LSU Athletics
By Hunt Palmer
Mid-June is supposed to dictate mid-May around here.
Pitching decisions are made based on postseason positioning. Thursday is not a normal weekend starter, and Tuesday or Wednesday in Hoover throws another curveball for teams preparing for NCAA Tournament play. Pitchers are precious commodities, and they have to be treated as such this time of year.
In LSU’s position, squarely outside of NCAA Tournament consideration, it means the Tigers’ top two starters won’t pitch this weekend by design so a run in Hoover becomes more plausible. Casan Evans and William Schimdt will watch this weekend instead of taking the ball.
“When you have to win five in a row, there’s no question that those two are going to be a part of that pitching plan, maybe multiple times,” said LSU head coach Jay Johnson. “So, just makes sense to do what we’re doing this week.”
That obviously doesn’t give LSU the best chance to win against Florida. The Tigers offense saw the best the Gators have to offer from the mound on Thursday and scored eight runs on 12 hits. Eight of those hits came off Aidan King which was a season-most against the likely SEC Pitcher of the Year.
Though any loss stings, Johnson is doing the right thing. Baseball at LSU is about NCAA Tournament play, and the only way these Tigers will taste that is a massively improbable run at the SEC Tournament. Evans and Schmidt figure prominently in that scenario.
Both righties are MLB prospects, so turning them around on short rest in this situation is a no-no. They have to sit.
“I promised both moms and dads that we would make sure, they both turned down money to come here, that we would develop them and that we would do everything to keep them healthy,” Johnson said. “Did not plan on being in the situation that we are, which means we probably would have gone with them this week and then not pitched them (next) week. We did that with Casan last year. We didn’t pitch him in Hoover by design. And then didn’t pitch him in the Super Regional by design. Now, he would have pitched game three of the Super Regional if it got to it last year. So, I make these decisions all the time. It’s just, you know, do I love not having William Schmidt and Casan Evans against Florida? No. I hate it. It makes me sick to my stomach.”
My seal of approval won’t help Johnson’s gut, but he’s managing properly. Beating Florida on Thursday and or Friday and Saturday would have born no fruit. Winning on Tuesday and Wednesday could. His job, beyond developing players and young men, is winning postseason games at LSU.
More often than not, the SEC slate sets LSU up to do so from home. The Tigers have hosted a regional 27 out of 35 years. This year that became an impossibility a month ago. Priorities change. Johnson pushed the right button to get younger players at bats. It’s paid off with the strides Mason Braun and Omar Serna have made.
Three years after dueling Florida for a national title, he’s holding starting pitchers in league games for SEC Tournament games. It’s a 180 that he’s uncomfortable with. While he’s doing that with pitching, the Tiger offense is showing up. For the fourth week in a row, LSU knocked a bona fide SEC ace around.
In Starkville, the Tigers scored eight on Tomas Valincius. They followed that up with six on South Carolina’s Amp Phillips and seven on Georgia’s Joey Volchko. Thursday, LSU handled King as well as any team in the league.
“I think it’s really good, but we’ve got to slow them down too, and that that will be the key, preventing runs, for fall of 2026 in all possible ways,” Johnson said. “I think there’s a good making of beginning of a lineup, but we have to get better defensively, and we certainly have to get better on the mound.”
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