Georgia provided the answers to all the questions about the 2026 LSU baseball team last weekend.
The Bulldogs, Southeastern Conference baseball champions for the first time in 18 years, swept three games from the Tigers in different ways.
In the series opener Friday, Georgia came back from a four-run deficit against two of LSU’s best relievers to register an 11-8 victory.
In the middle game Saturday, the Bulldogs jumped to an early lead and were never threatened in a 13-8 victory.
In the finale Sunday, Georgia put its collective feet on LSU’s collective throats for a 12-1 mercy-rule victory.
Yes, each of the three games took a different form. However, here is the fact of the matter. With one SEC series remaining, the Tigers are in 14th place in the league standings. LSU trails Georgia by 12 games. The gap between the two teams appears to be much larger.
The Bulldogs rode their hitting to win the SEC title. None of LSU’s pitchers had any success against Georgia batters. The pitching staff’s earned run average in the series was 14.32. Tigers’ pitchers gave up 36 runs and 39 hits with 26 walks in 22 innings.
Starting pitchers William Schmidt, Marcos Paz and Casan Evans lasted a total of seven innings. Those three pitchers were tagged for 16 runs in the seven innings. The bullpen had a 12.00 ERA in 15 innings. Deven Sheerin, Gavin Guidry and Zac Cowan were ineffective.
If Georgia has a red flag as regards its opportunity of making a deep run in the NCAA tournament, the pitching staff is the cause. LSU scored eight runs in each of the first two games. However, a few big hits were responsible for most of the production.
There was no consistency at the plate for all three games. Only two players had more than two hits in the series – Derek Curiel (5-for-10) and Mason Braun (4-for-10). Cade Arrambide was the only player with more than two RBIs – a two-run homer and a three-run double.
The three losses at Georgia means there will be no NCAA tournament at-large berth for the Tigers. LSU’s only opportunity of playing June baseball would result from a five-game sweep in next week’s SEC tournament.
The Tigers have earned this situation. Most people overlooked the fact that LSU lost five home games to non-power conference teams – Sacramento State (two), McNeese, Northeastern and Bethune Cookman. NCAA tournament teams do not have such defeats.
Let’s look at the Tigers’ SEC body of work during the past nine weeks.
LSU has played five series against teams who are in good shape to be NCAA tournament participants – Georgia, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee. The Tigers took two of three games from the Vols, but they were swept by the other four teams.
Losing five home games to non-power conference teams and losing 13 of 15 games to first-division SEC teams indicate that LSU’s season should end when it loses a game in the league tournament.
The Tigers have already assured themselves of having the program’s worst SEC record since Skip Bertman became coach in 1984. LSU has a 9-18 league record heading into the Florida series which begins Thursday at The Box.
For the seventh time since Bertman took over the program, the Tigers will have a losing SEC mark. LSU’s worst SEC record in that stretch occurred in 2007 – 12-17-1 in Paul Mainieri’s first season as coach.
The Tigers’ overall record after the Georgia series is 29-24, a .547 winning percentage. The poorest overall mark since Bertman became coach also happened in 2007 – 29-26-1, a .527 winning percentage.
LSU has a minimum of four games remaining – three against Florida and one in the SEC tournament. To avoid having a worse overall record than the 2007 team, the Tigers must win at least two more games.
LSU can still make a miracle run through the SEC tournament and advance to the NCAA tournament as an automatic qualifier. Those thoughts will be expressed by coach Jay Johnson and the players for the next week.
However, the product on the field since a season-opening eight-game winning streak shows such a run is quite improbable. Johnson and his staff should get an early start on building a NCAA tournament roster for 2027.
