By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LAFAYETTE – After five games in six days, including the Tigers’ second straight loss in three days, 7-2, on Wednesday night at Louisiana-Lafayette, LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson is not exactly craving rest and relaxation for his team.
But he does desire a lighter routine of three games on the weekend and one during the week, which is the schedule from now on with Southeastern Conference play starting a week from Friday at Vanderbilt.
LSU loses 2nd straight ugly – 7-2 at ULLhttps://t.co/di5fMEx58p
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 5, 2026
The No. 2 Tigers (11-3) host Sacramento State (3-9) this weekend, then Creighton (3-6) on Tuesday before the first SEC weekend.
“I’m ready to get into a routine now,” Johnson said on the first base line at Tigue Moore Field after the loss to the Cajuns. “We can practice tomorrow (Thursday). I got it all laid out, ready to go. Whether we won or lost tonight, we need to get back together in my traditional practice format. I don’t think I set the team up for success with this schedule, how I have it laid out.”
Johnson’s Tigers played five games over the first six days of the season, then traveled to Jacksonville, Florida, for a tournament. LSU started off 8-0, but is 3-3 since then.
LSU is hitting .207 over its last 5 games. “Maybe it’s on me for setting the schedule up the way I did, if you really want to be honest about it.”
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 3, 2026
-Jay Johnson, whose team plays its fifth game in 6 days on Wednesday.https://t.co/1dKX6nTiwf
“I do believe we have enough to be successful in it, but I’m going to own that part of it, learn from it, adjust it in future years,” Johnson said.
In other words, he will not be scheduling five games in six days very often going forward.
“But I do think we will gain value from it,” he said. “I’m glad that we’re exposing some things that we need and will do better and some personnel things in getting clarity.”
LSU has to field and throw the ball better and hit better.
“We’re going to play cleaner baseball,” he said. “Tough to have some lessons in losses, but sometimes it grabs the team’s attention. A little bit of a speed bump, and I’ll use that to make this team better.”
Johnson’s schedule has tested his team, and he will likely spread those exams over more time to avoid cramming and the poor results that often creates.
“This is a training ground for pro baseball, but it’s just something I’m going to evaluate,” he said when asked if his new players may not have been ready for such a grind. “It’s not an excuse for a game we didn’t play as well as we wanted to or for losing a game. That’s not at all what I’m saying. It’s just something that I will evaluate in the future to make sure we can get prepared to be the best team that we can possibly be while putting ourselves in position to be successful.”
But with the most stringent schedule in the country coming up next week in the SEC, Johnson is questioning how hard – or busy – his non-conference schedule needs to be.
“This is a good schedule, but I don’t even know if we need to do it, because the SEC is so strong from an RPI standpoint,” he said. “I think it will have value, but we’re past that point now. It’s Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday now. We’re past that.”
And his team needs the break of a regular routine. Its fielding percentage is a putrid .961 with 18 errors on the season, including 12 in the last six games and seven in the last two. And the Tigers are hitting a ragged .209 (39 of 186) over those last six games.
LSU is ranked No. 2 in the nation, but its Ratings Percentage Index has sunk to No. 79.
“You can’t tackle everything at one time,” Johnson said. “The position player side – we’re going to have to continue to mix and match a little bit. I’m going to get them in small groups (on Thursday).”
As far as the offense, he will be taking over like never before.
“I’m really going to go hands on with the hitting thing, more than I have probably in my time at LSU,” he said for the second time in a week. “It’s my baby. I want to help some of those guys out, because I believe we have good players that can play better offensive baseball than they are. That’s what the head coach does. They lean in. I spent more time with this pitching staff leading into this season than I have, because I wanted to try to get the pieces lined up. I feel like we know what we have there.”
But not on offense.
“Offensively, we just need to help make some of those pitching decisions a little easier by helping them out (with more offense),” Johnson said. “Since we’ve been here, a five-game offensive scuffle is probably as long as we’ve had. But we’ll be okay, if the players bring the right attitude. We want to score more runs, and then we have to stay out of the big inning on defense.”
Johnson’s routine may be less games, but more work.
“We need more consecutive quality at-bats,” he said. “We need to get some sustained quality at-bats.”
Around some sustained, consecutive off days before weekends in the SEC.
“We’ll get it right,” Johnson said.
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