Jake Brown’s 16th home run of the year could not have come at a more opportune time for LSU baseball.
Brown’s three-run home run, which he said is a product of his improvements hitting breaking balls from lefties, eased the pain of playing from behind by giving the Tigers a 4-2 lead, which they carried to the end.
Before the big swing, LSU found itself in an all-too-familiar deficit in a midweek game, this one to Northwestern State, because it kept shooting itself in the foot. With runners on second and third with one out, Brayden Simpson got caught between third and home and was tagged out.
After Simpson was tagged out, head coach Jay Johnson came out to challenge the play and, on the way, gave Simpson an earful. Then, Johnson speed-walked into the dugout behind Simpson, almost chasing him down. The following conversation couldn’t have been too calm, and he was replaced before seeing another at bat.
Johnson said after the game that Simpson was supposed to be running on contact on his play at the plate, but he hesitated and got caught up.
“It’s an inexcusable mistake,” Johnson said after the game. “It’s just that type of mistake… we’ve had too much of it, and it really bothers me.”
LSU found itself down for the second time already, and it faced similar trouble late in the game despite holding a lead.
The pitching staff was great. No one reached on a walk until the eighth inning, and the Tigers struck out 16.
“This is the best pitched game we’ve had in a while,” Johnson said.
That was until the eighth inning when bases got loaded with Demons and one out. Johnson had to go to one of the team’s best relievers, Deven Sheerin, on a Tuesday night. But as always, Sheerin kept the team in the game with two huge outs.
Sheerin said after the game that he knew going into the day that he would be on call due to it being a big game.
“I just want to do my part,” Sheerin said.
He returned for the ninth inning to get the five-out save and end the Tigers’ four-game skid, helping erase another instance of an early deficit for LSU.
LSU’s first run given up and first run scored happened when two players got their first home runs of the year.
Simpson had hit 22 home runs with High Point last year, but it took until the 38th game of the year to get his first as an LSU Tiger. He looked like a track star sprinting around the bases after his ball hit the left side of the batter’s eye.
Northwestern State catcher Mason Wray, who hit his only other Division I homer on April 13, 2025, took just over a year to get his second. It started in the hand of Zac Cowan and ended in the bleachers in the left field landing.
That was the only blemish on Cowan’s two innings of work. He started the game, and a workload of 34 pitches got the team off to a good start while putting him in line to be ready for Friday night if he gets called on.
“Zac is probably the best pitcher on the staff, just in terms of performance over the last five or six weeks,” Johnson said
Freshman Reagan Ricken saw some batters as well, having faced trouble in the fifth, but allowed only one across after the Demons got two on base with no outs. That’s how LSU got into the situation with Simpson being the tying run before being tagged out.
Grant Fontenot, who has started the last two Sundays, got a couple of innings and didn’t allow a single baserunner while striking out three.
Marcos Paz had one inning of work where he struck out the side, with all Demons going down swinging. Two of which had full counts that Paz won on the final pitch. His heater touched 96 while his delivery looked collected and nearly effortless.
The offense’s failure to acquire insurance runs continued in the seventh inning when Brown tried to scamper home on a bobbled ball to the shortstop, but he was tagged out.
Regardless of the mistakes, the Tigers improve to 23-15 as they get back in the win column. This weekend, LSU will host No. 10 Texas A&M for a three-game series that begins Friday at 6:00 p.m. CT.
“We have 19 games guaranteed left, and our main focus is capitalizing on every single one of them,” Brown said.
