Jay Johnson breaks down the success of 'absolute winner' Riley Cooper

Riley Cooper is far from the most prominent name on the LSU pitching staff, but the Arizona transfer continues to put together solid performances for the Tigers.

Cooper earned the win for LSU in Game 2 of its super regional victory over Kentucky as the Tigers clinched a spot in the College World Series. The lefty tossed 3 scoreless innings against the Wildcats, while improving to 4-3 on the year.

LSU coach Jay Johnson recently appeared on Mik’d up with Mikie Mahtook and broke down how important Cooper has been to LSU’s success this season.

“Absolute winner. Period. I mean that’s all that really needs to be said. Does not get enough credit,” Johnson said. “I don’t think you could get past one hand and count, across the entire country, pitchers that have multiple super regional wins under their belt, in terms of pitching decisions. He now has two. He’s going to Omaha for the second time. We wouldn’t be going there without him.”

As Johnson alluded to, Cooper earned a win for Arizona in the super regional in 2021, before earning the second super regional victory of his career this past weekend.

On the season, he is 4-3 with a 5.02 ERA as the Tigers prepare for the College World Series.

In addition to pitching well in the super regional round, Riley Cooper also got the start for LSU in the final game of the Baton Rouge Regional against Oregon State. He allowed two runs in 3 2/3 innings in that outing as the Tigers earned a 13-7 victory to advance.

“Last Monday, the third game of the regional, it wasn’t really a hard decision of who we were going to go with in that game. I felt really good about the way he threw the ball in Hoover. I thought he matched up well with Oregon State,” Johnson said. “Got us off to a great start and let our offense do its thing. And then [Sunday], to hold the game at 5-3 for 3 innings and give us everything that he had. And I’ll say this, I think [Sunday] night was the best I’ve ever seen him just execute pitches.”

Kentucky scored 22 runs in three games against LSU during the regular season. They managed only three runs over two games in the super regional, and Cooper was part of the reason why.

“Kentucky scored some runs on us in the series here in April. They were not seeing him[ Sunday],” Johnson said. “They were not getting good swings. He was up in the zone with the fastball, spinning the breaking ball, changeup was elite. … Gave us exactly what we needed. I want to say he got nine outs for us in three innings. And just trust him. He’s a winner and I trust him.”