The reigning national champions are a bad baseball team.
LSU (22-14, 6-8) have dropped a crucial road series to Ole Miss (25-11, 7-7) in humiliating fashion, losing 12-2 in seven innings. The Tigers scored the first two runs of the game, and surrendered all 12 Rebel runs over the final three innings, including seven in a humiliating sixth inning.
William Schmidt got the start for LSU and while he actually had a no hitter through three innings, he completely imploded in the fourth and wouldn’t make
it out of the inning. Schmidt cruised through the first and third innings, but ran into a bit of trouble in the second thanks to a pair of walks; Schmidt got through the first three innings unscathed, but the house of cards that was his start came crashing down in the fourth.
Schmidt issued back to back walks to open the fourth, and mixed in a pair of wild pitches that gave Ole Miss runners on the corners with nobody out. Hayden Federico hit a sac fly to right field that got Ole Miss on the board, Brayden Randle singled to right field to tie the game, and the dam broke when Austin Fawley took Schmidt deep to left field to give Ole Miss a 4-2 lead.
Schmidt gave up one last double before being yanked for Cooper Williams who didn’t fare much better. Williams walked the first batter he faced, and opened the fifth inning with a single, hit batter, and an RBI single that upped Ole Miss’ lead to 5-2. Williams got the next two batters out before handing the ball to Zion Theophilus.
And then the sixth inning. Oh boy the sixth inning.
Theophilus issued a leadoff walk, then a single that put runners on the corners before being yanked for Daniel Lachenmayer who threw all of six (6) pitches. He threw a wild pitch that pushed across another Rebel run, and then plunked Tristan Bissetta. Lachenmayer was pulled for Connor Benge and he also didn’t record an out; Benge one-upped Lachenmayer’s ineffectiveness, and only threw four pitches before getting the hook. Benge gave up a base hit to Utermark that scored another Ole Miss run.
Ethan Plog was LSU pitcher No. 4 for this disaster of an inning, and he at least got a couple of outs. Of course, Plog did give up a two-run single to Will Furniss, and then walked two more to load the bases before Jay Johnson had seen enough and called on Mavrick Rizy. Rizy inherited a bases loaded jam and unfortunately allowed Ole Miss to clear the bases with a three-run double that gave the Rebels its 12-2 advantage.
All told, LSU pitching today handed out 10 free passes (eight walks, two HBP) and uncorked three wild pitches.
Trailing 12-2 in the seventh and needing at least one run to keep the game alive, LSU instead went out pathetically: Omar Serna and William Patrick each flew out to right field and Eddie Yamin, getting a pinch-hit opportunity, struck out looking on three pitches.
There are still 16 conference games to go in 2026; by this time tomorrow we will be at the halfway point of league play, so the season is certainly not over…but there’s not a lot of promise on the horizon for this 2026 LSU team. This Tiger team doesn’t do anything well—they don’t hit, they don’t pitch well, and they’re real bad defensively, and they still haven’t even played the toughest part of their schedule.
Try not to get swept tomorrow.
