Jay Johnson's Take: LSU Baseball Dialed in for NCAA Tournament Play Next Week

No. 1 LSU dropped an SEC Tournament semifinal clash to the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday afternoon at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium after falling 2-0.

But the loss in Hoover (Ala.) hasn't wavered the confidence of the top-ranked Tigers with all focus shifting towards the program set to host next weekend in Baton Rouge.

Jay Johnson addressed the media following Saturday's clash to dive into Saturday's contest and what's next.

Johnson's Take: Tigers Ready for Next Phase of Postseason

Q. How does this tournament, how does this conference prepare you guys for the postseason and the quality opponents you'll face?

JAY JOHNSON: Yeah, I think he said it well; when you look at what is ahead of us, this point forward, we won't see anything we haven't seen from a talent perspective. I thought 15 of the 16 teams could compete to probably go to Omaha this year, and that's because of the talent on the field makes it a very competitive environment.

I think our team, how they handled the schedule, the consistency in which they did, should play with great confidence going forward, and that's what I expect them to do.

Q. First shutout loss for you guys this season. Would you credit more what Ole Miss was doing or are there more concerns as you get ready for postseason play?

JAY JOHNSON: Well, they gave up one on Wednesday, they gave up two yesterday, and they gave up zero today, so they obviously have a formula that works good. We hadn't seen them. I was immediately impressed when I came to their game on Wednesday night at how much better their team has gotten from last year and then throughout this year. It's a credit to those players and the coaching staff there.

I think as Jared said, there's things that we will attack to do better that we can control. Some of it is the opponent, making it difficult. Some of it's baseball, some of it's the day. One of the assistants for Vanderbilt said something to Coach Yeskie about just throw it over the plate today because the ball isn't going anywhere. Maybe that's part of it. I don't think it necessarily was a factor for us. Furniss hit the homer for sure about 20 minutes after he had said that.

But we'll get back to work. It's the only way that I do it and operate.

Q. You mentioned yesterday one of the reasons for pitching Kade and Anthony was to get some other guys opportunities today. Jaden, Chase and Jacob all go out and looked pretty good out there. Did you see what you wanted to from them?

JAY JOHNSON: Oh yeah. Three hits, two runs, that's going to work most of the time for us. I think that's the second time in four years we've been shut out. So credit Ole Miss. Three is usually going to be enough, and I would bet on it being enough, and what a performance by those guys. Really happy with how Jaden -- I thought he took a step forward last week at South Carolina. I thought he took another step forward today against a good team. I thought Chase was outstanding, and Jacob has been working his tail off. Really glad we got that opportunity for him today.

Q. With Chase specifically, how have you seen him improve over the last couple weeks and start to round into form a little bit?

JAY JOHNSON: Yeah, I think he just needed time. I think that -- I say this all the time to our local media, the best coach you're ever going to have in your life is playing time and getting on that mound. Because he's a third-year guy you gorget, I mean, he only threw 18 innings as a freshman before he had the injury and missed all of last year.

I think the best thing we probably did for him was start him and get the innings up and get the experience up and had to grind through some of that, but he did. He's obviously incredibly talented. He's got a great head on his shoulders. We have some experience underneath us. I think that's leading to confidence, confidence, more conviction, more conviction, better pitches, and really excited about that.

Q. You guys haven't struck out that much during this little cold streak, but I think 17 fly-outs in the last 15 innings. Are you guys just getting over the ball a little bit too much? Is that just a product of not quite executing the plan?

JAY JOHNSON: Well, I think it would be a bad answer by me if I generalized it. I think it's a little bit more of a guy-by-guy question. I think there was a situation where we had a couple runners on, and it felt like the game sped up in one at-bat and we expanded the zone and ended up striking out. I think we expanded the zone the very next inning, like with the lead-off we had a 2-1 count, we swung at a ball.

Then we get the guy in the stretch. We had a little tough luck. I put Jake in motion on a 3-2 pitch and Ethan hit a line drive right at the third baseman for a double play. If that goes down the line, it's second and third, no outs, or maybe a run on second and one in, because Jake runs so well.

But yeah, I mean, I would say some guys expanding the zone, some guys missing their pitch, some guys beneath the ball. You can't be beneath the ball when a guy is running it up there 97 miles an hour like that.

I think it's a guy-by-guy thing, and having been through this and faced enough good pitching over 20 plus whatever years of doing this, the most important thing is to remain positive, stay with it, be very detailed, task-oriented in your plans for each of them, and that's what we'll do this week.

Q. Did you get what you wanted out of this, these two games?

JAY JOHNSON: Well, I wanted to win. I really think it's disrespectful and not competitive for anybody to not go for it. We certainly didn't -- we did that. We just would have liked to have scored a few more runs today.

The main goal is the NCAA Tournament, but I feel really good about the three guys that threw today, obviously felt good about what we accomplished with the two pitchers last night.

We had one error in two games, which was a pick-off move. Offensively, no secret, we'll work at being better, and I expect us to be better next Friday.

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