By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
If anyone should be able to comment about LSU’s hitting, other than head coach/hitting instructor Jay Johnson, it’s former Tiger Todd Walker.
Walker, a college baseball analyst on the SEC Network and ESPN, still holds the LSU record for career batting average at .396 set from 1992-94. He he hit .400 as a freshman with 12 home runs, 21 doubles and 76 RBIs, .395 as a sophomore with 22 home runs and 102 RBIs in 1993 in leading the Tigers to the national championship, and .393 in 1994 with 18 home runs, 68 RBIs and 23 doubles.
His LSU No. 12 jersey was retired, and he is a member of the LSU Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches and the College Baseball Hall of Fame in addition to being named a first team All-American in 1993 and ’94 and to the Omaha World-Herald’s All-Time College World Series team.
The eighth pick of the first round in the 1994 Major League Baseball Draft, Walker played 12 years in MLB with six teams and had a career batting average of .289.
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The former Airline High player from Bossier City joined Tiger Rag Radio on Tuesday night to discuss the Tigers’ hitting slump that has stretched into two weeks, though LSU did beat Creighton 8-4 on Tuesday night behind nine hits as they enter Southeastern Conference play Friday at Vanderbilt.
“Nice to kind of feel that and break through,” Jay Johnson on Omar Serna Jr. grand slam. “The momentum was back in our dugout, and that’s something that’s been escaping us a little bit lately.”https://t.co/sy9k7Gg7eQ
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 11, 2026
“First of all, I couldn’t sleep when I didn’t get a hit,” Walker said. “I wish somebody would’ve told me, ‘Look the best of the best go through slumps.’ One time I was 0-for-4 or 0-for-5 against UNO, and me and Mike Neal went back to the Box, and we hit all night. I saw the sun coming up, man. My hands were bleeding. I couldn’t deal with it.”
And he had few slumps.
“I’m sure there is no bigger grinder right now in that clubhouse than Jay Johnson,” Walker said. “But he can’t play.”
LSU will enter SEC play 13th of 16 teams in batting average at .291. Only three Tigers who have started 10 games or more are hitting above .300 – Jake Brown at .413, Derek Curiel at .329 and Brayden Simpson at .318.
“They’ve been facing a lot of guys that couldn’t make it in the SEC,” Walker said. “Yet, they’re not getting hits. That’s a little concerning. But I’m not overly concerned about it because it’s a talented group one through nine. They really don’t have a bad hitter. It’s just a matter of time before the balls start falling around.”
Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball basically said the same thing during his appearance on Tiger Rag Radio.
“I’m here to comfort you guys a little bit,” he said of LSU’s slump. “But, man, I tell you what, it is weird. I do think the club is going to be fine long term. I am just a believer in LSU baseball. I think they’ll figure things out. But there’s no doubt, there’s some warning signs.”
LSU’s 7-2 loss at Louisiana-Lafayette last week left an impression on Rogers. The Tigers managed just seven hits and committed three errors.
“The Northeastern loss before that, I gave them a Mulligan,” he said. “But then you go to Louisiana-Lafayette and play the way you did. Then after two stinkers in a row, I said, ‘This team’s going to be on fire.’ They came out on fire on Friday when they beat Sacramento State, 15-4. But then they’re back to the same team when they lost the next two to Sacramento State. I don’t know what the answer is. But the silver lining is they have been hitting the ball on the screws for outs. That tells me eventually those hits will start falling in.”
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