LSU baseball: Why Jay Johnson said starting Paul Skenes vs. Tulane wasn't a tough decision

BATON ROUGE – Jay Johnson made a surprising decision on Friday.

LSU's baseball coach started ace Paul Skenes in the Tigers' 7-2 win over Tulane to open the Baton Rouge Regional on Friday. And it was not what LSU fans expected would happen.

"He's the best pitcher in college baseball. We're now in postseason play. And felt really good about what he could do today and impact us winning the game," Johnson said on why he started Skenes. "And he definitely did that."

The surprising aspect of the decision has nothing to do with how good Skenes is. He's been beyond dominant this year, as he allowed just two earned runs in a complete game against the Green Wave on Friday.

But with No. 4 seed Tulane being one of the weaker four seeds in the NCAA Tournament after making the Big Dance with a 19-40 record and a potentially crucial matchup against No. 2 Oregon State or No. 3 Sam Houston on Saturday, many figured that Skenes would start on Saturday and that Thatcher Hurd would get the ball against the Green Wave.

However, in Johnson's mind, the decision to start Skenes wasn't a difficult one at all, even if he does admit that he considered starting someone else other than him on Friday. Skenes had found out he was starting a few days beforehand.

"It was actually not a hard decision when you dig into it the way we dug into it," Johnson said.

What Johnson and pitching coach Wes Johnson likely found when they dug into the positives of starting Skenes was the extra rest he could afford the bullpen.

Skenes isn't the most efficient pitcher but he regularly goes six or seven innings into games. And in a regional where the Tigers could be playing up to five games in four days, any potential extra rest for the bullpen should be welcomed.

"Obviously, it's really cool to go out there and compete for as long as I can," Skenes said. "But I think we're going to benefit more from it the next couple of days than the win today."

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However, the Johnsons probably didn't expect Skenes to go the distance for the first time this season. Because he had thrown just 88 pitches against Arkansas at the SEC Tournament and had an extra day of rest this week, Johnson felt comfortable with Skenes finishing the game himself despite ending the outing with the most pitches he's thrown in a game all year at 124.

"We've been very deliberate about what games he's gone into that hundred range and what games he came out before that. And the only decision was Travinski going to hit a grand slam and put us up nine," Johnson said. "And with a long inning, we probably wouldn't have sent him back out there. But no way were we messing around. And Wes came to me in the eighth, started talking -- I was like, no, he's going back out. He's got the first three hitters."

LSU heads to the winner's bracket and will face the winner of Oregon State and Sam Houston with its entire bullpen available and, likely, Ty Floyd on the mound. LSU fans can argue with Johnson's decision as much as they'd like, but it has worked so far.

Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball: Jay Johnson on starting Paul Skenes vs. Tulane