With the 2025 season hanging in the balance heading into Monday’s elimination game against Little Rock, LSU baseball head coach Jay Johnson made a change to his lineup for the first time during this NCAA Tournament.
Amid struggles at the plate, slugger Jared Jones moved from second to sixth while Ethan Frey, the team’s leading hitter, stepped into the two-hole.
Coupled with continued strong at-bats from the top of the lineup, the Tigers put the pieces together in the nick of time, coming from behind to beat the Trojans 10-6 and win the Baton Rouge Regional.
“You take a risk when you have a lot to gain,” Johnson said. “We had a chance to play a Super Regional at home, two wins to go to Omaha, seven more to win a national championship, maybe eight. It was time to take a risk.”
Derek Curiel remained in the leadoff spot and worked two walks while Frey followed with four hits, four RBI and two walks. Johnson praised both for their efforts in crunch time along with Steven Milam, who Johnson said put together the best at-bats of his career.
“He’s [Curiel’s] the engine of this offense and how he plays inspires the team,” Johnson said.
“And then, its Ethan Frey, one of the best hitters in the country right now,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he wanted to get Frey as many at-bats as possible.
“I wanted them to feel the pressure immediately with [Frey] stepping in the batter’s box,” Johnson said.
With Milam, Johnson felt good about the quality of his at-bats throughout the regional.
“His at-bats this weekend were him as his best player. He will play baseball for a very long time if he takes the caliber of at-bats that he has,” Johnson said.
When discussing moving Jones to the six hole, Johnson said he wanted Jones to have the advantage of hitting lower in the order. At six, Jones has the chance to sneak up on pitchers.
“On the best teams that I’ve had, that six-hole guy, after you’re having to work through the top five and all those guys doing their job, sometimes they can get forgotten about a little bit. Or the pitcher lets up just a little bit. And I wanted to kind of give Jared that advantage,” Johnson said.
The change paid off with LSU scoring 10 runs. Now, LSU turns its attention to the Baton Rouge Super Regional vs. West Virginia, beginning on Saturday.
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