2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 56
Photos by Savanna Orgeron
There are always plenty of storylines going into any
opening day, but this year, one stood above them all; a new
era in Baton Rouge began as Jay Johnson coached his first
game for LSU.
The game started with legendary former LSU Coach
Paul Mainieri throwing out the first pitch to Johnson which
felt like a literal passing of the torch. Mainieri spent the
previous 15 years coaching the Tigers and led them to a
National Championship in the 2009 season. This would
leave big shoes to fill for any coach stepping into this
position, but Johnson from the day he was hired knew and
embraced the expectations and challenges that come with
being the head baseball coach at LSU.
The game itself went as many expected. LSU dominated;
the offense came alive late and Blake Money proved he
has what it takes to be the Friday night starter, pitching
seven shutout innings and striking out 10 batters. Johnson
was lauded by many for what he did with the roster in the
offseason, and that had a major effect on the offensive
performance tonight. JUCO transfer Brayden Jobert opened
the scoring with an absolue bomb of a solo home run in the
fourth inning and finished 2-2 with two RBIs on the night.
Jobert was one of many new faces expected to bolster LSU’s
offense and tonight was just a small taste of what may be to
come from the Sophomore out of Slidell.
“I was just glad to get an opportunity,” Jobert said, having
entered the game as a replacement for the injured Cade
Beloso. “Fortunately for me it ended up as a homerun, but
I’m very fortunate to have that opportunity and I’m very
glad we came out with a win.”
It is never a good idea to over-analyze a college baseball
team’s opening night performance, but when it’s the first
game under a new coach, fans are eager to have all their
questions answered on night one. There is not a whole lot
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that can be gathered from LSU beating up on an objectively
bad Maine team, but this game was the culmination of the
last eight months that Johsnon has spent shaping this team
and program in his image.
Ever since Skip Bertman took over in 1984 and turned
LSU into a powerhouse, the program has had the winning
DNA and mentality it takes to compete at the highest level.
From Bertman to Mainieri, LSU remained a powerhouse, so
an overhaul of the program was not what LSU was looking
for. However, finding a coach who can step into a situation
with immense pressure like LSU and keep things going
while running the program his own way is not easy to find
and Johnson’s work this offseason had fans excited that
LSU found that coach in Johnson.
From his work in the transfer portal, to signing the No. 1
recruiting class, Johnson proved his work ethic behind the
scenes early, and the only thing fans were still waiting to
see was the performance of his team. This in itself brings
pressure, and that could be felt as the game featured little
action going into the bottom of the fourth inning. In
the bottom of the fourth however, Jobert’s homerun got
the party started for the Tigers and the rest of the game
personified the excitement and promise that came from
Johnson’s first offseason in Baton Rouge.
“It was awesome,” Johnson said, talking about how it felt
to finally make his debut.
The next national championship is hardly built in one
game, but this game was the perfect opportunity for the big
ball of excitement created by the offseason to finally burst.
Bertman and Manieri both joined Johnson on the field
before the game and the result and performance from the
team was one that very much fit the standard set by those
two men.