Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images
By Hunt Palmer
OMAHA, Neb.—Football coaches can script plays. Baseball coaches rip up more scripts than they follow.
Jay Johnson had one written for Wednesday night, and the early portion played out according to plan.
With left-hander Landon Beidelschies starting for Arkansas, LSU started Josh Pearson in right field and kept Jake Brown on the bench. He was there for a pinch-hitting opportunity Johnson saw coming.
“Jake is one of our best players, and what a luxury to have one of your best players siting there to insert him at that time,” Johnson said on Off the Bench with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn. “Because of the pitching matchup, we had him available. And that worked out in our favor. I told (Brown) before the game, it’s going to be when it really matters, and it might happen early. Because Beidelschies, who did a good job last night, hadn’t gotten that deep into games. But, I said it was going to be when there’s runners on base and they go to Gabe Gaeckle, who in my opinion is one of the best pitchers in the country.”
Gaeckle had torched LSU on Saturday night, striking out 10 in six one-run innings. He entered the game in the sixth with two on and no one one.
After Luis Hernndez bunted the runners to second and third, Jones fanned, and Pearson was intentionally walked to set up the opportunity Johnson had promised.
Brown strode to the plate in place of Chris Stanfield, and Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn elected to let Brown hit as opposed to going to the left-hander Cole Gibler.
Brown has struggled against left-handed pitching much of the year, and Gibler hadn’t allowed an earned run since April 27 at Florida.
Johnson knew Gibler was available, but he felt like forcing Van Horn’s hand was the play for Wednesday and a possible Thursday matchup.
“They had Gibler down in the bullpen who’s really tough left-on-left, but I kind of went with, ‘I’ve got one of my best players with the bases loaded who does a great job, is ultra competitive, let’s get him in the box right now,’” Johnson said. “The only hard part is, Chris Stanfield is one of our best players. The righties had not done anything with Gaeckle. He struck us out 10 times the other day. I just had made the decision that it was the best for that moment, and then it was going to help us if we had to play them again (Thursday) to have both of those guys (Gaeckle and Gibler) throw in the game (Wednesday) night.”
After Brown rifled a single into left center to give LSU the lead, the decision-making switched to the mound for Johnson.
He had a plan for that, too.
Jaden Noot got the first out in the seventh, and Johnson went to flame-throwing sophomore Chase Shores with eight outs to record to advance.
“When we got the lead, 2-1, the last nine outs were going to be Chase (Shores) and Anthony (Eyanson). We’re going to win it (Wednesday) night to give us the best chance to win the national championship.”
Shores struck out the next two hitters on eight pitches and looked like he was poised to mow Arkansas down. Then the eighth inning unraveled as back-to-back Arkansas hitters singled in front of a hit by pitch to load the bases.
A chopper by Ryder Helfrick was gloved by third baseman Michael Braswell who tried to start a 5-4-3 double play, but the relay from Daniel Dickinson got away from Jones which allowed the tying and go-ahead runs to score.
“The end of the game was just chaos,” Johnson said. “I do want to say, Chase Shores has been unbelievable (in the College World Series). Even (Wednesday) night, third time in four days, I mean, he got the ground ball. Michael did a good job. Danny tried to turn it. Jared tried to stretch, and we almost got out of that inning, and now you’re three outs away in a 2-1 game. That got lost because of all the chaos in the eighth and the ninth.”
LSU knotted the score in the eighth on Jones’ solo homer, but Arkansas took the lead in the top of the ninth on a two-run single by Justin Thomas.
It looked bleak for LSU, but Derek Curiel got aboard with one out to bring the tying run to the plate. After Ethan Frey walked to put the tying run aboard, Johnson began to strategize for extra innings.
“It was tricky, because I felt like if it got to (Thursday), and we had to split the game between Kade (Anderson) and Anthony, we were going to be in great shape,” Johnson said. “But, that was going to significantly hurt our chances of winning this weekend if we had to do that. So, we went pretty aggressively at it. If it had gone to the 10th at 5-5 (Eyanson) was coming into the game. I was like, ‘there’s not way I’m letting this team, with the effort they just gave to get it back to 5-5, there’s no way I’m letting this team lose this game,’ and that meant Anthony was going to trot out there.”
Jones’s walk off single prevented Eyanson from entering the game and set LSU’s pitching up perfectly for the title series.
Anderson will be on full rest from Saturday’s gem, and Eyanson will have four days off from his abbreviated 44-pitch effort on Monday, Either could go Saturday, and the other will be ready for Sunday.
(The quotes in this story are from Jay Johnson’s interview on Off the Bench with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn on Thursday morning)
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