Jay Johnson declares Gabe Gaeckle 'one of the best pitchers in the entire country'

The LSU Tigers were able to rally late in the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Wednesday night. With that, head coach Jay Johnson was able to grab a win and take his Tigers back to the championship series of the College World Series.

To get the rally started, Johnson had to make several moves in the eighth inning to get a tying run across the board on Arkansas pitcher Gabe Gaeckle. In the end, though, all LSU was able to get off of Gaeckle outside of a solo shot from Jared Jones. That prompted Johnson, after the game, to praise Gaeckle as one of the best in the country.

“He’s one of our best players,” Jay Johnson said. “So, it really wasn’t a hard decision, and Chris Stanfield is one of our best players. Just the other night against Gabe, I said this on Saturday night, he’s one of the best pitchers in the entire country. Like, it’s not close. I voted for him for SEC Pitcher of the Year in the preseason. That was my pick for Preseason SEC Pitcher of the Year was Gabe Gaeckle.”

This season, Gaeckle split his time as a starter and as a reliever. In 71.1 innings pitched, he had a 4.42 ERA and 92 strikeouts to 31 walks. He also had success against LSU, only allowing one run in six innings against the Tigers earlier in the College World Series. Over the course of the season against LSU, he has pitched 12.1 innings, giving up just three runs while striking out 19 batters.

“We did not see him at all the other night,” Johnson said. “He struck out like 10 guys. It was very uncharacteristic for our team, and it was mostly right-handers, and Jake’s one of our best players, too. It was the time to use him. We needed to score right there.”

It was Jared Jones who finally got to Gabe Gaeckle in the eighth inning on a solo shot. He also praised the Arkansas pitcher following the game, explaining that he had struggled on sliders against him but got to a fastball.

“I hadn’t been seeing Gaeckle very well this week,” Jones said. “He struck me out 5 times, I think, in 5 at-bats. It was all on sliders. My approach is always to be on time for a fastball. I was lucky enough to get one in the zone and put a good swing on it to tie the game there in the [eighth].” 

Ultimately, even with Gaeckle at his best, it wasn’t enough for Arkansas. The Razorbacks fell to the Tigers in dramatic fashion. Now, they’ll be headed home while LSU plays for the College World Series title.