JOURNAL SPORTS

BATON ROUGE – Just when pitching problems were rising on the list of concerns for LSU baseball in its recent swoon, Casan Evans delivered a masterpiece Thursday night.

The sophomore right-hander fired a career-high 15 strikeouts to lead unranked LSU to a 7-1 victory over No. 7 Oklahoma in Alex Box Stadium.

After losing six of its last 10, LSU improved to 16-7 overall, 2-2 in the SEC, while Oklahoma dropped to 17-5 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

The teams resume the series at 6:30 this evening in a game that will be streamed on SEC Network +.

Entering the night with a 6.52 ERA and not having lasted more than 5.1 innings in any of his five previous starts this spring, Evans (2-0) had total command of the Sooners. He limited Oklahoma to one unearned run on three hits in 7.2 innings with one walk and 15 strikeouts. The 15 punchouts represented the most by an LSU pitcher in an SEC regular-season game since May 5, 2023, when Paul Skenes recorded 15 strikeouts at Auburn.

Evans’ outing marked the longest of his career, and he threw 110 pitches, 76 for strikes.

“Casan is a tremendous pitcher and a tremendous competitor,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “I don’t think we’ve lost too many games when he’s taken the mound for us. He’s an absolute winner, one of the best pitchers in the country, and what’s awesome is the best is yet to come for him.”

LSU grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when catcher Cade Arrambide drew a bases-loaded walk.

The Tigers expanded the margin to 5-0 in the second inning by taking advantage of three Oklahoma errors, and third baseman John Pearson delivered an RBI single.

The Sooners scored an unearned run in the sixth, but LSU added two runs in the seventh when first baseman Zach Yorke lined a two-RBI single.