BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — This year’s LSU pitching staff looks vastly different than it did during head coach Jay Johnson’s first year at the helm.
When Johnson took over, he had just four left-handed pitchers on the roster and at times only had one reliable left-handed arm in the 2022 season. Flash forward to today, Johnson has 10 southpaws on his fall 2023 roster, including one of the nation’s top left-handed pitching prospects and freshman Cam Johnson.
Along with adding Cam Johnson, LSU’s 2023 signing class features four other southpaws: Kade Anderson, the No. 2 overall player in 2023 class in Lousiana by Perfect Game, Jake Brown, the No. 1 ranked overall player in Lousiana by Perfect Game, Gage Jump, who transferred to LSU after playing two seasons at UCLA, and Justin Loer, who transferred to LSU after spending two seasons at Xavier.
Needless to say, the Tigers like their pitching talent.
“I think all four of those guys will blend well with the returning pitchers that we have to form a really, really good pitching staff,” Johnson said. “I think that if you ask me on paper, I believe that will be the strength of our team.”
“Well, no disrespect to right-handers, but you can never have enough left-handers,” said LSU pitching coach Nate Yeskie. “And my track record with being fortunate enough to be in the dugout with left-handers over the years, they’ve kind of paved the way with the success. I think there’s some different things that are unique that they possess certainly to offset some of the better left-handed bats who maybe didn’t necessarily get to face those guys in high school. So, now it’s a different look for them.”
LSU will formally begin its 45-day fall practice window on Oct. 5 and will have its first scrimmage on Nov. 5 against McNeese State.
