Jay Johnson shares LSU's mindset for Super Regional round

LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson shared his team’s mindset as the Tigers go into the Super Regional best-of-three series against Kentucky.

LSU went 3-0 during its regional in Baton Rouge, beating Tulane and earning two wins over Oregon State. Now with an SEC foe on tap, also at home, Johnson and crew have to stay focused.

Johnson maintained his LSU squad has to stay together.

“Yes, we talked about a couple of things going into the postseason,” Johnson said. “Number one is it’s a John Wooden thing of it’s amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit. And these guys are a team. And they’re all about the togetherness part of it. They’ve done a wonderful job with that.”

The head coach said staying present is the biggest key to success for LSU.

“So that’s one thing,” Johnson said. “And then the other thing is just legitimately, no matter where we’re at, that is where we were at. We’re not worried about the next game. We’re not worried about the next inning, the next pitch, just being incredibly present. And I think when you look at the complementary baseball that was played from the mound, from the field, offensively, executing in a lot of ways, they did that this weekend. 

“And so again my hope is that encourages them to stay locked into that frame of mind. And if they do that, then we play really good baseball. If they do that, I can legitimately surrender the result because I know the mindset is right.”

LSU won the Regional and it was definitely exciting. Johnson saw no reason why to not celebrate, but acknowledged there is a bigger picture.

“I think the best thing that happened was, as I said earlier in my opening statement, the preparation for this weekend was elite. So they have a blueprint,” Johnson said. “So I want them to enjoy this. I think if you don’t for a minute you kind of forget about why are you actually doing this. And then they’ll have a very structured plan starting with our meeting later tomorrow morning of how we’re going to attack next weekend. And I have no concern whatsoever of them being ready to play next weekend.”

LSU and Johnson take the field in Baton Rouge against Kentucky Saturday at 3:00 p.m. ET. It is a best-of-three series to advance to the College World Series.