By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
What the LSU baseball team needs is a rainout … fast.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the forecast in Starkville, Mississippi, for Sunday afternoon is a 96 percent chance of no rain.
So, the only storm that defending national champion and former preseason No. 1 LSU (24-20, 6-14 Southeastern Conference) may see today is the continuation of its deluge of a season at 1 p.m. against No. 15 Mississippi State (33-10, 12-8 SEC) on the SEC Network+.
LSU baseball team having historic season:https://t.co/VnFC37IkaO
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) April 26, 2026
The Tigers tied a school record Saturday night with their eighth straight SEC loss – 9-8 to the Bulldogs after leading 7-2 after six innings. On Friday, LSU led 7-3 in the fourth, only to lose 10-8 in 11 innings.
The last time an LSU baseball team lost eight straight SEC games was during the Tigers’ second worst league season ever in 1977 when they finished 17-27 overall and 4-15 in the league for .211 winning percentage. The previous worst was in the SEC’s first year in 1933 when LSU went 2-8 overall and 0-4 in the SEC.
LSU also lost eight straight SEC games in 1955 during a 6-17 and 4-11 season and in 1937 during a 12-14 and 5-10 campaign.
Before Tony Montana and Miami Vice, there was Miami Skip:https://t.co/7EqCLYZ0YX
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) April 25, 2026
With a loss this afternoon amid a depleted pitching staff, the Tigers would set the school record with nine straight SEC losses. LSU has also never been swept in three straight, three-game SEC series.
“Guys are competing,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said after another exasperating loss Saturday, which dropped him to 0-for-6 in one-run games on the season. “They’re in the fight. They’re ready to play, and we’ve gotten better.”
Excuse me? That last part – “gotten better?”
I think this 0-for-8 is getting to Johnson, who won two of the last three national championships. There was that 3-12 start in the SEC in 2024, but he recovered to finish 13-17 and reach the NCAA postseason. That’s not going to happen this year. LSU will be home for the postseason for the first time since 2011 (36-20, 13-17 SEC). But it deserved to go that year. The last time LSU didn’t go to postseason and deserved that was in coach Paul Mainieri’s first year in 2007 at 29-26-1 and 12-17-1.
The team is looking at its first single-digit-SEC-win season since 9-12 in 1983 – the last season before Skip Bertman, whose worst SEC mark was 12-12 in his first year.
To be fair, the team is hitting better. It had 11 hits on Saturday after getting 13 on Friday. In the sweep at home last weekend against Texas A&M by 10-4, 7-2 and 5-2, the Tigers had 12 hits combined over the last two games. In getting swept at Ole Miss the previous weekend, 6-3, 12-2 (seven innings) and 8-7, the Tigers had single-digit hits in every game.
At least, LSU has been in the games this weekend.
But its pitching continues to get worse. Yes, the Tigers lost No. 2 starter Cooper Moore (3-3, 3.58 ERA) for the season back in March. And sophomore “ace” Casan Evans (2-2, 5.47 ERA) was scratched from his start Friday night with arm discomfort. He was better Saturday and could pitch next weekend, but he has been far from the All-American he was last season.
Sophomore William Schmidt (4-4, 4.17 ERA), meanwhile, has simply not developed into the stud starter as advertised by Johnson and so many others. He usually can’t finish the fifth or even see the sixth inning. He got to 89 pitches Saturday as he pitched into the fifth, allowing two runs on three hits and three walks with his ninth wild pitch of the season. He has struck out 72 on the year, but with 25 walks and nine home runs.
“As painful as this is, getting through this season and having to go through some of this to understand what these things are will really help him,” Johnson said of Schmidt, but he could have been talking about the whole team.
“And we’re on top of it as far as another pitch (for Schmidt),” Johnson said as he tends to throw fastball after fastball with opponents basically teeing up. “Is it two more pitches to have a chance to be successful the third time through the order?”
Johnson and pitching coach Nate Yeskie should have been asking that and considering more pitches for Schmidt last year. He was 0-0 with a 27.00 ERA in five SEC appearances a year ago when he allowed a .375 average.
Yeskie, meanwhile, has been unable to cure his staff of what has ailed it all season – walks and wild pitches.
There were seven walks, two wild pitches and a hit batsman from six pitchers on Saturday. There were eight walks and two wild pitches from seven pitchers on Saturday. It’s comical watching this pitching staff for the most part. Particularly now with the offense coming around, and the bullpen performing a good rendition of the Red Sox against the Mets in Game 6 in 1986. LSU’s relievers can’t hold a lead, and its starters have been unable to be much more than an opener.
With the losses Friday and Saturday paired with back-to-back wins by South Carolina over Kentucky, LSU has fallen in to 15th place in the SEC behind the No. 14 Gamecocks (22-22, 7-13 SEC). South Carolina will be in Baton Rouge this weekend for what has long looked like a respite from the hurricane of losses for LSU.
But the Gamecocks will likely come in thinking they can win two. And don’t bet against them. In addition to Evans, other Tigers questionable for future games are third baseman John Pearson (hamstring) and left fielder Chris Stanfield (hamstring).
That after losing starting right fielder and home runs and RBI leader Jake Brown to a broken hamate bone last week.
With a trip to No. 5 Georgia (33-11, 14-6 SEC) and the home finale series against No. 12 Florida (29-15, 11-9 SEC), LSU at 6-14 (.300 winning percentage) is flirting with its worst SEC season since going 7-14 (.333) in a 23-30 season in 1981. The last time LSU only won six SEC games was in 1978 during a 12-34 and 6-18 (.250) season.
The question now is does LSU have an SEC win left in it?
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