LSU Baseball Head Coach Jay Johnson spoke to the media today at the Champions Club ahead of the series against Ole Miss in Mississippi.
Johnson started discussing his takeaways from Tuesday’s game and how they will use their loss to Bethune-Cookman as motivation for the team’s upcoming game in Mississippi.
“I thought they showed up ready to play, like we knew we were playing a good team. I don’t have any problem with the energy from batting practice, to the beginning of the game, [the] desire to win,” Johnson said. “I think it came down to they did a good job of getting off the field, where we could have turned one of those one-run innings into two-run innings.”
Johnson also discussed this season’s ups and downs and how the program will be training for this weekend’s game series.
“We’re going to keep chopping wood and putting the hand in the barn, get ready for Ole Miss today and tomorrow when we train there, and help some guys that didn’t have success last night with some individual meetings, especially on the mound, and keep going,” Johnson said. “The message was very simple: this is why the game was lost, and this can only impact this weekend if we allow it to, and I’m [going to] choose not to.”
Johnson is proud of Edward Yamin IV and his growth on the team, which has positively impacted other players and Johnson himself.
“He was on base four times last night, and that’s awesome,” Johnson said. “When you can remove anything else but just competing in the moment because that moment is so important to you, that’s when we’re all at our best, all of us. That’s when I coach my best.”
Johnson spoke about his coaching methods this year and why he hasn’t redshirted anyone in the season for non-medical reasons.
“It’s a balancing act of what’s best for the program and what’s best for the player. Like I’m one of those coaches who believes you can accomplish both of those things,” Johnson said.
“We were able to do that with this one, and I don’t have a reason other than we’ve needed everybody this year.”
Although Johnson briefly mentions that he hasn’t looked at Ole Miss’s lineup just yet, he also talks about the Rebels’ home-field advantage and the power they have, along with highlighting what that means for LSU Baseball.
“It just comes down to how well we execute, what we’re trying to execute,” Johnson said.
“I feel like Cade is coming along, William is coming along, Gavin, Zach, Grant, a couple of lefties, even some of the lefties that played last night, when they execute, they’re tough to hit. So there’s some opportunity there, but you have to execute to take advantage of it.”
The Tigers will be facing Ole Miss this weekend, starting on April 10th at Swayze Field in Mississippi.
