Following LSU’s 10-4 loss to #10 Texas A&M, Jay Johnson said he made a mistake in constructing this year’s roster. Despite being called out so publicly, his roster proved him correct.
The Tigers (23-18, 6-12) couldn’t muster any pride and suffered the humiliation of being swept by the Aggies (31-7, 12-5) for a second consecutive weekend. A&M beat LSU 5-2 to hand the Tigers its first home sweep since Ole Miss did it to LSU in 2022.
“We are certainly not where we want to be at this juncture, and not where we expect
to be,” Jay Johnson said after Sunday. “The only way I know how to move forward is through hard work. We will have some individual meetings, put together plans for our players and help them apply it to the games.”
For a second consecutive season, A&M had Zac Cowan’s number. After giving away last year’s game three in College Station, Cowan got the start Sunday and allowed four runs over 2.2 innings. Cowan gave up three hits, walked three more, and had just one strikeout.
Stop me when you’ve heard this one before: LSU’s opponent got out to a big lead, the Tigers responded with a few runs in the eighth inning, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. This time around, it was Cade Arrambide homering in the eighth to finally get LSU on the board, and Derek Curiel later came home off of a passed ball.
If there was a bright spot, it was Devin Sheerin who was exceptional out of the bullpen. Sheerin had his best outing of the season: 4.1 innings, nine strikeouts, and 61 pitches. Santiago Garcia and Gavin Guidry pitched the final two innings, threw up a zero, and each had one walk against two strikeouts.
But while one piece of the operation was good, LSU as a collective wasn’t good, which has been the theme of this season. This time around, the bullpen was strong but the bats were awful.
Despite A&M shutting down LSU’s offense for the entirety of this weekend, the Aggie pitching staff is actually pretty weak. In SEC play, Aggie pitching has an ERA close to seven, and opponents are batting .300 against them. Sunday? LSU scored two runs, hit .212 as a team, and was 0-7 with runners in scoring position.
LSU’s not dead yet…but after a second straight sweep, they might be getting their last rites.
The Tigers came into this weekend as a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament, but now with a 6-12 conference record and an RPI currently at 65 they’ll need to do something improbable if they want to play baseball beyond the SEC Tournament.
The magic number for LSU is “14” as in 14 SEC wins. No SEC team has ever been left out of the NCAA Tournament with 14 SEC wins, and if LSU wants to get to that number they’ll have to do one of two things: either win all four of their remaining weekends, or go 3-1 over these final four weekends including a sweep.
That’s going to be incredibly difficult because LSU has to go on the road to both Mississippi State and Georgia, and the Tigers will host a Florida Gator team that’s finding their footing lately. I don’t expect this LSU team to win its final four weekends, and you probably don’t either; and after watching his team roll over after being called out, I’m not sure Jay Johnson expects it either.
