It's a familiar refrain from LSU baseball head coach Jay Johnson, but it's one that's never made more sense than it did in Omaha over the last week: Y'all have been sleeping on Ty Floyd.
It was a fair point to be made after an impressive start against Wake Forest that faltered in the 6th inning, but it never felt more poignant than after a record-setting, 17-strikeout performance to set LSU up one game from its 7th national title.
"He’s had a terrific season, and nothing better than that tonight. But we’re not sitting here in this position without Ty Floyd," Johnson said. "I think he’s one of the most underrated, under-appreciated players in college baseball this year.”
It's not difficult to appreciate why that might be the case, considering throughout the season he was handed the ball 24 hours after the supernova of Paul Skenes took the mound. But all Floyd has done is not lose a single one of his starts 17 starts (7-0), a pretty hefty accolade considering the quality of offenses being faced throughout an SEC schedule.
“I felt good. I felt with as many people as were here tonight, the adrenaline felt good," Floyd said. "But I just knew that I could throw my fastball at the top of the zone and being able to mix in offspeed pitches enough to be able to get them off was the biggest key for tonight.”
Floyd's performance set a new record for LSU and SEC pitchers in a College World Series game and tied Arizona State's Ed Bane, who struck out 17 batters at the CWS in 1972. But the most impressive point came in the 8th inning, when Johnson chose to stick with his starter rather than get into the bullpen in what he expected might be an extra-inning affair.
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Taking on the 1-2-3 hitters in Florida's order -- which included a top future draft pick in Wyatt Langford -- Floyd responded by striking out the side.
"It was a little bit of a tricky spot, so for him to get two more hitters was a big deal," Johnson said. "And then there was no way with the way he pitched to Kurland and Langford, Caglianone was going to be his. He deserved to finish that inning and I’m really glad he did. Made some great pitches and then allowed us to turn it over to Riley [Cooper]. I think striking out the side with those three hitters right there, that’s legit. That’s pitching at the highest level, especially when he’d emptied the tank to put us in the position he did for the first 7 innings.”
And it's also important to point out: If Floyd is flying under the radar for some fans and analysts, that's not the case with the scouts.
"Nobody's really paid attention to him, but pro people are," Johnson said. "He’s not going to last that long on that draft board, and somebody will be very, very happy with Ty Floyd and I think he’ll pitch for a very long time. And, like I mentioned with a couple of the pitchers in the game on Thursday night, there’s a chance for it to be a short arc from Omaha to a big league stadium for him.”
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