Casan Evans Dazzles as LSU Defeats OU in Game One
David Billiot Jr • March 20, 2026
LSU - 7, Oklahoma - 1
Thursday Night Recap
Casan Evans was “embarrassed” after his performance at Vanderbilt last Friday night. Those aren’t my words, they’re his. The Tiger ace expressed to us after the game just how upset he was with himself following his season-worst outing against the Commodores. He only made it through 3.0 innings, gave up 5 hits, 6 runs, and gave up 6 free passes (5 BB/1 HBP). Evans said that upon returning to Baton Rouge on Monday, it was the first time in his life that he threw a bullpen immediately after getting off of the bus coming home. Jay Johnson also mentioned that the two of them, along with pitching coach Nate Yeskie, spent 3 hours fine-tuning preparation for tonight’s start. Whatever it was that they did, it worked. Evans struck out a career-high 15 hitters, flat out dominating the Sooner lineup. He lived in the zone and had all four of his pitches working. The curveball that he debuted in Omaha last season looked the best that it ever has in a game. If his final line doesn’t fully express how special of a start that was, a relatable comparison will. He is the first LSU pitcher to strike out that many hitters in an SEC game since Paul Skenes did it in May of 2023. That’s pretty good company to be mentioned with.
As for the offense, they were aided by a Oklahoma ace Cam Johnson’s worst start of the year. The former Tiger has been their Friday guy since the preseason and was pretty good through non-conference play during the first four weeks of the season. Some cracks started to show with a rough performance against Texas A&M a week ago, but the floodgates opened on him in his return to Baton Rouge on Thursday night. LSU had built a 4-0 lead in the 2nd inning without recording a single hit. John Pearson’s single to make it 5-0 was the first one of the game for the Tigers. That hit came off of Oklahoma reliever Xander Mercurius, who had just entered the game. Johnson only made it through 1.1 innings, while walking 6 and hitting another batter. Of his 67 pitches thrown, only 28 were for strikes. LSU’s offense went completely silent for four innings after the 2nd, but the damage was already done and it was becoming clearer and clearer with every pitch that Casan Evans threw, he was on his way to a special night.
Pitching
Casan Evans was coming off of his worst outing of the year at Vanderbilt last Friday. He got off to a good start tonight, though, striking out 4 hitter through the first 2 innings. In the 1st, he had to record an extra strikeout, after a dropped third strike got away from Cade Arramide for a 2-out baserunner. Evans followed that up with a 10 pitch 2nd inning thanks to the help of two Trent Caraway put outs and then his 4th K to end the inning. He kept it going in 3rd, starting off with a quick reaction stop on a hard ground ball right back at him. His 5th strikeout was followed by a 2-out single, but Evans quickly recorded a two pitch groundout to end the inning. Efficiency was his best friend through the first three innings with 44 pitches thrown, 29 of which were strikes. His best came in the 4th, striking out the side on 12 pitches and getting fired up in the process. With 2 outs and a 1-2 count, Deiten LaChance tried to slow down Evans’s tempo by talking to the umpire and then stepping in to the box and staring back at the pitch clock to avoid the “eye contact” necessary for a pitcher to start his delivery. Casan threw a nasty and struck him out, anyways, getting fired up and letting LaChance hear about it as he walked off of the mound. That was the first time this season that we’ve seen that intensity from the sophomore ace. It only took 5 innings for Evans to record double digit strikeouts, as his two in the 5th got him up to 10 on only 68 pitches. His scoreless outing finally came to and end in the 6th, despite the fact that he struck out another two. A leadoff single ended up coming around on a throwing error by Zach Yorke. The third and final hit that the Sooners got off of Evans came with 2 outs in the 7th, but that was all. With 95 pitches, he returned to the mound in the 8th and with back to back strikeouts to start the inning, he set his new career high with 15. His previous high was when he struck out 12 in the winner-takes-all game vs Little Rock in the Baton Rouge Regional in 2025. Evans fell behind 3-0 to the third hitter of the inning and nearly battled all the way back, but issued his only walk of the evening and with 110 pitches, his remarkable night came to an end.
Final line: 7.2 IP / 3 hits / 1 run / 15 Ks / 1 BB / 110 pitches (76 strikes, 69%)
Ethan Plog entered to relieve Evans and seemed to be a one batter matchup insertion. He only threw 4 pitches and gave up a single through the infield to put two runners on base with two outs and that was all for him.
Final line: 0.0 IP / 1 hit / 0 runs / 0 Ks / 0 BBs
Coming off of his season best performance at Vanderbilt last Friday, Zac Cowan entered to put the nail in the coffin. He promptly recorded a flyout to end the 8th, then breezed through the 9th on just 9 pitches to record another flyout, a strikeout, and a groundout back to himself to secure the game 1 win for LSU. That’s back to back perfect outings for Cowan, which could be a massive development for the Tiger bullpen.
Final line: 1.1 IP / 0 hits / 0 runs / 1 K / 0 BBs / 11 pitches (8 strikes)
Hitting
It was a weird night for the LSU offense with not a single player carrying the load as far as damage goes, but Omar Serna came away as the most productive Tiger hitter, yet again. Following up his homerun on Tuesday against Grambling, the freshman catcher made his first game 1 start at DH. He doubled, walked, and scored a run to finish 2-3. Jay Johnson has been raving about Serna a lot recently and the signs point to a lot more playing time if he keeps producing in SEC play.
The only other Tiger with multiple hits was John Pearson, who, like Serna, started for the 3+ straight time for the first time in 2026. Pearson was at 3rd base and delivered one of only 5 credited RBI for LSU on Thursday night. The sophomore finished 2-4 and bumped his on base percentage during his three consecutive starts up to .600.
Zach Yorke had the most productive swing of the night when he drove in 2 RBI in the 7th to put the first runs on the board for LSU since the 2nd inning. He had a rough start to his night at the plate, striking out quickly in his first two at bats and leaving 5 runners on base, himself. He came up with the bases loaded and 1 out, following a bad strikeout by Cade Arrambide and with the pressure of not coming through, once again, he delivered. Yorke finished 1-3.
Trent Caraway made his first start since Saturday at Vanderbilt, this one coming at 2nd base as Jay Johnson looked to stack an extra right-handed hitter against LHP Cam Johnson. He finished 1-2 and scored a run, while also drawing 2 walks. His one single was another backside missile to right-center. Although he has had some struggles lately, he has proven the ability to hit the ball hard the other way.
Jake Brown’s barrel has cooled off a bit since Nashville, but as he always does, he finds a way to be productive as the rock in the Tiger lineup. Despite the 0-2 line, he walked three times and scored twice. Through 23 games played, Brown has failed to reach base only once.
Derek Curiel has also come back down to earth after a great opening SEC weekend, but also found a way to contribute like his fellow outfielder. The super sophomore went 1-4 with a walk, RBI, and a run scored.
Up Next
LSU and Oklahoma will return to action for game 2 tomorrow night. First pitch will be at 6:30 pm central, setting up a busy day on campus with the Lady Tiger basketball team set to start their NCAA tournament run at 5 pm central down the street at the PMAC. The Tigers will send Cooper Moore to the mound with his record of 3-2, but coming off of back to back losses to Sacramento St and Vanderbilt. The Sooners will answer with L.J. Mercurius, a junior transfer from UNLV with a record of 4-1 and a 1.59 ERA. Despite filling the game 2 role, Mercurius has been Oklahoma’s best starter, statistically. He has struck out 41 and only walked 8 in 28.1 innings pitched. Thursday night’s victory improved LSU’s record to 16-7 overall (2-2 SEC), while Oklahoma dropped to 17-5 (2-2 SEC). This was the first time that the Sooners have lost consecutive games in 2026 after being shut out by SLU in Hammond on Tuesday 3-0.
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I watched the coaches film of the Lions game and felt some mixed emotions after going through all of the plays. First and foremost, the offensive line has to play much better than what they showed against the Lions given the investment the Saints have made through either draft capital or contractually. The right side in particular was a big reason why the offense struggled to get off to a good start against the Lions as they could neither open lanes in the running game or give Tyler Shough consistent time to throw. Cesar Ruiz was entering the year needing to have a bounce back campaign after how his 2025 season went and his performance against the Lions was not a good start to accomplishing his goal. Taliese Fuaga has been a mixed bag thus far in his young career which is not abnormal for young offensive tackles. Tali had a promising rookie season but followed it up with an up and down sophomore season where he dealt with multiple injuries over the course of the season. He is someone the Saints will have to make a decision on regarding picking up his fifth year option after the season and someone who the Saints need to play well in order to accomplish their goals this season. But I have to give the offense credit because the last 20 or so minutes of the game was fun to watch. Shough was in rhythm from then on and made big time throw after big time throw getting multiple receivers involved. Although as I was watching the game live I could not help but notice it took way too long to get Juwan Johnson on the board. Juwan has had a track record of performances like this before and you would like to see better consistent production from him rather than the all or nothing types of games he has had in the past. I will be curious to see if he gets involved in the passing game much sooner against the Ravens this week which could very well help the offense get off to a better start. Moving on to who I thought was the player of the game, Chris Olave. Olave took a little while to get going in conjunction with the offense but he ultimately did exactly what I thought he would do against Detroit, dominate. Olave took advantage of the Lion’s defensive backs all game long and with their starting safeties being injured Olave beat Detroit down the field for long gains multiple times. If Olave has enough games like this one against the Lions he could very well be in the offensive player of the year conversation when it is all said and done. The only obstacles I could see is his health and if his number of targets drops when Jordyn Tyson returns from his injury. Moving on to the defense, as a whole I thought the defense did a great job against the Lions. Holding them to seven points in the first half was great and even though the scoreboard showed they gave up thirty one points, fourteen of those came from short fields because of turnovers on offense. There was a lot of encouraging play across the defense, Jonas Sanker looked great in the star role and made some impact plays, whether they counted or not. On that note the duel between Chase Young and Penei Sewell did not disappoint as both had their moments throughout the game, with the biggest being Young’s strip sack that was not meant to be according to the officials. All I will say is even after the explanation there is just no way the officials called either Young’s play or all the other strip sacks across the league this weekend correct. Moving on, I would have liked to see Chase Young get more snaps on the opposite edge in what would have been a more favorable matchup for him against the Lions rookie offensive tackle. But not only for the matchup but also just to give the offense a different look so they do not just expect him in the same spot all game long. Speaking of aligning in different spots I thought Brandon Staley did a great job of moving Kaden Elliss around who then to his credit was able to take advantage and have a good game. However, an area of concern did rear its ugly head in this game which did not come as a surprise. The defensive line did not do a nearly good enough job stopping the run against the Lions. The Saints used a rotation of players along the defensive line throughout the game to try and keep players fresh which is a philosophy I believe in but with some older veterans in the mix I believe it would be in the Saints best interest moving forward to limit their snaps in favor of players like Vernon Broughton and Christen Miller. Vernon and Christen’s development would help raise the ceiling of the defense and improve the long term outlook on the defensive side of the ball. I expect the Saints to use more resources to shore up the defensive line when we get to the offseason but in the meantime the Saints will have to figure out how to get the best out of who they have on the roster. Overall I am concerned about the slow starts, the Saints and Kellen Moore have had enough of them now to where it is starting to look like a legitimate issue moving forward. If the Saints are to improve their chances against the best teams in the league they will have to be more productive early on in those games. I believe the slow starts can be fixed by Kellen Moore and the offense but I am not so sure the Saints have the answer to playing the run better on defense currently. But with those concerns I saw plenty of positives like Jonas Sanker settling in nicely to the Star role, Kaden Elliss being a versatile piece for the defense, Chase Young having a great battle with Penei Sewell, Shough and Olave connecting time after time on key plays. There is plenty for the Saints to improve on but after watching the tape they appear to be starting from a much better spot this season than in season’s past.
We’re a couple weeks into the college football season and here are some players I have been keeping an eye on as well as some buzz I have been hearing but have not yet watched. The list will have both draft eligible players and non draft eligible players who have been making a name for themselves thus far in the season. Malachi Toney - WR - Miami Malachi Toney burst onto the scene as a freshman last year with a 109 reception, 1,211 yard, 10 TD campaign and he has continued his dominance into his sophomore season. He is currently third in receiving yards in the country with 330 yards. Toney has been a human highlight reel with his route running, shaking defenders with ease leading to massive separation from those trying to cover him. He’s been a fun watch and if you are not watching Miami games you will most likely see a highlight of his going viral on social media as you are scrolling through your feed. Jadan Baugh - RB - Florida Jaden Baugh is a grown man when he runs the ball and should not be as graceful as he is given his 6 '1 225 pound frame. Baugh has gotten off to an absurd start to the season by rushing for 296 yards on just 28 carries resulting in a yards per carry over ten as well as finding the end zone five times. Baugh has been popping up on my feed with long runs featuring great cut backs and jump cuts to weave through defenders. Baugh was on my list for top running back prospects entering the season and has backed it up thus far. Kamario Taylor - QB - Mississippi State Kamario Taylor is a sophomore who has been seeing increasing buzz with each week. Taylor has been creating some intriguing highlights due to some of the best, new arm strength being shown at the QB position in college. The velocity he can throw with is at an elite level which forces evaluators to pay attention. But his arm strength is not the only trait to be excited about, Taylor has a 6’4 230 pound frame paired with a good ability to run the ball as well. He is someone to keep an eye on as Taylor has all the physical tools to succeed long term. Princewill Umanmielin - Edge - LSU Princewill is a senior, the younger brother of Panthers edge rusher Princely Umanmielen, and looks to be the next member of the family tree heading towards a career in the NFL. Princewill has the build of a long, lean, relentless edge rusher who can win his matchup in a variety of ways including speed around the corner, a spin move, the arm over, etc. He is currently leading college football in sacks with five on the season. Leading the country in sacks while playing in the SEC is quite an accomplishment and we’ll see if he can keep his pace as LSU enters conference play against Ole Miss this weekend. Kingston Lopa - DB - Cal Cal has been quietly producing some NFL caliber defensive backs the past couple of years such as Nohl Williams, and Hezekiah Masses. Sophomore Kingston Lopa is quickly making a case to be the next in line. Lopa’s physical attributes for the position is an outlier as he is listed at 6’5 210 pounds. But he is not just a physical presence on the field, he is showing he has the ball skills and a knack for finding the ball. Kopa currently leads college football in interceptions with four on the year already. A defensive back with the size and ball skills he possesses will be a no brainer for evaluators as someone to keep an eye on. Lamont Lester Jr. - Edge - Colorado Lamont is listed 6’2 230 pounds so he is on the smaller side for an NFL edge rusher but he is showing some good athleticism, motor, and active hands in the early parts of the season. He picked up three sacks against Georgia Tech and won with speed around an offensive tackle, finishing a pressure his teammate created, then with active hands to shoot inside for his last sack. With his skillset Lester will be someone worth keeping an eye on throughout the season as someone who could potentially make an impact at the next level. Drew Mestemaker - QB - Oklahoma State Drew has been on my radar since last season as he was part of the PFF darling trio at North Texas last season. Mestemaker has good size for the position being listed at 6’3 215 pounds. He got off to a rough start against Tulsa in week one but turned it around in week two by pulling off what many see as the upset of the week by beating the sixth ranked Oregon Ducks. Drew was able to outduel another big QB prospect in Dante Moore by making some big time throws throughout the game and orchestrating scoring drive after scoring drive against a talented Oregon defense. While there is a chance he comes out for the draft this season he is presumed to be more in the 2028 conversation. Regardless of his draft status, Drew and Oklahoma State could be a fun team to follow this season.