Coach Jay Johnson has experienced a rare luxury throughout the 2024 college baseball season. With several LSU baseball freshman contributors making immediate impacts on the team, theyâve been a major reason for the Tigers making the NCAA Tournament, and theyâll likely need to continue making strides if this team is to go even further.
LSU baseball freshman contributors have been key for coach Jay Johnson all season in 2024
There was plenty of unknown for coach Jay Johnson and the Tigers heading into the 2024 college baseball season. Needing to nearly completely rebuild his lineup, there was plenty of potential in terms of what the squad could do, but there was truly no saying what heâd be able to get out of them.
Unfortunately, things looked fairly rough early on, and it seemed as though this was going to be just another case of a program falling off immediately following a College World Series Championship run.
With that said, the purple and gold somehow managed to turn things around in a major way, and have most recently found themselves as a No. 2 seed in the regional round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Notably, many of those new pieces have proven to play a significant role in that accomplishment, and more specifically, the LSU baseball freshman class may have been the difference maker.
âIâm really pleased with that,â the Tiger head coach began when asked about his talented group of freshmen. âItâs a game thatâs pretty important for us with where weâre trying to go and what weâre trying to accomplish, and we have three of them in the lineup. I think maybe A&M has two in there on a daily basis, but I donât think anybody has three, and Jake [Brown]âs kind of been in and out, but weâre rolling with Ashton [Larson] and Steven [Milam].â
At this point, ârollingâ doesnât even begin to describe what outfielder Ashton Larson and second baseman Steven Milam have done for coach Jay Johnson and the Tiger baseball program in 2024. Recording a .305 and .328 batting average, respectively, to go along with a combined 104 hits, 51 RBIs and nine homeruns, itâs pretty safe to say that the purple and gold wouldnât be where they are today if it werenât for the electric duo.
Furthermore, with fellow LSU baseball freshman outfielder Jake Brown building up his consistency of late â recording a .305 batting average and 37 putouts over the course of the season â the future is looking brighter and brighter for the Tigers with each game they play.
âTheyâve got a lot of potential. I like the skills that they have. They are very wheelhouse players for me â is what I call them, and weâre gonna have a lot of fun developing those guys here in this postseason run weâre gonna have and for the next couple years.â
As if those three werenât enough, left-handed pitcher Kade Anderson has proven to be a worthy pitcher out of the bullpen for the Tigers, most recently getting some run in the 2024 SEC Tournament against South Carolina (36-23) and Tennessee (50-11), where he totaled one hit and three strikeouts in five batters faced.
While you never want to be relying solely on a group of freshmen, particularly at this point in the season, it never hurts to have a group you can trust, especially when you consider the experience theyâre about to receive heading into the remainder of their college careers.
Weâll soon get another opportunity to see what this group of first-year players can do later today, as the Tigers will get the Chapel Hill Regional started this morning against Wofford at 11:00 a.m. CST. The game will take place in Bryson Field at Boshamer Stadium and will be available to watch live on ESPNU/ESPN+.
Thank you for reading LSU Glory. For more LSU Glory content, covering all things LSU athletics, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. For feedback, questions, concerns, or to apply for a writing position, please email us at lsuglory.fr@gmail.com or direct message us on our Twitter account. It is thanks to your support that we can continue to grow into one of the fastest-growing and most influential LSU media outlets there is.
