On a team full of stars, Ethan Frey, the pride of little Rosepine, about 5 miles north of DeRidder, has emerged as LSU’s best hitter as the real postseason begins.

LSU head coach Jay Johnson can’t say he’s surprised.

In fact, he predicted it long ago.

He hasn’t changed his mind as the Tigers (43-14), the top seed in the NCAA baseball tournament’s Baton Rouge Regional, prepare to face Arkansas-Little Rock (24-32) in Friday’s opening round.

It goes back to a scene that could have been lifted from one of those hokey old black-and-white sports movies.

Johnson had just taken the LSU job after the 2021 season, and was finding his way around the baseball complex.

It so happened there was a tryout going on in Alex Box Stadium for the Area Code games.

Johnson decided to step outside his office for a looksee.

“And this dude comes up and he’s just blasting balls over our scoreboard,” Johnson said. “I said, ‘Yeah, I want to look at this guy.’ I didn’t even know who it was at the time.”

It was, you already guessed, Frey, who was also a star quarterback at the time at Rosepine High and went on the become Louisiana’s Mr. Baseball his senior season. He hit and pitched the Eagles to back-to-back Class 2A state titles.

Johnson didn’t realize all that at the time, but said to himself, “We’re going to hang out a while after this tryout.”

He could have saved the sales pitch. A quick check revealed that Frey, a towering, 6-foot-6, 240-pounder, had committed to former LSU head coach Paul Mainieiri as a sophomore.

Johnson was already liking LSU.

It took some patience as a year later the freshman Frey was thrown onto LSU’s 2023 national championship squad, a veteran team full of draft picks. Last season he battled a shoulder injury.

But the potential was always there. Now it’s here.

Frey leads the Tigers with a .358 average, is second with 12 home runs and third with 43 RBIs. That’s with the second-fewest at-bats among the current regulars as he gradually took over the designated hitter role as the season wore on.

He was even the rare offensive bright spot last week when the Tigers’ bats iced up during a 1-1 stay in the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Hoover, Alabama.

He drove in three of the Tigers’ runs in the 4-3 victory over Texas A&M, going 2-for-3 with an RBI double and a towering two-run homer. He drew two walks when the Tigers were held to two hits in the 2-0 elimination loss to Ole Miss.

That’s the Ethan Frey Johnson was waiting on, even though his average dropped to .234 last year — while playing through a dislocated shoulder.

“I wouldn’t even call it a breakthrough,” Johnson said of this year. “I’ve always had a high opinion of him. Success was coming. He’s the best. I have high opinions of a lot of our players, but none higher than Ethan.

“He’s the man. He’s literally handled everything — success, failure, injury, his role — about as good as you possible can.”

It’s why Job 1 after last year was to get Frey’s shoulder fixed. He had shoulder surgery as soon as the season was over.

“He played through the pain (last) season, and he’s an incredible human being, incredible toughness,” Johnson said. “Then it was like, ‘We need to get the surgery quickly.’ I wouldn’t even use the word expedite. It was like we’ve got to make sure we get this thing right (because) I believed he would be a huge part of our team.”

As a precaution, Johnson limited Frey’s work during fall workouts, didn’t even let him run the bases.

“I thought we did a good job taking that slowly and putting him in a position to be successful this year,” Johnson said. “And he certainly has been.”