The defending champion LSU Tigers are five wins away from getting back to the College World Series. A road map for getting back to Omaha would be LSU starting pitchers Gage Jump and Luke Holman winning four of those games.
LSU made a great run in the SEC Tournament and the bats were hot, but it was Jump and Holman who set the tone for the Tigers by providing two great pitching performances to begin the week.
Jump and Holman have turned into one of the best starting pitching tandems in college baseball.
Jump, a transfer from UCLA, gave up four earned runs or more in four of his first five SEC starts. But in his last six SEC starts, Jump has allowed just nine earned runs in 38 innings.
“I think getting through the paces of the preseason and realizing okay I’m throwing the ball pretty well here now, let’s find what the SEC is all about, and it challenged him right away, once he got through that and the dust had settled after a couple of starts, he started to realize I can do this,” LSU pitching coach Nate Yeskie said.
Jump’s stuff is more electric, but Holman has the better numbers. The right-hander is 9-3 with a 2.54 ERA and has struck out 116 hitters in 85 innings.
Since a rough outing at Missouri, Holman has allowed just seven earned runs in his last five starts. He’s coming off six innings of hitless baseball against Kentucky in the SEC Tournament.
Yeskie says Holman and Jump have been pushing each other.
“Competitors want to compete, whether that will be against themselves, or someone on the team or against an opponent, when Luke was throwing the ball well, I think that pushed Gage to want to do better.”
It’s unlikely Coach Jay Johnson will unveil his pitching plans for this weekend ahead of time.
But I don’t see him changing up a good thing. Jump starting off the weekend has worked well, followed by Holman in game two.
If that’s the case, Jump will face a Wofford team averaging 10 runs a game and has stolen 144 bases. But the Terriers have not faced a pitcher like Jump this year.
Holman is a veteran as this is his third season and his start on Saturday will be his 47th appearance. A veteran pitcher against a very good North Carolina team is probably the right matchup.
I’m anxious to see if Jump and Holman can keep it going, if they can, then it will be a long postseason run for the Tigers.
