the Commodores will enter the series as the No. 6 team in college baseball. If there was ever a time to turn the season around, this would be it.

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What is wrong with LSU baseball?

The 2024 season has not gotten off to the best start for the Tigers.

The 2024 season has not gotten off to the best start for the LSU baseball team. After three conference series, the Tigers are 20-9 overall and 2-7 in conference play and have lost all three series. The Tigers dropped series to Mississippi State and Florida 2-1 and then got swept by Arkansas last weekend.

So, what is going on with this team? For one, let’s rewind to the 2023 season. [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] and the LSU Tigers had the two best players in college baseball on their team, [autotag]Paul Skenes[/autotag] and [autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag]. The No. 1 and No. 2 overall draft picks in the 2023 MLB draft.

Along with that, the team had [autotag]Tre Morgan[/autotag], [autotag]Gavin Dugas[/autotag], [autotag]Jordan Thompson[/autotag], [autotag]Brayden Jobert[/autotag], [autotag]Cade Beloso[/autotag] and [autotag]Ty Floyd[/autotag]. That equates to two out of three starting pitchers, first and second base, shortstop, designated hitter, and two of the three outfield spots. One outfield spot ([autotag]Josh Pearson[/autotag]), one starting pitcher ([autotag]Thatcher Hurd[/autotag]), and two catchers ([autotag]Hayden Travinski[/autotag] and [autotag]Alex Milazzo[/autotag]) were all that remained from last year’s starting lineup.

Replacing six hitters in your starting lineup and two of your starting pitchers is not an easy task. Johnson had to hit the recruiting trail hard for high school kids and players in the transfer portal. He did a great job of rebuilding the team, but some players you just can’t replace. There is no replacement for those guys.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at some stats so far. LSU is in the middle of the road for most hitting statistics in the conference. The Tigers are seventh in the conference in batting average, on-base percentage, and hits, eighth in slugging percentage, doubles, and triples. The biggest issue for LSU on the offensive side is that we are ranked 11th out of 14 in RBI and runs scored. LSU is not hitting the long ball as well either as the Tigers rank ninth in that stat.

Three more interesting offensive stats, LSU ranks first in the conference in double plays and caught stealing. First in those areas is not a good thing. That means you have hit the most double plays and been caught stealing the most. [autotag]Tommy White[/autotag] leads the conference in double plays. He has hit into eight of them. That’s three more than the next closest player.

Now, let’s look at the Tigers’ performance on the mound. [autotag]Luke Holman[/autotag] is the silver lining of this pitching staff. Without him, you would not want to see any of these numbers. Holman has the second-lowest ERA (1.38), second-highest strikeouts (61), and fourth-lowest opponent batting average (.173). Why am I singling him out? Because if you take him out of the equation, LSU does not have another pitcher in the top 15 of the conference.

LSU has the MOST walks in the SEC (131) and the second most wild pitches in the SEC (28). [autotag]Thatcher Hurd[/autotag] is tied for the most losses in the conference with four and three LSU pitchers are tied for sixth in the conference in wild pitches with four. ([autotag]Kade Anderson[/autotag], [autotag]Gage Jump[/autotag] and Hurd)

LSU is sixth in the conference in fielding percentage but [autotag]Michael Braswell III[/autotag] is tied for first for the most errors in the conference with seven. Those numbers will not get the job done, especially in conference play.

LSU will play Southern at home on Monday before hosting Vanderbilt this weekend.

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Watch as LSU baseball’s Jared Jones reminds of Tre Morgan with web gem

LSU’s Jared Jones made a play reminiscent of Tre Morgan’s series saving play against Wake Forest.

LSU baseball fell to 2-6 in conference play on Friday night, but it wasn’t without a few highlights.

First basemen [autotag]Jared Jones[/autotag] made a play on defense reminiscent of Tre Morgan’s College World Series play that proved to be critical in LSU’s win over Wake Forest.

The situations were nearly identical. Both were tie games later with runners at the corner and one out. That’s a situation where offenses will look to bunt that runner home.

LSU’s first basemen were ready, wasting no time to charge the bunt and get the out at home, preserving the tie.

Check out both plays below.

Morgan’s play offered a spark to LSU that night and the Tigers advanced to the World Series final.

That’s where the similarities end. LSU’s lineup didn’t find the same late-game success on Friday night, going scoreless the rest of the way and allowing Arkansas to walk it off with a run in the 10th.

LSU will look to avoid a series sweep on Saturday afternoon.

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LSU baseball makes changes to the pitching rotation before matchup with Arkansas

Jay Johnson is changing things up on the mound ahead of a matchup against the top team in the nation.

This weekend, the LSU Tigers take a trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take on the No. 1 team in the nation, the Arkansas Razorbacks.

LSU has lost back-to-back series to start the conference slate. The Tigers dropped two out of three games to Mississippi State and Florida. This weekend, the schedule is a little different. There will be no game on Sunday due to Easter. The series will be played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

With these circumstances, [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] has decided to make some changes to the starting pitching rotation. For the last two weekends, the Tigers have gone with [autotag]Luke Holman[/autotag] on Friday, [autotag]Gage Jump[/autotag] on Saturday, and [autotag]Thatcher Hurd[/autotag] on Sunday. That won’t be the lineup this weekend.

Holman and Jump will both pitch on their normally scheduled days (Friday and Saturday) so they will be on full rest. As for Thursday, we do not know who is going to start for LSU. Hurd threw 90 pitches in Sunday’s loss to Florida so it will not be him.

The Tigers have a few options to go with but we will not know who it is until Johnson announces it before the first pitch.

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Kim Mulkey, Jay Johnson among Peter Burns’ best SEC hires of the last five years

Both Kim Mulkey and Jay Johnson won national titles in their second seasons.

LSU has made a number of high-profile coaching hires in the last few years.

While the jury is still out on some of those, like football coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] and men’s basketball coach [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag], two of them have been unqualified successes.

Both women’s basketball coach [autotag]Kim Mulkey[/autotag] and baseball coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] captured national titles in just their second seasons in Baton Rouge, and ESPN’s Peter Burns offered high praise for both.

Burns ranked the top five SEC hires across all sports over the last five years (in no particular order) and both Mulkey and Johnson made the cut.

Mulkey is searching for another national title — which would be her fifth overall — as the Tigers are in the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. They’ll face UCLA in Albany, New York, on Saturday afternoon.

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Instant Analysis: Gators run-rule LSU baseball in Game 3 to take the series

This game got out of hand late, and Jay Johnson was thrown out as Florida took Game 3 12-2 to win the series.

After a heartbreaking loss last night against the Gators, LSU looked to bounce back in the Sunday Gold uniforms. This game got out of hand late and [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] was thrown out as Florida took Game 3 12-2 in eight innings to win the series.

LSU scored first in the bottom of the fourth inning when [autotag]Josh Pearson[/autotag] scored due to an error made by the left fielder to make it 1-0 LSU.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Gators onslaught began. Two two-run homers and a two-RBI double led to a 6-1 Florida lead as [autotag]Thatcher Hurd[/autotag] was pulled from the game.

In the bottom of the inning, LSU got one of those runes back via a Jared Jones solo shot to cut the lead to 6-2.

After the homer by Jones, some words were exchanged between the Gators’ first baseman and Jones which led to warnings for both teams. [autotag]Hayden Travinski[/autotag] struck out to end the inning and apparently, he heard something else he didn’t like. He came out of the dugout and proceeded to get tossed from the game.

Florida would go on to score two more runs in the top of the sixth and four runs in the top of the eighth to extend their lead to 12-2. LSU failed to score in the bottom of the eighth and the Tigers lost via run rule.

That’s two straight SEC series losses for LSU as their record drops to 19-5. The next game will be against Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. CT.

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Starters and shutouts for LSU baseball against Xavier last weekend

Last weekend against Xavier, the starters put up great numbers.

Entering the 2024 season, LSU had a couple of question marks regarding who would be in their starting rotation. We knew that [autotag]Thatcher Hurd[/autotag] would be one of the starters based off of his performance in the College World Series.

LSU lost their other two starters, [autotag]Paul Skenes[/autotag] and [autotag]Ty Floyd[/autotag], to the MLB Draft. Skenes was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates and Floyd was the 38th pick in the draft by the Cincinnati Reds.

With two spots to fill, where would head coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] turn? Johnson has recruited very well as he has landed a lot of talented players out of high school and out of the transfer portal.

The two best pitchers in the transfer portal committed to LSU. [autotag]Luke Holman[/autotag] and [autotag]Gage Jump[/autotag]. Holman was the ace for the Alabama Crimson Tide last season and due to his experience in the SEC, he seemed to fit the mold for another starting pitcher spot.

Jump was coming off of a season where he was unable to pitch due to an injury, but as a freshman at UCLA, he was fantastic. The initial plan for the rotation appeared to be Hurd, Holman, and [autotag]Javen Coleman[/autotag]. That’s how things began as Johnson began to ramp up the pitch count for Jump.

Fast forward to now, the Tigers are starting conference play this weekend and the lineup has changed slightly. Hurd did not get off to the greatest start this year so he has slid from the ace to the Sunday starter. Jump has gotten more healthy and he has become the Saturday starter. Holman has proved that he has the ability to be an ace in this rotation.

Last weekend against Xavier, the starters put up great numbers. In total, between the three starters, they finished the weekend 2-0 with zero earned runs allowed over 16 innings pitched. They only allowed seven total hits as they struck out 29 hitters and only walked four.

The worst part of the weekend is that Hurd was given a no-decision as Xavier beat LSU 2-1 on Sunday to end the Tigers’ winning streak. In spite of that, I believe that this pitching staff has the talent to take LSU to Omaha once again.

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