By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
The way it looks now, the LSU baseball team stands a better chance of sweeping five games at the Southeastern Conference Tournament in two weeks for the automatic NCAA Regional bid than of staying in postseason contention in the regular season.
The Tigers (29-23, 9-17 SEC) dropped their second straight game, 13-8, at No. 5 Georgia (40-11, 20-6 SEC champions) on Saturday night as the Bulldogs toyed with the Tigers’ pitching to the tune of 14 hits with three home runs and four doubles. Georgia won 11-8 on Friday night with 11 hits, including four home runs.
In order to have a chance for an NCAA Regional bid, LSU would have to win today’s third game (2 p.m., SEC Network), sweep No. 21 Florida (33-18, 14-12 SEC) next weekend in Baton Rouge in the regular season finale series and win two or three games at the SEC Tournament, May 19-24, in Hoover, Alabama, to get a bid. The last time LSU didn’t reach the NCAA postseason was in 2011.
The odds of LSU winning its next four SEC regular season games are almost as bad as the chances of Brian Kelly getting a head coaching job before next season.
LSU’s starting pitcher today will be former ace Casan Evans (2-2, 5.47 ERA), who will pitch for the first time since the Texas A&M series opener on April 17 when he allowed six earned runs on seven hits and three walks through five innings to take the loss. The sophomore right-hander was scratched just before his next start a week later at Mississippi State with arm stiffness and has not pitched since.
Senior right-hander Zac Cowan (3-3, 3.63 ERA, 1 save) will also be available. LSU’s best pitcher in recent weeks, Cowan should have relieved Friday when LSU still had the lead or was tied in its 11-8 loss to Georgia that it led 7-4 when starter William Schmidt left in the fifth.
Evans has struggled most of this season, like other returning pitchers expected to be much better this season – Gavin Guidry (4-3, 6.81 ERA, 1 save, 18 walks, 50 strikeouts, 38.1 innings), Mavrick Rizy (0-0, 3.98 ERA, 15 walks, 27 strikeouts, 20.1 innings) and Schmidt (5-4, 4.22 ERA, 31 walks, 85 strikeouts, 64 innings). Guidry has allowed eight home runs, which is a lot for someone who has mainly relieved. The only pitcher with more homers allowed is Schmidt with 10. He has started all 13 of his appearances and threw 36 more innings. Guidry has started only three games.
LSU would have a better chance of winning five straight in Hoover as several or most of the teams it would play there would not be using front line pitching as they will not need to win those games to reach the NCAA postseason as LSU does.
“Just as a competitor, it bothers me,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said after Saturday night’s game, which was his 11th SEC loss out of the last 14. A sweep at the hands of Georgia today would be LSU’s fourth in five weeks in the league.
“It bothers me that somebody else wins the championship, and we don’t,” he said.
Championship?
LSU has never been in the race for the SEC regular season title this season.
What really should bother Johnson is that his team has not defeated a decent SEC team since April 5 at Tennessee, 16-6. The Vols (34-17, 13-13 SEC) are the only league team without a losing SEC record that LSU has a win against all season. That sweep last weekend over South Carolina (22-29, 7-19 SEC) was obviously fool’s gold.
This has not been the type of “wild” season that LSU pitching coach Nate Yeskie is used to going through.https://t.co/ULTgUXhCbN
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) May 6, 2026
What should also bother Johnson and pitching coach Nate Yeskie is the fact that LSU’s pitching for most of this season has looked like something off of Johnson’s non-conference schedule. Four Tiger pitchers on Saturday – starter Marcos Paz and relievers Danny Lachenmayer, Santiago Garcia and Zion Theophilus – combined to walk 13 batters while giving up 10 earned runs on 11 hits.
LSU’s pitchers have not improved as the season has gone on. They’ve gotten worse. That is not a sign of good coaching.
“We had a couple of guys coming out of the bullpen not ready when they came out of the bullpen,” Johnson said.
It’s May, and LSU’s starters have been leaving SEC games early to midway through all season. Why weren’t they ready?
Through the two most recent SEC sweeps at the hands of Texas A&M and Mississippi State and the first two games at Georgia, LSU pitching has allowed 72 earned runs courtesy of 84 hits, 60 walks and 21 home runs in 70 innings for a 9.26 ERA.
“Georgia is the best offense in college baseball,” Johnson said, repeating what he said after Friday night’s 11-8 loss. “They just put together great at-bats. Their power is one thing, but the difficulty in striking them out has probably what has impressed me the most.”
What should also impress Johnson is the job that Georgia coach Wes Johnson has done in just his third season since leaving LSU’s pitching coach job after the 2023 national championship.
Wes Johnson went 43-17 and 17-13 in the SEC in 2024 and reached a Super Regional, then 43-17 and 18-12 last year before losing in the NCAA Regional round. In just his third season, he has probably the best offense in the nation and one of the best teams in the nation that you will be able to watch in Omaha next month.
Georgia is a team Jay Johnson should continue studying – along with how Wes Johnson recruited it – this afternoon and through the end of May and the rest of a summer, void of a trip to Omaha.
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