LSU Baseball: Casan Evans Wakes Up Echoes Of 2025, But Doesn’t Last As Season Ends With Loss To Auburn

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

For a little while there Wednesday night, LSU looked like its national championship team of a year ago. Then it didn’t and looked like 2026.

LSU starting pitcher Casan Evans returned to his ’25 form briefly, but in the end, a key infield error hurt him, and he got little run support as the Tigers’ season ended with a 3-1 loss to Auburn at the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Hoover, Alabama.

And the Tigers (30-28) saw their season end in May for the first time since 2011 – the last time they did not receive an NCAA Regional bid. LSU needed to win the single-elimination SEC Tournament to get the automatic NCAA bid. The 14 seed Tigers – 9-21 in the SEC regular season for their most league losses in history – beat No. 11 seed Oklahoma, 6-2, on Tuesday to break a six-game losing streak, but couldn’t keep the momentum going.

LSU Pitcher Casan Evans To Start Vs. Auburn Tonight; William Schmidt Likely Out For Season, Omar Serna Jr. Out For Tonight

Overall, LSU lost 16 of its last 19 SEC games.

No. 6 seed Auburn (37-18) advances to play No. 3 seed Texas A&M (39-13) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Evans (2-4) struck out eight with just one walk and allowed just one earned run on four hits through four and two-thirds innings for the loss. He retired the side in order in the first with two strikeouts and in the third with two more strikeouts.

LSU gave him a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth as Derek Curiel doubled, reached third on a sacrifice bunt by Steven Milam and scored on John Pearson’s sacrifice fly.

But Chase Fralick led off the Auburn fourth with a home run for a 1-1 tie.

In the fifth, Brandon McCraine singled to lead off before Evans walked Mason McCraine. Evans then struck out Bristol Carter and Cade Belyeu. Auburn took a 2-1 lead with LSU second baseman Jack Ruckert threw by third base trying to get Brandon McCraine after fielding a grounder.

LSU coach Jay Johnson then took out Evans despite a strong argument against that by Evans. Ethan Plog replaced him.

Auburn went up 3-1 in the sixth on a home run by Eric Guevara off Zac Cowan. Auburn starter Jake Marciano (5-5) picked up the win, allowing just four hits and one earned run in six innings with four strikeouts and a walk. The Tigers go-ahead run came to the plate for LSU in the top of the ninth with two on, but LSU failed to produce … again.