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Jay Johnson shares how LSU remains loose despite pressure of elimination

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater06/22/23

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(Jacob Reeder | LSU Athletics)

LSU has remained calm, cool, and collected in Omaha, even though they’ve faced elimination over the last few days in the College World Series. In Jay Johnson’s opinion, the Tigers have been able to do so because this has been their plan from the very start.

Johnson commented on his team’s resilience and demeanor after surviving against Wake Forest. He said that they’ve been able to stay steady in these moments because, from the start of the season up until today, LSU has approached every day like they’re in the College World Series and that this was their expectation from the start.

“I think in the first meeting of the year, every year? One thing I tell them is 365 days a year we’re going to work on mindset,” Johnson said. “We expect to be here, we expect to be playing important baseball in June.”

“We play every game like we’re playing important baseball in June. Like, the Tuesday on March 22nd against McNeese is a playoff game to us,” continued Johnson. “The thought process behind that is if you do that all year long? Then you can just stay in character when you get to the postseason.”

“That’s something that I adopted early on in my career,” said Johnson. “And I think it’s really benefited us in tournament play.”

That approach and mindset has very obviously payed dividends for LSU throughout the whole season. In the regular season, the Tigers posted a 42-13 record.

Then, in the postseason, they’ve gone 9-3 with only one of those losses coming in the NCAA Tournament and with it only coming once they reached Omaha. After that initial loss to the Demon Deacons, they’ve since responded with a pair of wins by a combined score of 10-2.

Now, later this evening, LSU will play their rubber match with Wake Forest to determine who will get the final spot in the championship series against Florida. With all that at stake, Johnson oddly feels as confident as ever considering this moment and this spotlight is nothing new to the Tigers considering how they already went about the entire season.

Johnson provides update on Skenes ahead of Thursday’s CWS matchup with Wake Forest

The LSU Tigers won on Wednesday night in their College World Series matchup with Wake Forest, 5-2. That means they’ll get one more game with Wake in a winner-take-all matchup under the lights on Thursday night. It will surely be one of the most anticipated matchups in college baseball this season. The winner punches their tickets to the CWS best-of-three championship series with the Florida Gators. The loser will have to stomach the painful end of their 2023 baseball season. Many college baseball fans are hoping to see the matchup of Wake Forest’s Rhett Lowder and LSU’s Paul Skenes.

It’d unquestionably be one of the best pitching matchups of the 2023 season. However, fans will have to wait and see if Skenes will take the mound. Tigers’ head coach Jay Johnson said following Wednesday night’s win over Wake, that he’s not sure of his star’s availability.

“We’ll talk to him tonight,” Johnson said in the postgame press conference on Wednesday night.