What He Said: LSU Baseball's Kade Anderson Dissects Game 1 Win Over West Virginia

LSU's Kade Anderson continued a strong 2025 season on Saturday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field after lifting the Tigers to a Game 1 win over West Virginia.

Anderson (10-1) earned the win on the mound for LSU, working 7.0 innings and allowing seven runs – six earned – on nine hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

Anderson fired 113 pitches on a sweltering afternoon with the index soaring above 100 degrees.

“Proud of Kade for gutting through that; that was not easy,” Johnson said. “I think everybody that was watching the game can attest that watching the game wasn’t easy. So giving everything he had on every pitch was awesome.”

What He Said: Anderson, Derek Curiel and Josh Pearson's Take on the Win

Q. Derek, moving into the 7 hole today, clearly that didn't faze you at all with the five RBIs. What was different about the lineup change for you, and what do you think sparked your bat today?

DEREK CURIEL: Nothing was different, to be honest. I just approached the game how we approach the game all the time. Me, personally, whether I'm batting first, second, seventh, just trying to go up there and do my job. And felt like I executed that well today. And that was just the plan.

Q. Kade, just taking that ball off the arm there, kind of walk us through it. Because it looked like you actually got better afterwards, which was a little surprising?

KADE ANDERSON: Just got hit and there's no reason to make an excuse out of it. And I thought that there's no excuse and just keep going.

Q. You started 10 games at the Box and your team went 10-0. What does that mean to you?

KADE ANDERSON: Confidence in our team. An outing like today where I gave up a lot of runs, my guys had my back. I think that's the definition of a true team, when you need to pick someone else up when someone else isn't doing too good. I believe in our guys, and just proud of them.

Q. Josh, talk about the process of learning that not only were you going to be in the lineup today but you were going to be hitting lead-off. What goes into that mentality? How are you preparing for that? And obviously great performance today, what goes into that actually when you get on to the field?

JOSH PEARSON: Yeah, really nothing changes. Every day I kind of show up to the field as if I would be in the lineup at some part of the lineup. And I mean showing up today, Coach texted me last night and told me I'd be in it. I came today and got ready to go. And saw my name was in the lead-off spot, and I knew I had a job to do and had to get the job done.

Q. To build off of that, and Derek can speak about this as well, being in and out of the rotation, not having maybe the consistent amount of starts for the postseason, but to be ready for your moment kind of thing, what goes into that mindset? And then Derek maybe can speak to how impressive and important that is to just have those guys always be ready in those moments.

JOSH PEARSON: Yeah, I mean, we have a really deep team this year. I feel like we have guys who will play in the big leagues who don't start every day. Just kind of knowing that, showing up every day ready to go, like, we have guys who are ready to pinch-hit at any point in the game, ready to go in and execute on the mound.

I think that's what makes a great team is guys kind of owning their role and whatever their role is for that day, and not bringing, like, past failure with them into future at-bats and stuff like that.

DEREK CURIEL: Super proud of Josh. Josh has been a leader on this team since day one, since I've gotten here. He kind of taught me the ropes. And I look up to him a lot.

Two years ago, last year, watching him on TV, I wanted to be his teammate. I wanted to be his friend. He's been like a brother to me. I'm so happy to see him succeed. I wish nothing but the best for him.

Same thing with Larson, Jake, Ethan Frey, they probably all got spot starts. Some of them are owning their role. And I feel like they've all capitalized on it. I'm super proud of them. This is a deep team, and I think it just fuels us. And I'm super happy for all my guys.

Q. Kade, what kind of challenges did the WVU lineup give you today?

KADE ANDERSON: I felt it wasn't necessarily them. I wasn't commanding the fastball and working off of that as well. Fell into a rhythm for a little bit, but they put up a couple good at-bats. I don't think it was them; it was just me not making the pitches when I had to.

Q. Kade, you just mentioned the rhythm you sort of got yourself into, and obviously you had a ton of run support, but there were two long layoffs. How much did that affect things and affected your rhythm?

KADE ANDERSON: I don't think it affected it at all. As a pitcher you go through those all the time. It's how you bounce back from those. It's a part of what we do.

Q. Josh, there's not a ton of postseason experience on this team, and Coach mentioned you guys had a meeting after the regionals about the lessons you learned from the regional round. How did you all implement those lessons into this game, and how will you implement those and whatever's next?

JOSH PEARSON: Yeah, this team does a really good job of taking it one pitch at a time. When we're out on the field, there's no difference in the game today versus opening day. It's still baseball. It's the same game we've played our whole entire life.

It's just guys realizing that, realizing that the moment will never be as big as they make it be, I guess. And just kind of attacking this opportunity. I mean, it's a lot of fun playing in front of 12,000 people every day and kind of making the most of it.

Q. Josh, their pitcher, obviously the goal is to get the starting pitcher out of there, but he left earlier than expected. It was very hot out there; you could attest to that. Were you surprised you guys could get to the bullpen as quickly as you did?

JOSH PEARSON: We did our best to make him work like teams hadn't done all year. Just make him go out there and throw as many pitches as he can every inning. We knew it would be hot, so we knew he wouldn't go out there every inning if we kept putting his back on the wall. We did a really good job of that today and got him out and got to their bullpen early.

Q. Coach Johnson talks about how you've been so clutch throughout your career here at LSU. This will be your last weekend at the Box. Hitting a grand slam, what did it mean to you?

JOSH PEARSON: It's been awesome. These have been the most fun four years of my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm going to miss the Box. I'm going to playing in the Box, but we still have one game tomorrow. Going to make the most of it for sure.

Q. Derek, the plate approach today, you guys seem to be getting on top of the plate but also being patient, like Josh said. How important was that to kind of have a good approach and see everything coming at you?

DEREK CURIEL: Pitcher was good. Obviously they're a great team. They're here for a reason. I feel like we stuck to our plan well today. The hitters, lefties, we got on top of the plate, made them throw it over the plate. The righties did a good job of letting the ball travel.

I feel we stuck to our plan today. And when we do that, I think we're pretty tough to beat. So hopefully we continue doing that.

Q. Derek, you guys were getting no-hit up until your home run. What did you see in that at-bat and what did you see maybe in your first at-bat that you adjusted to in your second?

DEREK CURIEL: Heater in, sliders away. And he threw me two fastballs, low and in, I took them. I saw the ball kind of tunnelling down, and 2-0. I saw the slider pop. And it looked big to me, so I went to go swing at it and put a good swing on it.

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