BATON ROUGE - The LSU Tiger baseball team kicked off their unofficial start to the 2025 season with their First Pitch Banquet Thursday night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Baton Rouge.

The annual event is part pep rally and part fundraiser for one of the premiere college baseball programs in the country.

The sit-down dinner provides boosters an opportunity to support the Tigers’ program and they did so to the tune of $400,000 raised for the LSU Baseball program.

Head coach Jay Johnson introduced his new team that features only twelve returning players and double-digit newcomers to the crowd of over 1,000 fans.

"If I was to sum up in one word what it means for me to be here tonight, that word would be thankful,” Johnson said. “When you invest your life in a profession, one of the greatest things is having people get behind you, and there is nothing like the support we get from our fans in Alex Box Stadium.

“LSU is an amazing place with great tradition; it’s about excellence and being the best of the best. It is the pathway to professional baseball and the chance to compete and win a national championship. I know this 2025 team will uphold that elite tradition." 

LSU opens the season at 2 p.m. CT on Friday, February 14, when the Tigers play host to Purdue Fort Wayne in Alex Box Stadium.