Jay Johnson on LSU's freshman class: 'It's pretty awesome'

LSU improved to 2-0 in the 2025 Men’s College World Series on Tuesday following a 9-5 win over UCLA. The Tigers have started a CWS 2-0 in six of the seven years that they won the event. To say that Jay Johnson‘s team is in the driver’s seat for its second national championship in three years would be an understatement.

Usually teams that thrive in Omaha get all of their production from juniors and seniors, but this LSU team has been the exception. Freshman left fielder Derek Curiel, freshman right-handed pitcher Casan Evans and sophomore left-handed pitcher Kade Anderson have been driving forces in LSU‘s hunt for another national championship.

Head coach Jay Johnson discussed his stellar freshman class following the win over UCLA.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Johnson said. “We had to get on it like right away. Like, this is a few years in the making. This just didn’t happen overnight. It’s not football recruiting where the guy flips on signing day and that sort of thing.”

Through two games in Omaha, Curiel is 2-6 at the plate with an RBI and Anderson held Arkansas to just three hits and one earned run with seven strikeouts. Casan Evans shined in the win over UCLA, holding the Bruins to just four hits and two earned runs with five strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.

“Derek [Curiel], I was pretty confident he was going to come to Arizona,” said the former Arizona coach Johnson. “So the relationship had been built. And then when I came to LSU that one happened pretty quickly. Casan [Evans] was one of those, like, in the normal recruiting period, September 1st of the junior year, and you’re fighting everybody to get him. And there’s more. I mean, John Pearson pinch-hit in that game, William Schmidt, Mavrick Rizy — Cooper Williams has been great for us down the stretch. And there’s seven of them that are on this roster. I would bet that’s probably the most of any that’s in the College World Series. And it’s just that ‘talent meets character meets ready for the moment’ type group.”

The group has more than lived up to the hype, and they are just a few games away from earning a coveted title.

“But it’s been, like, three or however long I’ve been here now, it’s my fourth year, four years in the making from, Derek [Curiel] was probably the first one. We got Cooper [Williams] last July because of a coaching change. So I’m very excited to have that as the foundation of going forward. As you can see, they’re ready to help us win here now.

LSU will be back in action on Wednesday against the winner of Tuesday night’s Arkansas/UCLA elimination game.