Jay Johnson's Thoughts: LSU Baseball Cruises Past Arkansas, Advances in Omaha

Originally posted on LSU Tigers on SI | By Zack Nagy | Last updated Jun 15, 2025 10:15 AM ET

Jay Johnson and the LSU Tigers took down the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday night to move into the winner's bracket of the College World Series.

LSU will square off against the UCLA Bruins on Monday with first pitch set for 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.

The Tigers were led by ace pitcher Kade Anderson on the mound after going 7.0 innings in his College World Series debut against the Razorbacks.

He limited Arkansas to one run on three hits with two walks and seven strikeouts, firing 100 pitches.

“An outstanding performance by Kade,” Johnson said. It’s what we’ve been accustomed to on the opening night of every weekend this year. I thought he got stronger as the game went along. I thought he executed pitches at a really high level, which you have to do against that offense.

“Kade has got tremendous stuff. It’s four pitches for strikes. He’s never boxed into having to throw a certain way, which as a hitting coach makes it tough to plan against him because he can always pivot. He’s got a plan for any type of hitter, left, right, power, good bat-to-ball type guys, I thought he just executed. He’s such a tremendous competitor.”

What did LSU's shot-caller have to say following the opening clash at Charles Schwab?

Jay Johnson's Take: Saturday Edition

Opening Statement:

JAY JOHNSON: Great win for our team. Outstanding performance against a great team in Arkansas.

Start with Kade, outstanding performance. What we've been accustomed to on the opening night of every weekend this year. I thought he got stronger as the game went along. I thought he executed pitches at a really high level, which you have to do against that offense.

I thought the bullpen was great -- Chase coming in with a man on base, executing, getting two strikeouts right there. Then we got the fly ball or line drive, I should say.

And then Casan, great poise in the ninth especially after giving up the single to Davalan.

Offensively, we did just enough. And really good job by Luis drawing a walk, Derek falling down 0-2 and drawing a walk. And then great bunt by Danny. Chris, staying within himself, not doing too much, moving the ball to the outfield, getting another free base with the hit-by-pitch. And Josh moving the ball against a really tough left-hander to get three.

And Kade got stronger. Big hit by Derek there in the eighth inning, I believe, yeah, the eighth inning. And as usual really good defense by our team tonight. Good performance. Get ready for Monday.

Q. How do you explain striking out 16 times and still what do you have to do to overcome that and win a game?

JAY JOHNSON: I've seen it before here. If there's a pitching staff that is capable of doing that to our team it's the one we just faced. And Zach Root is an All-American. Gabe Gaeckle is one of the best pitchers in the country. Gibler is a lefty specialist and Foutch throws 100 miles an hour. That's that. And proud of my team for fighting our way to win.

Q. Is it a matter of taking advantage of every opportunity you might have there?

JAY JOHNSON: I thought we did a good job of that tonight. Again, when you're facing those caliber arms, you're not going to get a ton, maybe like you would playing in SEC ballparks where the home runs a real thing with every pitch of the game.

I thought we did an excellent job of that, setting the table -- walk by Luis, walk boy Derek, drag bunt single by Danny, really good at-bat by Chris, really good at-bat by Michael, really good at-bat by Josh.

Coached enough games here knowing that playing with a lead is really important. I was happy our team was able to do that tonight.

And then Gabe made it tough on us. Like I said, he's one of the best pitchers in the country. Electric arm.

We got ourselves in position, great base running play by Steven. Just a little bit of bobble in the outfield to get to second base right there.

And my man over here was born to hit. And he stayed on the ball and did what he does.

Q. Do you feel like winning this first game is more important this year than ever?

JAY JOHNSON: I said this the other day. A lot's made of it, especially when you're playing such a great team. I didn't feel like it was a death sentence. They call it a double-elimination tournament for a reason.

We have great pitching depth as does our opponent, as does UCLA, as Murray State, as does Arizona, as does Coastal Carolina, as does Oregon State, as does Louisville. That's the only way you get here, survive the regional format and the super regional and the season.

We were just focused on the game tonight. And we had a plan either way. Whether we're playing at 1:00 or 6:00 on Monday, we were going to have a plan for tomorrow and be ready to go.

So I think anytime you make it more, you're taking your focus off of execution, and that's not what we do.

Q. To go with Casan in the ninth inning there, what was your thought process given that he could be a guy that could help you guys out as a starter later in the tournament?

JAY JOHNSON: I think you're playing one of the best teams in America. You're at the top of the order. Davalan, a huge year; Aloy, did he win the Golden Spikes; did they announce that yet? He's up for it. Maxwell is hitting in the 3 hole, had a huge homer against, I think, Tennessee.

I just liked the strike-zone pressure that he presents. I like the match-up really good. And what did he throw? He threw 13 pitches, so I like his efficiency there.

Q. Just kind of explain Derek Curiel's at-bats. They were amazing at-bats even in a night where strikeouts were coming to you all. Explain Derek's time at the plate.

JAY JOHNSON: I think the first at-bat might have been one of the most under-noticed, most important at-bats in the game, where he fell down 0-2 to Zach Root, and fought his way back to walk, to put a runner in scoring position for the first time. That was huge.

He was able to draw a walk in the second at-bat. And to stay on Gibler, he's nasty -- if I remember correctly, he hadn't had a ton of innings by the time they came to us, which was the second-to-last week of the season. And we were, like, man, who is this guy?

As he said, he's deceptive. It's a tough breaking ball that he throws. He got him with the one, strike one and got him to chase it. But he stayed on it and just got it elevated enough and stayed through it for a two-out, what we call golden -- two-out hits are golden with runners in scoring position. Great at-bat.

But I'm not surprised. Like I said, he was born to hit. His disposition, his demeanor is made for hitting with runners on base, made for playing in games like the College World Series. He'll probably play in the major league World Series someday because he's got that "it factor" character.

Q. DVH said he thought the last time they played you guys that Kade struck out more batters against them in that game, but he thought they made harder contact. They didn't make hard contact today. What did you see in his stuff tonight versus when you faced those guys on the 9th of May?

JAY JOHNSON: I think I would point more to him. He's got tremendous stuff. It's four pitches for strikes. He's never boxed into having to throw a certain way, which as a hitting coach makes it tough to plan against him because he can always pivot. He's got a plan for any type of hitter, left, right, power, good bat-to-ball type guys, I thought he just executed. He's such a tremendous competitor. I mean, he got us a win in a super regional game and got us through the seventh inning and was just, for lack of a better word, irritated at his performance. Those guys are special.

They don't come along very often. When you put that four-pitch mix with that type of competitive fire, feel for what he needed to do, like he said, live in the classroom, he's right back to it. Coach Yeskie and him did a great job of making sure he was ready for today.

Q. Forgive me if you've been asked this, just walked in. Were you surprised that Dave pulled Zach so soon in the game? And I guess the second part of that is how much was your guys' offensive execution from top of the first to top of the second, how much did you feel that sort of played into that?

JAY JOHNSON: Yeah, I think he's one of the best pitchers in the country. I know he was First Team All-SEC. I'm sure he was an All-American. I mean, we tried to get him. He's really good.

You're talking about coaching against one of the best coaches in the history of college baseball. He knows his players. Maybe he saw something he didn't like and he brought in a guy that's really, really good in Gabe. So that's what they decided to do.

As far as what we did from the first to the second, it's just about settling in here. I don't know how many people were there tonight. It's like 25,000. Awesome crowd. We tried to prepare them for that. But I'm sure we're the visiting team. We're going up to the plate first against one of the best pitchers in the country with everything else going on.

I think it took us an inning, four at-bats, to kind of settle into the game.

Q. You talk about LSU, going back to playing their brand of baseball. How did you see that all come together and really just click tonight in that second inning and on?

JAY JOHNSON: The word I would use is "maturity." Luis has been excellent in this postseason. I mean, one of the unsung heroes, MVPs of this thing, to do the job he's done behind the plate, take the mature caliber at-bats that he does and did right there. And like I said, Derek, going 0-2 to a walk right there. Danny laying down the drag. Chris, I think it was strike one, and then he stayed on the ball and drove it to the outfield. Michael didn't move his feet right there and a breaking ball hit him. Josh is in there for a reason. It's always this time of year, you know what you're going to get, and did exactly what we asked him to do.

I thought it was great. It was just enough. And that's okay. It's here. We focus on how we play and how we win probably more than any team in the country. We don't just sell out to that. But when you're playing this opponent, this arena, just finding a way to get it done, I'm proud of the team, and they'll have to reset and get ready to do it against another really good team.