By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU is not expected to hold a spring football game this year to conclude spring practice, which started last week. New football coach Lane Kiffin does not like spring games.
So, the LSU baseball team sort of held one of its own on Sunday with a 17-10 win over No. 19 Kentucky behind a 16-hit attack off 10 Wildcat pitchers. Key word – Wild. Kentucky pitching gave up 11 walks, four wild pitches and hit two batters.
It took a football-like four hours and 29 minutes, but the Tigers (19-10, 4-5 Southeastern Conference) won their first SEC series of the season, two games to one, after winning 7-0 on Saturday following a 7-4 loss Friday.
Did LSU waste Zac Cowan in relief Saturday when he could’ve started Sunday for injured Cooper Moore? LSU led 5-0 when Cowan entered in 6th, and he blew away Kentucky. https://t.co/q6xXDfGMXj
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 29, 2026
LSU, which spotted the Wildcats a touchdown lead (with the extra point) after three innings and still trailed, 10-6, in the top of the fifth, will look back on this victory as a turning point, if it continues to turn around the season. Kentucky fell to 21-6 and 5-4.
The Tigers did not take their first lead of the game until the sixth inning on a three-run home run by Seth Dardar for an 11-10 advantage. Dardar flipped the bat high and triumphantly immediately after hitting the dramatic homer off reliever Jack Bennett. And this caused much drama from the Kentucky bench and a lot of yelling back from LSU coach Jay Johnson. But all Dardar got was a warning.
Derek Curiel opened the rally with a one-out, solo home run to get the Tigers within 10-8 off Bennett, who then walked Zach Yorke and Steven Milam consecutively, bringing up Dardar.
LSU kept the momentum going in the seventh with two more runs for a 13-10 lead. Chris Stanfield doubled to lead off, and Jake Brown singled, chasing Bennett. Ira Austin IV, who was Kentucky’s sixth pitcher, relieved and lit things on fire immediately, as he hit Omar Serna Jr. to load the bases, then threw a wild pitch, scoring a run for a 12-10 LSU lead. Curiel then singled in a run for the 13-10 advantage, and Austin was gone.
LSU scored four unearned runs in the eighth for the 17-10 lead. The first run scored when Kentucky catcher Owen Jenkins dropped the ball after tagging pinch-runner William Patrick out at the plate, and it was 14-10. Two more runs scored on wild pitches by pitcher Ryan Mullan and a third on a throwing error by Jenkins for the 17-10 final.
LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEKEND AT TENNESSEE
The Tigers now face back-to-back road series in the SEC against ranked teams, but both of those got swept over the weekend and will fall. The Tigers are at No. 21 Tennessee (18-10, 3-6 SEC) Friday through Sunday after the Vols were swept at Vanderbilt, 3-2, in 10 innings on Friday, 6-5 in 16 innings (four hours, 44 minutes) on Saturday and 16-15 on Sunday after giving up a six-run rally in the ninth. The three games are all televised – 4:30 p.m. Friday and noon Sunday on SEC Network and Saturday’s 5 p.m. game on ESPN2.
Then it’s off to No. 19 Ole Miss (19-10, 3-6 SEC), which lost at home to Mississippi State, 5-4, 6-1 and 7-1 on Friday through Sunday.
The Tigers host Southern (9-16, 3-4 SWAC) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on SEC Network+.
The Tigers found themselves down 7-0 going into the bottom of the third inning, but came back strong with six runs on four hits to get within 7-6. John Pearson had the huge blow – a grand slam to left field to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 7-5 with his fourth homer of the season. He greeted reliever Burkley Bounds with the blast.
Stanfield started the rally with a one-out walk against Kentucky starter Ben Cleaver. Brown then singled, and Serna walked to load the bases. Curiel cut the Wildcats’ lead to 7-1 with a fielder’s choice grounder to second base. Then Cleaver walked Yorke to load the bases and left the game.
Steven Milam kept the rally going after the Pearson slam with a double. Dardar then singled him to get the Tigers within 7-6. Tristan Hunter relieved Bounds and walked pinch-hitter Mason Braun. Stanfield batted again in the inning, but popped up to shortstop to end the inning.
Kentucky extended its lead to 10-6 in the top of the fifth with a three-run rally. Reliever Mavrick Rizy inexplicably walked the lead-off batter, Will Marcy, to start the Wildcats’ uprising. After striking out Jenkins, Rizy walked Carson Hansen and left the game. Deven Sheerin relieved and got a grounder for a force out, but he allowed a two-out, two-run double to Luke Lawrence to give Kentucky a 9-6 lead. Tyler Bell followed with an RBI single for the 10-6 advantage.
Sheerin then walked Hudson Brown, but he got out of the inning by striking out Ethan Hindle looking.
LSU cut it to 10-7 in the fifth on an opposite-field RBI single by Stanfield, but Braun committed a base running blunder as he tried to get two bases on the Stanfield hit. Right fielder Carson Hansen threw Braun out easily at third for the second out. Brown popped out to second to end the inning. The Tigers got three hits in the inning, but only the one run. Dardar started the rally with a one-out double.
Junior reliever Gavin Guidry got the start for the Tigers for injured regular weekend starter Cooper Moore, who is out for three to four weeks with a bruised forearm. And Guidry struggled from the outset. He lasted only an inning and a third as he gave up six runs on three hits and four walks with a hit batsman and a wild pitch around three strikeouts. He faced 12 batters and threw 48 pitches with 24 strikes.
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