Tigers Add Two Transfer Pitchers

Jay Johnson’s getting to work

If there’s any kind of drawback to being in the College World Series championship series, is you can’t work the portal because you’re too busy doing silly things like “winning a national title.” But now that that’s out of the way, Portal King Jay Johnson and his staff is finally catching up to the rest of the country and have added two left-handed arms.

The Tigers are welcoming in Danny Lachenmayer, formerly of North Dakota State, and Ryler Smart who spent this past season with Tennessee.

Lachenmayer actually pitched against LSU this season. The Tigers welcomed the Bison to Alex Box Stadium for two games, and Lachenmayer pitched in the March 4 game that LSU won 11-9. In that outing, Lachenmayer pitched 1.2 innings and allowed two runs, a hit, walked one, and struck out three.

As a true freshman in 2025, Lachenmayer pitched 38 innings for North Dakota State posting a 2.37 ERA and was credited with nine saves. Lachenmayer struck out 56 against 18 walks and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Smart never took the mound for Tennessee in 2025 as an injury forced him to miss the entire season. Smart was a top-200 prospect coming out of Pearland, Texas. Perfect Game ranked him as the No. 25 left handed pitcher in the class and the No. 5 lefty in Texas.

Stocking up on lefty arms is going to be a priority this offseason for Johnson and staff. Kade Anderson will, of course, be off to professional baseball, but Conner Ware and DJ Primeaux are both draft eligible. Cooper Williams looked promising this season, but he can’t be the only lefty on the staff, and Johnson has made sure to address that need.

LSU also got good news from the high school ranks. Incoming freshman catcher Omar Serna announced on social media that he will be bypassing the MLB Draft and enrolling at LSU.

This is a pretty big get for LSU. Serna was viewed as the No. 132 overall prospect heading into next month’s draft, but instead he’s Baton Rouge bound. For the second year in a row, Johnson is able to get an elite high school catcher from Texas to forgo the draft and enroll, last year it was Cade Arrambide and this year it’s Serna. Like Arrambide, Serna’s got big time power, especially for a catcher, and I would expect Serna to get some run early on and maybe start on midweeks. Who knows, maybe Serna’s bat is good enough to where Arrambide can catch and Serna is the DH, a la what Alex Milazzo and Hayden Travinski used to do. Either way, this is a case where the rich are getting richer and if LSU gets any more announcements from other high school signees, we’ll be here to let y’all know.