The 2026 LSU Baseball team isn’t just bad, they are now awful at historic levels.
The Tigers (24-21, 6-15) were swept for a third consecutive weekend, this time on the road in Starkville, and have now lost a program-record nine straight SEC games. Even more agonizing for LSU is the Tigers scored three runs in the first inning of all three games, only to lose every game.
Friday: Mississippi State 10, LSU 8 (11 innings)
In hindsight, Friday should have served as an omen of things to come this weekend.
Casan Evans was a last-minute scratch from his normal Friday start after some right arm discomfort following some pregame stretching. The LSU pitching staff, already down one starter for the rest of the season, would try and have to survive two different bullpen games and couldn’t get it done.
LSU led 7-4 after four innings and had an 8-7 lead going into the bottom of the ninth but couldn’t hold either lead. Bulldog catcher Kevin Milewski hit a walk-off two-run homer off of Zac Cowan in the 11th to win the opener for Mississippi State.
Saturday: Mississippi State 9, LSU 8
Stop me when you’ve heard this before: William Schmidt was pretty good, but incredibly inefficient.
Schmidt threw 89 pitches in which he struck out five, walked three, allowed three hits and two runs…and only lasted four innings. For an LSU pitching staff that used seven pitchers in Friday night’s extra innings game, the team desperately needed a quality start from Schmidt, but instead he only got LSU 12 outs.
Even without Schmidt not eating as many outs as you would like, LSU still had a 7-2 lead after five innings and couldn’t hold onto that one either. State scored seven runs over the final two innings, highlighted by a seventh inning grand slam from Jacob Parker to tie the game. Noah Sullivan gave Mississippi State the lead in the eighth with an RBI single, and a second run came home thanks to an infielder error.
Sunday: Mississippi State 13, LSU 8
Same shit different day.
LSU had a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the first, 5-3 after three innings, and 8-5 going into the bottom of the sixth. Then Mississippi State responded with eight runs over its final three innings to win comfortably.
If there is a silver lining, it was the freshmen tandem of Mason Braun and Omar Serna combined for six hits and three RBI. Braun had an RBI triple, while Serna hit a two-run homer, his third homer of the series.
“They are two of our best hitters right now,” Jay Johnson said after Sunday’s loss. “That is a positive, a silver lining, and I like the makeup up the people that they are and what they are going to mean to our program going forward. We can build off of the experience they’re gaining now.”
It’s time we pull the plug on this baseball season. At 6-15 in league play, LSU’s season is more or less over.
I don’t mean to speak in absolutes, but barring a sweep in each of the final three weekends, or winning the SEC Tournament, LSU’s season will end in Hoover. Think about that: the calendar hasn’t even flipped to May yet and we’re closing the book on this baseball season.
Up next, not that it really matters, LSU will be at home for a Tuesday night game against Southeastern. They’ll then host South Carolina, one of the only two teams with a worse SEC record than LSU, this weekend. Surely LSU can snap this losing streak against the Gamecocks…right?
