Jay Johnson announces LSU's opening weekend pitching rotation

The starting pitching rotation for LSU was announced on Wednesday afternoon ahead of Jay Johnson’s opening week press conference. The Tigers take on Purdue Fort Wayne on a weekend series beginning Friday and the starters will be sophomore Kade Anderson, UC San Diego Anthony Eyanson, and redshirt freshman Chase Shores.

“With the whole thing, I’ve tried to be as thorough as possible in a new process with so many new players,” Johnson said. “I didn’t scratch out a lot of scenarios until we’ve seen a full body of work. I made the decision with Kade about two weeks ago. The decision with Anthony was about a week ago. Then Chase was this week. I wanted to see how the whole thing came together. It’s a unique scenario with a double mid week right off the bat as well, so I’m trying to set us up to be successful each game, while taking them one at a time.”

Here’s what Johnson said about each of the starters and the potential options out of the bullpen moving forward.

All three starting pitchers were named as top 50 pitchers in the country by D1 Baseball entering the season.

LSU Friday starter: Kade Anderson

“Starting with Kade since he’s going to pitch the first game, he’s obviously really talented. It would have been a hard get to college if he hadn’t got hurt in high school, but the story is from what he did at the end of last season. He finished the season great in the postseason, then really devoted himself in the weight room, transformed his body, elevated his pitchability. Coach Yeskie has done a really nice job with him. Whoever you open with and who pitches at the end of the game, you have to trust the makeup of that pitcher and I trust him with my life. He’s one of the leaders on this team.”

LSU Saturday starter: Anthony Eyanson

“With Anthony, there’s a lot to like. Strikes, high-level pitchability, composure, and could feel him smelling the season, so to speak. He’s a veteran and he got done what he needed to get done in the fall and it’s kept going up. I’m really happy to have him him here and think he’s going to be a really good pitcher for us.”

LSU Sunday starter: Chase Shores

“The with Chase, I’ve see enough strikes and like where the health is at. I like how he’s gone about his business and we’ve had good improvement over the last month and feel like he’s ready to go… He will improve as he goes along. The best coach that anyone has is playing time and for all the talent he has, he’s thrown 19 and a third. He was a big recruit for us to get and it’s his time. I’m excited for him to contribute to this team.”

On LSU’s bullpen options…

“There are a lot of other ways we could do it and there may be other ways we end up doing it, but feel good about where we’re at today… I went into this thing thinking about doing it differently than we had done it in the past. It’s not really lined up yet. Some guys have gotten better since we’ve gotten back. Gavin has done it so you like him. Conner Ware, I’ve talked about him a lot. William Schmidt, Casan Evans, DJ Primeaux has done well. Conner Benge, Jacob Mayers is really hard to hit. Jaden Noot has pitched well the past couple of weeks. Cooper Williams is going to be a key part of this staff. Dalton Beck has been really good too. Grant Fontenot has had a really good few weeks. Mavrick Rizy is a star.”