There's always a lot to unpack at the end of a long, arduous journey to a national title. But Jay Johnson is sure about one thing: his Tigers were the top dogs.
They might have had a more difficult road and faced elimination several times before even reaching the title series, but they were the top ranked team most of the year for a reason. They had to the two best players in college baseball. They knew exactly what they were capable of, en route to an 18-4 beatdown of Florida for national title No. 7.
"I don’t think there was any underdog thought with this team," Johnson said. "We tried to take the No. 1 thing and turn it to our advantage. Everybody was asking me about pressure and expectations, and what they don’t understand is that it always comes back to the play, and it always comes back to the preparation. Things you've heard me say it a million times. I don’t just say that, we actually believe it."
The Tigers hit a skid late in the year and fell to the No. 5 national seed. That's why when you look back, it'll almost seem like an upset that LSU was able to take down the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in Wake Forest and Florida.
But Johnson knew he had the exact right mix of veteran players and future pro talent. He knew that keeping players like Cade Beloso and Gavin Dugas in the fold would be pivotal in big moments, and that's exactly what happened in Omaha. Beloso's home run in the 11th inning of Game 1 set up the Tigers to survive a 24-4 beatdown in Game 2.
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"We’re not the national champions without him," Johnson said.
It's also why the Tigers knew they didn't have to overreact to that record-setting loss. Johnson did admit that he took the nine or so quality at-bats with runners on base and played them on a loop for his team. They responded mightily in Game 3, proving the method to the madness right as it had all season.
"A big thing for us as we were going through this is, great teams play near their capability often," Johnson said. "I talked about staying in character a lot and again, those are not just words. That’s what we had to do. And if we did that, then I could surrender the result, because I had so much confidence in what the result could be."
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What was the plan with Paul Skenes?
LSU's ace was very much available, but not for long. That's why the Tigers wanted to be careful how they used him. Skenes was still "begging" to pitch the 9th even with a 14-run cushion, but Johnson shot it down.
“I’m like absolutely not. If they get within 5, we’ll get you up and throwing, but it’s not coach speak or anything, we really go through these assessments with them in terms of his hips, his back, his lower half, all of those things, so his body is a great delivery. He needed to be able to stay in his delivery, so we had to test all of that stuff, obviously test his arm, and them we felt like if we needed him we would’ve had him for 30 pitches tonight. Then it became a decision of when do you use those 30 pitches.
I felt like we would’ve given Florida a shot in the arm had I started him, thrown two innings and then taken him out of the game, and I didn’t want to do that. And I felt like with a three-run lead in the 8th and they see him trot our there, the psychological help that that would’ve been for our team would’ve been enough to finish a close game.”
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On Jordan Thompson's turnaround
LSU's head coach never wavered in his support of his shortstop, but he did call Thompson to his hotel room to make sure everything was good. He reaffirmed his support, but asked what he could do to help. Thompson said he was good, and that's exactly what he showed in Game 3 as he drove in 3 RBIs.
"It’s kind of cool to feel that full-circle, and I don’t know that I’ll ever have children. Jordan is as close to what I would consider like a son as anybody, and I’m so proud of him. I think Dylan and Jordan are the only two players that have started every single game for the last two years, and what a championship performance, heartbeat of our team, and I’m so proud of him.”
The legacy of this team?
"I really believe this will go down as one of the best teams in college baseball history. So consistent in the regular season. I think the SEC Tournament was the only week of the year we had a losing record. … Not one losing week for the entire regular season, 11 wins in the postseason, six of them against SEC teams, and I really believe we played and beat every team, the best team that we could’ve played along the way throughout the entire tournament at that spot. So, I love these guys, I’m so proud of them, and they’re a worthy champion if there ever was a worthy champion.”
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