LSU Baseball Is Not Exactly Off To A Flying Start, And Only Now Is The Schedule Getting Turbulent

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

It is not even April yet, but the time is nevertheless now for the unranked LSU baseball team.

The Tigers are a pedestrian 17-9 overall and 2-4 in the Southeastern Conference after entering the season at No. 1 with much of the team remaining from the 2025 national championship. They are a .500 team at 9-9 since an 8-0 start going into Friday’s SEC home game against Kentucky (20-4, 4-2 SEC), which is ranked No. 13 in the Ratings Percentage Index.

First pitch is at 6:30 p.m. with 2 p.m. and noon games on Saturday and Sunday on SEC Network+ from Alex Box Stadium. LSU badly needs to win the series because it will be on the road over three of the next four weekends all against teams with good to great RPIs.

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The Tigers will be at No. 25 RPI Tennessee (18-7, 3-3 SEC) next weekend, followed by No. 7 RPI Ole Miss (19-7, 3-3) away. After hosting No. 17 RPI Texas A&M (19-5, 2-4 SEC) on April 17-19, LSU will go to No. 10 RPI Mississippi State (21-4, 4-2 SEC) the following weekend.

LSU, by the way, has an RPI of 104 as it has lost a series to No. 170 Vanderbilt (14-12, 2-4 SEC) and another one to No. 199 Sacramento State (10-16).

“It’s not getting any easier,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said Thursday. “These guys (Kentucky) are a real team. Same for the next few weeks.”

LSU will start sophomore right-hander Casan Evans (2-0, 4.80 ERA) against one of the hottest pitchers in the SEC – senior right-hander Jaxon Jelkin (5-0, 2.94 ERA).

“It’s about us. It’s our deal – how we do what we do and not necessarily what all these great opponents that we’re going to play do.”

Johnson has moved his regular Sunday starter – sophomore right-hander William Schmidt (3-1, 3.00 ERA) – to the Saturday game against sophomore right-hander Nate Harris (3-1, 4.97 ERA) as his third starter is to be announced.

Jay Johnson Mulling Over 3rd Weekend Starter With Cooper Moore Out 3 Or 4 Starts

Regular No. 2 starter Cooper Moore (3-3, 3.38 ERA), a junior-right hander transfer from Kansas, is expected to miss three or four starts with a bone bruise in his right forearm suffered last week.

“The first two games will determine that,” Johnson said, meaning what relievers he doesn’t use or uses minimally may start Sunday. “We’re not there yet. I don’t know who’s going to start Sunday just yet.”

Johnson suggested junior left-hander Oregon transfer Santiago Garcia (0-0, 5.00 ERA, 2 saves), senior right-hander Grant Fontenot (0-0, 2.70 ERA, 1 save) and senior right-hander Zac Cowan (1-0, 6.23 ERA) as possibilities early this week.

But he did not sound overly concerned on Thursday.

“I do think we can cover it,” he said. “Like pitching talent in our program this year is not a problem. It’s not a problem. We didn’t execute very well at Vanderbilt (two weeks ago), but since then we’ve gotten some things in order. The last five gaems we’ve pitched plenty good enough to win all five of those games.”

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LSU dropped 4-2 and 4-3 games to Oklahoma at home last weekend to drop the series. The Tigers hit better in a 15-5, 10-run-rule win over No. 79 RPI Louisiana Tech (15-11) on Tuesday. LSU got 14 hits in all after a slew of games with single-digit hits.

“We’ll see,” Johnson said of entering this next SEC stretch. “A lot of teams are where we are in the SEC. Everybody has lost at least two games.”

Seven teams are 4-2 in the league, four are 3-3 and three are 2-4.

“The margins are thin,” he said.

And they’re getting thinner each week.