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Jay Johnson calls Regional win vs. Little Rock: ‘One of the best wins of my entire career’

Danby: Daniel Hager06/03/25DanielHagerOn3

LSU got all it could want from Little Rock in the Baton Rouge Regional Final, but the Tigers held off the Trojans 10-6 on Monday night to advance to the Super Regionals for the seventh time since 2015.

Little Rock, which won the OVC Conference Tournament and was placed as the No. 4 seed in the Baton Rouge Regional with a 25-32 record, shocked the baseball world by eliminating Rhode Island with a 22-10 win, taking down Dallas Baptist 8-6, and even downing LSU 10-4 before falling in the final game.

“First I want to just say congratulations to coach [Chris] Curry and Little Rock,” Johnson said to kick off his postgame comments on Monday night. “Tremendous run here these last couple of weeks. Massive hat tip. Massive respect. Absolutely took us to the mat. I don’t know that I’ve seen a better prepared team, a more competitive team or well-coached team at any point.”

Fresh off of losing Sunday night’s game 10-4, LSU quickly fell in a 5-1 deficit Monday night as Little Rock plated five runs in the bottom of the second inning. The Tigers however locked in and outscored the Trojans 9-1 over the final seven innings to avoid becoming the eighth Regional host to fall. Jay Johnson continued to praise his team and players postgame.

“I told the players that tonight is one of the best wins of my entire career because of what they had to do to earn it” Johnson said. “We obviously have great talent and great players like these guys [Casan Evans, Ethan Frey and Luis Hernandez], but you’re looking at three of the best human beings on the planet. We won tonight because of character. When I think about character, I think about Luis, Ethan and Casan. I’ve said this before in reference to them, but this is what an LSU baseball player is supposed to be and needs to be in all phases.”

The trio played a major part in securing the win for LSU Monday night. Evans relieved LSU starter Zac Cowan with one out in the second inning and held Little Rock to just four hits and one earned run with 12 strikeouts over the next six innings. Frey went a stellar 4-4 at the plate with two doubles, a home run and four RBI and Hernandez went 3-5 at the plate with two home runs and three RBI.

“[You look at the offensive performance by Ethan [Frey], that’s arguably the best game I’ve ever seen any of my players play considering the situation,” Johnson said about his designated hitter. “Luis [Hernandez] was clutch, absolutely clutch. Sometimes you look a player in the eye on the on-deck circle and you think this is about to be good, and special night tonight. Great toughness catching four games in a row. I’m really proud of him for that and maintaining massive offensive production. And [Casan Evans] is a superstar. There haven’t been many better performances on that pitcher’s mound in championship games than what you just saw from Casan [Evans]. Super proud of these guys and couldn’t be more excited to dive into Super Regional week and get ready for West Virginia.”

LSU and West Virginia open play in the Baton Rouge Regional Saturday at 2:00 pm EST (ESPN).