LSU baseball might be headed into postseason play as the top-ranked team in the nation, but head coach Jay Johnson has a bit of a bold take.
The Tigers squad that he led to a 42-13 record and 19 wins in the hyper competitive SEC still has another gear it can hit, Johnson told WWL Radio this week, and he hopes to see it starting on Friday when LSU plays its first game in the conference tournament over in Hoover.
"I think the approach to winning has been good," Johnson told Mike Detillier on SportsTalk. "I do think there’s some better offensive play in us that we’ve seen at times, that we saw a lot for the first 34 games of the season."
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When the Tigers have stumbled this season it's been due to low scoring output, including a sweep on the road at the hands of Auburn where they scored a combined 8 runs in the three-game set. The Tigers also lost a series to Texas A&M that they left with 7 total runs in the series. That's just life in the SEC.
"We just hit a stretch where we’re playing a lot of the best teams in the country and they’re that way because they have good pitching," Johnson said. "We’ve had some pieces in the bullpen really start to emerge for us, so I think getting it firing on all cylinders, we can be a team that can be very difficult to play and win against.”
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What has been consistently great for LSU has been the pitching, with the Tigers currently ranking No. 8 in the nation with a team ERA of 3.78. That group has been led by a pair of stars in junior Anthony Eyanson and sophomore Kade Anderson, who have anchored the rotations all season.
“They’ve been the key to the whole thing. … They both have been spectacular and, you know, it’s a wide-open deal this year. I don’t think there’s really a clearcut favorite to win the championship," Johnson said. "Those guys are going to give us a great chance to win every time that they pitch, and they’re, again, this is a team of really good guys and when your best player, your best pitchers are the best human beings in the locker room, that really helps your team and that’s how I feel about Kade and Anthony.”
LSU got a bit of a scheduling reprieve this week, with their first game in the SEC Tournament not scheduled until Friday. In the past that'd have been a mid-week game, with the team traveling directly to Hoover, Alabama after their final SEC series. Instead they were able to fly home and will get a full week of practice before getting to Hoover on Friday. That game is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch, with the opponent to be determined.