LSU might have the best pitcher on its roster in Paul Skenes, but if you asked Jay Johnson, he'd tell you the two best pitching staffs belong to the teams the Tigers have faced each of the past two days.
Johnson's squad took down the first in a 5-0 victory over Tennessee, but the big question remaining: Does LSU have the pitching depth to take down Wake Forest in back-to-back games?
“I think where LSU is at right now … if they’d win the national championship this year, I think it’d be the greatest accomplishment in baseball ever," Bobby Hebert said. "I mean, I don’t think it’s going to happen, but can you argue that point, considering where they’re at.”
That was the conversation on SportsTalk this week with Mike Detillier and Hebert, joined by OutKick's Glenn Guilbeau. Can't see the player above? Click here.
“It would be probably some of the greatest offense in world series history by LSU," Guilbeau said, "or some of the best pitching by guys who haven’t pitched a lot.”
That was also the case on Tuesday, but the Tigers got a legendary performance from Nate Ackenhausen, who started for the first time this season and went 6 scoreless innings before handing it to Riley Cooper, who finished the final three innings to complete the shutout. It's likely LSU will have Skenes available if the series gets to Thursday, but who will take care of business this time?
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It's worth noting, as Guilbeau points out, that this is a virtually identical situation to what LSU faced in 2017. They won the opener, then lost to top-ranked Oregon State, needing three wins out of the loser's bracket. They got just that, behind ace Alex Lange, and qualified for the title series where they lost in two games to Florida. If the Tigers battle out of the loser's bracket again, it will likely be Florida waiting this time around, needing just one win over TCU in their half of the bracket.
The Tigers could possibly turn to Cooper again, but to start? Options could include Griffin Herring, Blake Money, Sam Dutton or Javen Coleman. It's also possible Thatcher Hurd could be available after pitching three innings on Monday.
But Johnson did make sure to point out after Tuesday's win that while the strength of the Tigers pitching staff often gets overshadowed by the greatness of Skenes and the offense, it's got some tricks up its sleeve.
"There’s this thought that we don’t have a great pitching staff," Johnson said. "I think we have a great pitching staff and we have plenty of guys to execute in a way that can give us a chance to be successful. I feel great about it.”
The Tigers' next elimination game starts at 6 p.m. Catch all the action on WWL.
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