Jay Johnson explains his trust in Riley Cooper

One player who Jay Johnson clearly trusts during LSU’s run in Omaha is Riley Cooper. Now, in four games, he’s turned to Cooper three times out of the bullpen and likely won’t hesitate if he needs to do so again.

After beating Wake Forest to stay alive, Johnson explained where this trust in Cooper comes from.

“I think when you’re physical and bigger and stronger, he’s one of the strongest guys, pound for pound, on the team, you tend to recover better,” Jay Johnson said. “That’s part of what makes him – him is the stuff that shows up. But again I’ve said this before, probably over the two weeks before we got here, it’s not about spin rate right now. It’s not about velocity. It’s about pitch execution and winners. And he is a winner. And that’s why I believe in him.”

To this point in the College World Series, Cooper has pitched 5.2 scoreless innings. On top of that, he’s struck out six hitters while only allowing five runners to reach base via a walk or a hit.

One notable game for Cooper was against Tennessee, where he worked around a bases loaded situation and tossed three scoreless innings. After that win, Jay Johnson broke down his decision to use Cooper in the game.

“Blake [Money] had been throwing the ball really, really well. He was definitely part of the plan tonight. I didn’t think they were seeing Nate [Ackenhausen] well, and I think Riley is about as comparable and close to Nate as possible and I wanted to stay with that look because they were in between,” Johnson said.

“And, you know, when you’re pressing a little bit, when you’re in an elimination game, and you’re trying to chase runs late, he’s the type of pitcher that if you give him an inch he can take a mile, and he did what he did tonight.”

Jay Johnson on the thought process with Paul Skenes

Most people expect LSU to start Paul Skenes in an elimination game against Wake Forest. However, Jay Johnson hasn’t confirmed that will happen. Instead, he broke down his thought process on using Skenes.

“We’ll talk to him tonight,” Jay Johnson said. “I think it’s a day-by-day deal. We have a pre-throw process that we go through with pitchers and their availability and testing and recovery and all of those types of things. So we still need to go through that tomorrow before we make any decision.”