By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
This was not supposed to be a rebuilding year, but it has looked like it at times.
The LSU baseball team was ranked No. 1 in the preseason by Perfect Game and USA Today. Other polls had the Tigers at No. 2.
The Tigers, after all, won the national championship in 2025 and returned several starters and other key players with rings – star outfielders Derek Curiel, Jake Brown and Chris Stanfield, one of the nation’s top shortstops in Steven Milam as well as top freshmen pitchers Casan Evans and William Schmidt for the weekend rotation as sophomores along with returning senior top reliever Zac Cowan.
LSU or NC State for Will Wade after he loses to Texas’ Sean Miller in FBI/NCAA Corruption Bowl:https://t.co/Z4WMNBCZpv
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 18, 2026
And coach Jay Johnson added top recruiting and Transfer Portal classes as well.
What could go wrong?
Well, the offense slumped. And just as it improved, the pitching slumped. Meanwhile, the Tigers are third in the SEC in the most errors category with 26. The pitching staff is dead last in the league in earned run average at 5.04. And the offense is 12th of 16 teams in the SEC in batting average at .285.
LSU (15-7, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) is a pedestrian 7-7 since an 8-0 start, and the Tigers have tumbled out of all polls and to a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of 111. LSU’s Strength of Schedule mark is 173 as opponents are 176-189 with a winning percentage of .482.
And the Tigers have not even played a ranked team in the SEC yet. LSU lost two of three at unranked and No. 182 RPI Vanderbilt (13-9, 2-1 SEC) last weekend.
Now, the soft schedule gets hard on paper with No. 7 Oklahoma (17-4, 2-1 SEC, 15 RPI) opening a three-game series at Alex Box Stadium on Thursday on national television (7 p.m., ESPNU). The Sooners will be LSU’s first ranked opponent all season.
“This team was maybe a little under-prepared for adversity,” Johnson said Wednesday. “Because they didn’t have a whole lot last year with the returning players. And new players are experiencing a different level of adversity at a place like this.”
Other than Brown at .400 with 37 RBIs and 11 homers and Curiel at .329 with six doubles, eight players who have started nine or more games are hitting .292 or lower.
Going into the second weekend of SEC play in 2025, LSU was ranked No. 2 with a 21-1 record (3-0, SEC) and riding a 16-game winning streak. The Tigers did not reach double-digit losses until May 3 at 37-10 (14-8 SEC) after a 3-1 loss at Texas A&M. LSU finished the season on a 13-2 run to finish as 53-15 (19-11 SEC) national champions.
“There’s always some sort of adversity,” Cowan said Wednesday. “There was some last year that not everybody saw.”
He struggled to give an example, though, but did mention a 13-3, 10-run-rule loss to Northwestern State at home last April 22 that was LSU’s second straight loss. But the Tigers never lost more than three in a row all season. That was at Auburn from April 11-13. Their worst stretch was five losses in eight games, which included the Auburn and Northwestern State losses and dropping one of three to Alabama.
This season, LSU has already had a stretch of six losses in eight games.
“It’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows,” Cowan said.
He should know. Cowan allowed six runs on 12 hits with two home runs in three innings over three of his first four appearances. At Vanderbilt last week, though, he held Vanderbilt to zero runs on one hit in three and a third innings of relief with five strikeouts and zero walks.
“You can’t ever lose faith in yourself or each other,” said Cowan, who is 1-0 with a 7.36 ERA.
“It’s baseball. It’s a game of adversity,” said freshman catcher Omar Serna Jr., who hit his second home run of the season in the Tigers’ 7-1 win over Grambling on Tuesday.
It has been surprising, though, that LSU has lost seven games already and is not ranked, considering what it did last season and how it started this season.
“Yeah, for sure,” Serna said. “You don’t want to lose any games, but all we can do is learn from them and use them to our advantage. You just have to keep rolling with the punches and focusing on where we’re at.”
At the moment, though, that is not in the polls, which is a rarity for LSU baseball. The Tigers were last unranked in the 2024 season. They were ranked all of 2023 during a national championship season and most of 2022 in Johnson’s first season.
“We don’t really look at that,” Cowan said. “It doesn’t mean anything to us. That’s an outside thing. We focus on the things that make us win baseball games.”
Johnson said he does not look at the polls, but they are a barometer for getting a top eight national seed for the NCAA postseason, which means a host site for the Super Regional round. LSU has never advanced to the College World Series without winning a home Super Regional.
“I don’t validate us by that,” Johnson said. “I don’t validate us even by record. I validate us by how we play. We can play a lot better, and that’s where all of the internal focus is. That’s not, I mean, don’t even look at that stuff. I didn’t even know that until you said that. That’s not going to change my day for one second.”
Johnson instead points to how his team is playing. The Tigers have won two straight and three of their last five.
“There was a lot of mind improvement with the team over the last five games,” he said. “That gives us a chance.”
FORMER TIGER PITCHER CAMERON JOHNSON IS OKLAHOMA ACE
Junior Cameron Johnson, the Sooners’ scheduled starting pitcher Thursday night, is a former elite LSU signing in Johnson’s 2023 recruiting class. The 6-foot-6, 256-pound left-hander from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was the No. 11 overall prospect in the country in 2023 out of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and the No. 2 left-hander in the nation.
But he did not pan out at LSU, making just 13 appearances in relief as a freshman in 2024 and finishing the season 0-0 with a 12.00 ERA with 16 walks and 13 strikeouts in nine innings. He transferred to Oklahoma and had similar control issues. In 2025, he was 2-0 with a 5.57 ERA through 10 appearances and 21 innings. He struck out 24 with 25 walks.
Johnson has improved dramatically this season as the No. 1 starter with just 12 walks and 34 strikeouts in 23 and two-thirds innings. He is 3-0 on the season with a 3.04 ERA.
“I thought he was always a great talent,” Johnson said. “I really like Cam. I like his family. You know, you get eight billion texts after you win the national championship. His dad Steve texted me within a day or two. I’m happy that he’s found some success.”
STARTING PITCHERS
THURSDAY – Sophomore right-hander Casan Evans (1-0, 6.45 ERA, 35 strikeouts, 12 walks, 22.1 innings), LSU, vs. junior left-hander Cameron Johnson (3-0, 3.04 ERA, 34 strikeouts, 12 walks, 23.2 innings), 7 p.m., ESPNU.
FRIDAY – Junior right-hander Cooper Moore (3-2, 3.21 ERA, 35 strikeouts, 7 walks, 28 innings), LSU, vs. junior right-hander LJ Mercurius (4-1, 1.59 ERA, 41 strikeouts, 8 walks, 28.1 innings), 6:30 p.m., SEC Network+.
SATURDAY – Sophomore right-hander William Schmidt (3-1, 3.12 ERA, 39 strikeouts, 7 walks, 26 innings), LSU, vs. freshman left-hander Cord Roger (2-1, 4.71 ERA, 28 strikeouts, 7 walks, 21 innings), 2 p.m., SEC Network+.
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