Jay Johnson details what went right for LSU, run to national championship

It’s exceptionally hard to reach Omaha. It’s even harder to win a national championship. To do it two times in three years?

That’s almost unheard of. Almost.

But LSU was able to do just that this season, despite losing 13 players off the first title team to professional baseball. Coach Jay Johnson put it simply when contextualizing things.

“It’s hard to overcome when you lose that talent,” he said. Yeah.

Somehow, though, LSU managed to do just that en route to this year’s national championship. The Tigers had one of the best pitching staffs in the country. They had lineup that could hit top to bottom.

But perhaps most importantly, LSU had chemistry. The players liked each other. They played hard. And they did what Johnson lined them up to do.

“I think it was unique. It was a new team,” Johnson said. “But I think I developed a really good feel for it quickly. And it was a style of player that fit maybe the totality of my career a little bit better than what we had last year.”

Ask Johnson what went right for the Tigers in reaching the national championship again and he’ll boil it down pretty easily. It’s not rocket science, he explained.

“Guys got better,” he said. “Steven Milam got better, especially down the stretch. Jake Brown got better. Jared Jones got better.

“That’s what happens. We can’t promise that we’re going to win two titles in three years and you’re going to get to play in Omaha, especially going through the SEC. But I do promise them that they will be better players.”

It certainly worked this year for LSU. There’s a national championship banner to hang to prove it.

Finally, one guy who had an outsized impact on the results? That would be starting pitcher Anthony Eyanson. He was LSU’s No. 2 guy, but he took a back seat to no one.

“As far as Anthony, he kind of tricked me a little bit in the fall,” Johnson said. “But now I get it. Like, he knew he was good, and he was kind of pacing himself for this run, then we don’t win the championship without him.

“And it got maybe overshadowed a little bit by Kade (Anderson) but he won 12 games, too. That’s a lot in today’s college baseball. Wins the first game of the NCAA tournament. Closes out the regional final. Grinds out a win in the super. Gets us off to a good start against UCLA. And wins the national championship game.”