Jay Johnson: Losing to Little Rock in Baton Rouge Regional was the best thing that ever happened to LSU

The LSU baseball team steamrolled its way through the second half of the NCAA Tournament, to the point that you almost forgot how difficult it was just to make it out of the Baton Rouge Regional. Almost.

LSU, of course, was pushed to a winner-take-all game by Arkansas-Little Rock. The Tigers would prevail, but not before making the fans plenty nervous.

But for coach Jay Johnson, the close call in the regional was just what the doctor ordered for his team. He explained.

“You know what the best thing that ever happened?” Johnson said on the Mik’d Up podcast with Mikie Mahtook and Jared Mitchell. “We lost the game to Little Rock. Because there was so much pressure in that game. The game didn’t start till 8:06 p.m. that night, and I was here at like 6:15 a.m. trying to figure out how we’re going to win and all this type of stuff.

“And we actually, something happened that day that really helped us on like the whole run of the postseason. That was what we needed.”

LSU turned into a juggernaut after that winner-take-all game against Arkansas-Little Rock. The Tigers didn’t lose another game the rest of the way.

First it was a simple sweep of West Virginia in the Super Regionals, with LSU scoring 28 total runs. Then it was on to Omaha.

The Tigers opened up with a game against Arkansas, quickly moved to the winner’s bracket, then bested UCLA to stay firmly atop the winner’s bracket. Another date with Arkansas provided the launch point to the championship series.

And from there, LSU coasted to its eighth national title in school history. But Johnson looks back at that pivotal game against Arkansas-Little Rock as the fuel that fed the Tigers.

“For the players, the next weekend in the Super Regional, they were like, ‘We’re not going to Game 3. It’s not happening,'” Johnson said. “You get to the bracket against Arkansas and it’s like, ‘We’re not getting to the if necessary game.’ Get to the finals, like, ‘We’re not getting to Game 3’ because nobody wanted to go through that again. So that ended up being like the best thing that ever happened to us.”