After a rocky trip to Austin, LSU baseball bounced back at home this weekend by sweeping Mississippi State.
The Tigers earned close victories on Thursday and Friday — 8-6 and 2-1, respectively — before the bats came alive on Saturday night in a 17-8 win.
Here are five takeaways from the series.
Have Zac Cowan and Casan Evans filled the Griffin Herring role?
Junior right-hander Zac Cowan and freshman right-hander Casan Evans have undoubtedly been LSU's top relievers through three weekends of Southeastern Conference play.
The two have combined to allow just two earned runs in 20⅔ innings against SEC competition. They've struck out 32 batters and have only surrendered six walks (five of those have come from Evans).
Their dominance hasn't come in short spurts either. Like Griffin Herring a year ago, Evans and Cowan are shutting down opposing offenses over multiple innings.
Cowan threw four shutout frames on Thursday before Evans matched that line on Friday. Evans also tossed 3⅔ innings last Sunday against Texas while Cowan had three shutout frames in the series opener against the Longhorns.
What about the rest of the bullpen?
It wasn't as ugly as last Saturday against Texas, but LSU's bullpen — outside of Cowan and Evans — still had its fair share of struggles against Mississippi State.
LSU pitcher Zac Cowan (26) delivers a pitch against Mississippi State in the sixth inning on Thursday, March 27, 2025 at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The group surrendered five earned runs in 5⅔ innings, allowing four hits, walking seven batters and hitting three others.
Johnson turned to six different pitchers within that group: Junior right-hander Connor Benge (twice), freshman right-hander Mavrick Rizy, junior left-hander Conner Ware, redshirt sophomore left-hander DJ Primeaux, freshman left-hander Cooper Williams and redshirt sophomore right-hander Jaden Noot.
The best performance among them came from Noot who tossed two shutout innings. After starting LSU's last two midweek games, he has surrendered just two earned runs over his last nine innings of work. His ERA dropped to 3.07 after Saturday's quality performance.
"Whatever coach has for me, that's what I'm going to do," Noot said at around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning. "... So I don't get caught up in roles."
Noot's strong form, combined with a healthy Gavin Guidry and junior left-hander Conner Ware, could be enough for Johnson to bridge the gap between the back half of his bullpen and Cowan/Evans.
But LSU needs a healthy Guidry for that to happen. The junior right-hander was once again listed as out on Saturday's SEC availability report.
"We've won a lot of games in three whatever years here and he's been a big, big part of a lot of those wins," Johnson said on March 6. "So we need to get him back, which is why we have to do this right."
Saturday's lineup tweak
Since its trip to Frisco/Arlington, LSU had used the same lineup structure in every game leading up to Saturday.
But Johnson mixed things up a tad for the series finale. He moved sophomore Steven Milam into the clean up spot and had junior Ethan Frey hit fifth in the order.
When Frey has started, he's almost exclusively batted fourth against a left-handed pitcher. But his start on Saturday came in a new spot in the lineup and against a right-hander.
Senior Josh Pearson and sophomore Jake Brown have been LSU's regulars against righties. With Brown in right field on Saturday, Pearson was moved to the bench.
Frey played well despite the change, going 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Milam also contributed as the No. 4 hitter, cracking a double and driving in two runs.
LSU scored 17 runs on 19 hits on Saturday. Perhaps Johnson will stick with the tweak moving forward.
A step forward for Anthony Eyanson?
Friday was easily Anthony Eyanson's best start in SEC play. The junior right-hander didn't allow an earned run in five innings.
After struggling to get through Missouri and Texas' lineups a second time, Eyanson allowed just two singles in the fourth inning and had six strikeouts in the fourth and fifth frames against Mississippi State.
He had a crisp fastball to start his outing — it was up to 96 mph — and then worked in his off-speed pitches more as the night went along.
"Worked on (the fastball) a lot in the fall, winter time," Eyanson said Friday. "It's been a big emphasis for me, making that pitch better."
Eyanson's fastball has lost velocity the deeper he's gone into starts. But if he can locate his unique splitter, strong slider and curveball consistently — especially later in outings — he'll have more outings like the one he had on Friday.
Derek Curiel's ridiculous streak
Freshman Derek Curiel's on-base streak is still alive, as he's reached base in all 29 games this season.
He nearly lost the streak on Friday after needing an eighth inning single to keep it going. He quickly dispelled any possibility of losing it on Saturday when he went 2-for-4 with a pair of walks.
Before the series finale, Curiel had a .550 on-base percentage and a .404 batting average. The California native has reached base in 59 of his last 103 plate appearances, including the series finale.
"Very few guys have the talent, the skill and the mental game to be ready to do what he's doing," Johnson said at his radio show Monday. "And he's got all those things."
