LSU Defeats Southeastern 8-3 in 12-Inning Fall Ball Exhibition
Photo courtesy of LSU Athletics/LSU Baseball
The Storylines:
The final fall exhibition is now in the books for Jay Johnson’s squad. It all started 2 weeks ago when the Tigers traveled to Biloxi and took 3 out of 4 against Samford, including mashing their way offensively to 23 combined runs over 13 innings played on Saturday. Then, the Tigers hosted Troy last Sunday and took both 9 inning contests, with the first victory coming via a walkoff single hit by Notre Dame transfer Bino Watters. While a few intrasquad scrimmages remain, Friday night was the last time we would get to see LSU take on an opposing team until the season begins in February.
The Southeastern Lions made the trip from Hammond to Baton Rouge to take on the Tigers on a chilly November Friday night in The Box. We got to see 12 innings of action Friday night, with the Tigers prevailing by a final score of 8-3. It was a good night overall for the LSU pitching staff, holding the Lions to only 3 runs over 12 innings without using some of their best arms like Casan Evans, William Schmidt, and Landon Hood. The Tiger offense did look a little bit sluggish and slow at times during the game, especially during the middle innings. There were some nice contributions made though, with the biggest swing of the night coming from Tulane transfer Jason Wachs, who hit a solo bomb in the bottom of the 8th. In the time we got to spend with Coach Johnson after the game, he mentioned how Wachs was going through a little bit of a swing adjustment recently that will take time to get used to, but the early returns show good signs.
Now, let’s go a little bit deeper into everything we saw on Friday night.
Pitching:
Cooper Williams- The lefty got the start on the mound and threw 2 scoreless innings. 5 of the 6 outs he recorded came on ground balls, with 3 groundball outs in the 1st followed by a double play in the 2nd. Johnson said after the game that he was very pleased with the outing from Williams. Coming into 2026, most people expected Williams to be one of the top left-handed arms on the staff after a solid freshman campaign. While things didn’t work out the way he wanted, Johnson believes Williams can use that to his benefit in 2027.
Jonah Aase- Aase was the pitcher of the night and looked very impressive in his 2 scoreless frames. 4 of his 6 outs came by way of strikeout, which included striking out the side in order in the 4th. Aase was very sharp and used a lot of offspeed during his outing. He didn’t pitch at all last year recovering from Tommy John, but he has looked really good in his action on the mound this Fall.
Kolby Stringer- I saw Stringer pitch last Friday and he was spectacular. His performance this Friday wasn’t as good, as he gave up 2 runs in 1.2 innings. The night started shaky for Stringer, giving up a walk, a double, a 2 RBI double, and a hit by pitch to the first 4 he faced. He did a great job bouncing back by striking out the side in the 5th before giving up 2 more singles in the 6th and being taken out with 2 outs in the inning. Stringer shot up draft boards late in the High School season before coming to Baton Rouge. He was the #1 RHP in the state of Mississippi coming out of High School.
Ethan Plog- Came in with 2 outs in the 6th and walked the first batter he faced before recording a big strikeout to get out of the inning, stranding the bases loaded. In the 7th, Plog would give up a double and walk 2 with 2 outs before getting a ground ball to strand the bases loaded for the 2nd inning in a row. Johnson said after the game that his relievers need to do a better job of retiring the first batter they face, but he was glad that Plog battled.
Bradon Wisener- Wisener struck out the side in the 8th, working around 2 walks. The freshman righty from Huffman, Texas got up to 95 mph.
Zion Theophilus- Theophilus pitched the 9th and the 10th. He would give up a double and an RBI single in the 9th before retiring the side in order in the 10th. Theophilus is a Sophomore who pitched 16.1 innings as a Freshman in 2026 with a 4.96 ERA.
Kaden Smith- Smith pitched the 11th, striking out 2 and hitting a batter before recording a flyout to end the inning. Smith has good stuff, getting up to 95-96 mph with good offspeed offerings. He just needs to get better with command, which can be a struggle for him at times.
Jordan Martinez- Martinez is a Freshman 2-way player and was very good in the 12th, striking out the side. Martinez was throwing up to 96 mph and Southeastern could seemingly never catch up to it.
Hitting:
There were times during the game where the offense didn’t do much, but they still put up 8 runs on the night, with some help from some Southeastern defensive miscues. Wachs had the biggest hit of the night, but he wasn’t the only contributor. Steven Milam drove in 2 with a single while Omar Serna drove in a run with a single of his own. Bino Watters had 2 singles with Eddie Yamin, Cade Kurland, Lucas Nawrocki, and John Pearson all finishing with hits as well.
A few points of emphasis here. In 2026, the Tigers didn’t have much outfield depth behind Derek Curiel, Jake Brown, and Chris Stanfield, who all dealt with injuries at some point during the 2026 season. Depth should not be a concern in 2027. The top 2 guys in Fall Ball seem to be transfers in Bino Watters and Angel Laya, but Wachs is a talented transfer in his own right. He’s a solid hitter that plays good defense out in Center Field. It doesn’t just stop with the transfers though, as you have returners like William Patrick along with very talented freshmen like Nate Davis-Cleary, Malachi Washington, and Dominic Santarelli. This Fall has been all about competition for LSU and I expect that to continue into 2027 with an outfield that is much deeper than it was a year ago.
Also, I know I keep saying it, but I really like what I see out of Jack Ruckert. Ruckert has been very consistent at the plate this Fall and in more at-bats tonight, he drove in 2 RBIs off of 1 base hit and then he hit another ball just shy of the warning track that came close to being another Homerun. 2026 was without a doubt extremely disappointing for the Tigers, but Jay Johnson has said before that one benefit of it is that it allowed younger guys like Ruckert to get valuable playing time in SEC play. With the way Ruckert is performing right now, that playing time along with the development that occurs from Year 1 to Year 2 could pay off in 2027.
Lastly, Johnson said after the game that this offense is nowhere near playing to the standard that he desires for his Baseball team. The fact is that this offense has a lot more growing to do. The positive in that is that they have still put up a good amount of runs over these past couple of weeks. They put up 23 on one Saturday in Biloxi against Samford, followed that up with 19 runs over 18 innings against Troy, and then capped it off with 8 more Friday night. This offense hasn’t even scratched the surface of their full potential. That truth combined with what they’ve already done over these fall exhibitions should give Tiger fans hope for what the true potential of this team could be.
Final Thoughts and What’s Next:
It’s been great watching this team over the last few weeks finally get out there and compete a little bit. Yes, this team certainly still has work to do, especially offensively, but this has given Jay Johnson and his staff a good idea of where his team is at and what they need to work on before they take the field in February. The next intrasquad scrimmage will be Sunday at 12:30 in The Box. The scrimmage is open to the public.
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