How LSU’s Alexis Morris met Jay Johnson, and got to throw the first pitch at a baseball game

Alexis Morris was at the Starbucks on College Street across from Walmart when she realized her car was out of gas.

The 5-foot-6 Beaumont, Texas, native was new to LSU and about to walk down the street to look for a gas can when LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson stopped her.

“Are you a student at LSU?” Johnson said.

“Yes, I’m Alexis Morris,” she responded. “I play for the women’s basketball team.”

Johnson told her he’d help, so she climbed in the back of his car while Johnson and his wife, Maureen, took her to Walmart to get a gas can, then to the gas station so she could fill the car up.

Almost two years later, Morris — dressed in a white custom baseball jersey and purple baseball cap — threw the ceremonial first pitch Tuesday at Alex Box Stadium against Nicholls State as a national champion.

Morris finished the national championship game with 21 points while shooting 57.1% from the field — her mid-range shooting prowess on display as she scored 15 of those points in the fourth quarter to help cement LSU’s 102-85 victory over Iowa.

That was enough to impress Johnson, who, after a Thursday-Saturday series against Tennessee at Alex Box Stadium was able to watch the women’s championship game Sunday afternoon.

“I’m personally inviting Alexis Morris to throw out a first pitch … because that fourth quarter? That was sweet,” Johnson said. “She can play for me.”

Morris said that softball was the only sport she ever quit, so when she was tasked with the first pitch, she practiced a few tosses with an assistant baseball coach before the game.

First pitch @AlexisMorrisWBB #LSU pic.twitter.com/9FOHowIQM3

— Leah Vann (@LVann_Sports) April 4, 2023

Morris had to add some basketball flavor to the pitch, though. She tossed it up like she was shooting a basketball, then caught it before throwing it to LSU fifth-year senior Cade Beloso. The ball bounced in front of the plate. 

“I never dreamed of this. I never thought I’ll ever be throwing the first pitch for a great institution like LSU,” Morris said. “And it’s funny because how I met Jay Johnson was in the Starbucks line.”