I thought Joe Sloan left LSU.
He’s the new offensive coordinator at Kentucky, or so I’ve read and written.
But it feels like the former LSU offensive coordinator is coordinating the LSU Baseball offense, which managed just four hits on Saturday in a 4-3 loss to No. 7 Oklahoma after a 4-2 loss to the Sooners on Friday on seven hits.
LSU gets all of 4 hits in 4-3 loss to Oklahoma, loses series:https://t.co/4chpLDO6X1
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 21, 2026
And this was at Alex Box Stadium, a place from which home runs fly out. And this was a beautiful, sunny Saturday with temperatures in the 70s after a beautiful, cool Friday night. More than 10,000 actual fans were at each game.
The place was ready to rock each time, but it never quite could.
And unranked LSU, once the No. 1 team in the nation riding a 16-0 winning streak – 8-0 this year and 8-0 to end last year with the national championship – suddenly has a very non-baseball dynasty mark of 16-9 and 2-4 in the Southeastern Conference. It took last year’s team until April 26 to lose its ninth game. This team is already just six losses from matching last year’s 53-15 loss count.
Four hits! In this weather? LSU’s offense has been nothing short of a party pooper. Tiger “hitters” may as well be the cops. “All right, break it up! No runs here. Go home. Party’s over.”
Even when LSU won the opener of this series, 7-1, on Thursday night, it got only eight hits, and only four of the runs were earned as Oklahoma committed three errors.
“Well, we’re going to move some things around,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said, and he IS the offensive coordinator, and he’s already been doing that quite a bit.
“All that stuff’s on the table,” he said.
Look for freshman outfielder William Patrick of St. Fredrick High in Monroe to begin playing soon – as in Tuesday night against Louisiana Tech.
“He’s the best athlete on the team,” Johnson said. “He’s the fastest player on the team. It would probably be a really good race between him and Chris Stanfield if they lined up for a 30-yard sprint.”
Patrick (6-2, 209 pounds) was the No. 1 outfielder in Louisiana in the Class of 2026 by Perfect Game and No. 26 at his position nationally. He hit .472 at St. Fredrick last year with a .607 on-base percentage and 27 stolen bases. He played wide receiver, safety and punter on the football team.
Patrick is also only 1-for-2 on the season with a walk in 13 games, but Johnson doesn’t care. He’s looking for something. This is why he inserted freshman Omar Serna Jr. in the lineup recently. He played first base on Saturday for regular first baseman Zach Yorke, a much publicized senior transfer who struck out four times on Friday with three of those looking. He’s hitting .263 with four home runs and 12 RBIs in 24 starts.
Serna is hitting .280 with three home runs and 17 RBIs in 12 starts. His two-run home run in the first inning put the Tigers up 2-0.
“He’s not coming out of the lineup,” Johnson said of Serna.
Sophomore John Pearson is another recent new starter at third base. He’s hitting .286 with three homers in nine starts.
The LSU coach who won 1 national title, finished runner-up for a 2nd, left most of the team that won another one in 2023, and won 4 SEC titles, has been fired by South Carolina after 6-28 mark in one SEC season and 4 games.https://t.co/NAlwRUCoTh
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 21, 2026
“We’ve got to be able to do more things,” Johnson said. “This offense, we have to walk, and we have to be able to hit doubles. And we’re not doing that. If we’re not doing that, there’s not a whole lot else, like, that we are able to do. That makes it tough. It makes it really, really tough. Last year, we could score in a number of different ways. We’ve got to find a way to get back to that with this crew with what we have. Today it was how many times can we get three quality at-bats in a row? And we only did it one time.”
It also makes it really tough when you only have two .300 hitters – Jake Brown at .381 and Derek Curiel at .323 – and 10 players who have started nine games or more who are hitting .292 and lower. And five of those are hitting .260 or less.
“We’re giving a lot of guys a lot of chances is the tough part about this,” Johnson said. “So, we’re just going to keep working, keep pressing.”
Stanfield, who returned just last week to the lineup in left field after missing most of the season with a hand injury, homered Saturday for a 3-1 lead in the fifth. He’s hitting .294 in nine starts.
“I really think that we’re going to be fine,” Stanfield said. “It’s not as bad as it seems. We’ve just got to play a little better, and we’ve got the time to do it.”
True, but the schedule will be getting more difficult soon.
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