Jay Johnson 'really proud' of LSU's pitching staff against Wake Forest

The LSU Tigers are one win away from the championship series in the NCAA Tournament. After losing to Wake Forest on Monday to fall down into the loser’s bracket, LSU battled back to setup a rematch with the Demon Deacons on Wednesday. The Tigers succeeded in in try No. 2, which now sets up a winner-take-all third and final contest on Thursday evening to decide who goes through to face Florida for the national title.

To get the first victory over Wake, LSU had to find ways to win that didn’t involve their two superstars, Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes, doing all of the heavy-lifting. In fact, Skenes wasn’t available at all in the Wednesday win, forcing head coach Jay Johnson to try out some other arms in the biggest game of the entire season.

Griffin Herring got the start and lasted four and two-thirds innings without giving up a run while a committee of relievers landed the plane afterwards, surrendering just two total runs on the day. Even with an average offensive output of five runs for the Tigers, it was plenty enough to force a rubber match due to the excellence on the bump.

Afterward, Johnson was thrilled. “Really proud of the pitching staff. Everybody contributed tonight,” he commented, before touching on a number of the guys who pitched, complimenting every single one of them.

“Was big of Javen (Coleman) to get out of the first inning with no runs. We didn’t do them any favors offensively in the first, going down on nine pitches and swinging at three or four balls, which was a little out of character. So we made it tough on him in the second.

“Blake (Money), after giving up the single that was a big out right there with their best hitters coming up, and then obviously what a performance by Griffin to strike out Kurtz, to limit the damage there. And then really settled into the game and got us the length that we needed. And then Gavin (Guidry) came in and executed incredibly well. And Riley finished off another one. So good performance and we’ll turn it over to tomorrow.”

Tomorrow, meaning today, they’ll turn it over to their ace, Paul Skenes, to try and bring them to the title series. It’s all on the line at 7 p.m. ET as the Tigers try to make it two an all-SEC tourney final in Omaha.