Jay Johnson analyzes pitching of Griffin Herring

LSU reliever Griffin Herring came through in the clutch with the season on the line for the Tigers Wednesday night against Wake Forest.

In an elimination game for the Tigers, Herring came out of the bullpen and pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings against an explosive Wake Forest offense.

Herring struck out six batters, while allowing only three hits during the outing. He lowered his ERA to 3.93 in the process.

After the game, Tigers coach Jay Johnson spoke about Herring and his performance.

“I thought he mixed well. I thought he threw all his pitches for strikes. He had great composure. I think he plays older than his age,” Johnson said. “And I think throughout this season he’s pitched in enough high-leverage spots that — there’s a few Fridays in a row, I want to say, we brought him after Paul [Skenes] to complete Friday three weeks in a row for wins. I want to say it was Ole Miss, somebody else, Alabama, Kentucky maybe. And he did a great job there.”

While Herring had pitched in big games before, Wednesday was the biggest stage the freshman had pitched on. He handled the opportunity well as LSU moved to within one win of advancing to the College World Series finals.

“I thought he would play well, or pitch well, against their lineup, and he certainly did,” Johnson said.

Griffin Herring says his fastball was his strongest pitch against Wake Forest

After the win over the Demon Deacons, Griffin Herring reflected on what was working so well for him on Wednesday. Herring shared that his fastball was without a doubt his best pitch against Wake Forest.

“I would say the fastball was probably my main pitch tonight. Had good run to it. I think maybe it sank a little bit sometimes. Sometimes it rode. So probably the fastball. Slider got working towards the end,” Herring said.

Herring’s final line was 4 2/3 innings of work, three hits surrendered, one walk, six strikeouts and no runs allowed.

He took LSU from the top of the second inning, when the Tigers trailed 2-0, to the seventh inning before he was finally pulled after 80 pitches. And he helped the Tigers win a must-win game to force a decider on their side of the bracket.

LSU and Wake Forest face off at 7 p.m. EST on Thursday, and the winner will face Florida in a three-game series for the national championship.