By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – A month ago on March 3, LSU head baseball coach Jay Johnson couldn’t stop smiling. The then-No. 2 Tigers had just won four games in five days in Houston including capturing the Astros Classic with victories over Texas, UL-Lafayette and Texas State.
“I hope to coach for a long time, but I will remember this week for a long time,” said Johnson, whose team never trailed in any of the wins to improve the Tigers’ record to 11-1.
Since then, LSU is 9-9, falling to 20-10 overall with a 2-7 start SEC play. It has plummeted in the polls — to No. 5 after losing its first conference series at Mississippi State, then to No. 8 after losing its second conference series to Florida in Alex Box Stadium and now sitting at No. 18 after being swept in its third league series at No. 1 Arkansas last weekend.
If that wasn’t enough decline, there was also the April Fool’s Day joke of the Tigers’ sleepwalking through a 12-7 non-conference home loss Monday night to crosstown rival Southern.
“We have to get better at everything, you know, relative to competitiveness, concentration,” Johnson said after the loss in which LSU had just four hits and committed three errors.
And now, in the first week of April, LSU finds itself at a critical crossroads, desperately needing an SEC series win as it hosts No. 7 Vanderbilt (23-6, 6-3 SEC) in Game 1 today at 6 p.m.
Next weekend, LSU plays at No. 4 Tennessee, completing the first half of SEC play against five ranked teams including four currently in the D1baseball.com top 7 (No. 1 Arkansas, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 5 Florida and Vanderbilt).
LSU hasn’t lost its first four SEC series since 1969.
“This is a good group of guys and they care deeply and they want to get it right, both individually and collectively,” Johnson said of his team, which lost seven position starters, its three-man starting pitching rotation and its best reliever off last year’s national championship team. “And I think they will. I really do.
“It’s just not going to be easy. We’ve gone through a stretch where the teams on our conference schedule are all Omaha (College World Series) caliber. There’s very little margin for error, therefore, everything has to be done perfectly.”
LSU is on brink off falling over the cliff into a post-national title abyss like 2021 CWS winner Mississippi State did in its 26-30 (9 21 SEC) 2022 season or 2022 CWS winner Ole Miss did a year ago when it went 25-29 (6-24 SEC).
The Tigers offense is anemic in conference play ranking 13th in the 14-team SEC in batting average (.243), runs scored (42) and runs batted in (39). LSU leads the league in a dubious distinction: grounding into double plays (8).
The only LSU players in the top 10 in any major offensive stat category are shortstop Michael Braswell III (No. 1 in on-base percentage at .541) and third baseman Tommy White (tied for No. 3 in home runs at 5).
LSU’s pitching, which had a staff earned run average of 2.82 enroute to a 16-2 non-conference record, has an ERA in SEC play of 7.50. It leads the league with 53 walks issued.
The Tigers’ starting pitching rotation of Luke Holman and Gage Jump (3 SEC starts), Thatcher Hurd (2 SEC start) and Javen Coleman (1 start) have a combined league games-only ERA of 6.53.
The only shining hurler on the staff as of late has been reliever Griffin Herring, who’s third in conference action in ERA at 0.90.
“Something profound said in our (coaching) staff meeting after the (Southern game) was `If your best players play good, a lot of issues go away’,” Johnson said. “Frankly, we need our best players to play good if we’re going to beat any of these teams that are on our schedule.”
Johnson has battened down the concentration hatches to get his team is completely focused.
“There’s not going to be any cell phones running around that locker room or clubhouse for a very long time,” Johnson said of banning the use of cell phones. “I want everything that they have while they are there.”
Vanderbilt comes to Baton Rouge with a five-game win streak. The Commodores swept their season opening series at home vs. Auburn, then got swept at South Carolina and rebounded with a home sweep of Missouri.
In his 22nd season as Vanderbilt’s head coach, Tim Corbin said he changed his recruiting philosophy after watching LSU win the national title by buying transfers like national Pitcher of the Year Paul Skenes from the Air Force Academy and national RBI leader third baseman Tommy White from North Carolina State.
That duo teamed with returning junior centerfielder Dylan Crews, won the Golden Spikes Award as the best player in college baseball, to formal a lethal trio.
“The difference makers. . .those guys show up on campus and when they show up on campus, there’s a reason why their teams get to where they do,” Corbin said told The Tennessean newspaper before this season started. “Last year for LSU was Skenes and Crews.”
Last September, Vanderbilt’s entire baseball team signed an NIL deal with the Anchor Impact Fund, the university’s NIL collective, to ensure ensure all its players, and not just a handful, earn money.
No. 7 VANDERBILT (23-6, 6-3 SEC) at No. 18 LSU (20-10, 2-7 SEC)
Game 1: Thursday, 6 p.m. (ESPN2)
Game 2: Friday, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
Game 3: Saturday, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
No starting pitcher matchups for either team have been announced.
LSU-VANDERBILT SERIES
Vandy has won eight of the past 10 regular-season series between the schools. LSU swept three games from the Commodores when the teams last met on May 19-21, 2022, in Nashville. Vanderbilt posted a three-game sweep over the Tigers in the Commodores’ most recent visit to Baton Rouge in 2021.
A LOOK AT LSU
Junior right-hander Luke Holman is No. 1 in the SEC in ERA with a 1.38 mark, and he’s No. 2 in the league in strikeouts (61), innings pitched (39.0) and wins (5). Junior shortstop Michael Braswell III is hitting .438 (7-for-16) in LSU’s last five games, including .500 (5-for-10) in last weekend’s Arkansas series. He’s the Tigers’ top hitter in SEC games, batting .393 (11-for-28) with three doubles, two RBI and four runs.
A LOOK AT VANDERBILT
Vanderbilt is No. 5 in the SEC in team batting average (.300) with 66 doubles, eight triples, 29 homers and 59 steals in 66 attempts. Sophomore utility player RJ Austin is hitting a team-best .351 with five doubles, two homers, 29 RBI, 28 runs and 16 steals in 19 attempts. The Commodores are No. 3 in the SEC in team ERA (3.61).
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com