Offense stays cold as Tigers lose series to Sacramento State

By Hunt Palmer

THE STORY

In a vacuum, LSU’s Sunday loss to Sacramento State wouldn’t look so bad.

The Hornet runs came from some walks, a misplay in left, a weakly hit ground ball single and a safety squeeze. LSU scorched a handful of balls that were caught at the wall or by diving infielders. Sacramento State outplayed LSU, but it could have gone another way.

It didn’t. The Hornets beat LSU 6-1.

The issue isn’t a Sunday loss or a series loss. It’s two weeks of bad baseball.

Sacramento State dented the scoreboard first in the third. With two outs and a runner at first Sam Harry lined deep to left, and Mason Braun misjudged it and couldn’t recover. It flew his outstretched glove by a couple of feet and plated a run. The second came home on a strikeout that bounded away from Cade Arrambide who misfired to first and into right field. Solid play by the Tigers makes that a zero instead of a two.

William Schmidt was excellent beyond that.

It was 2-0 entering the sixth. Schmidt got a pair of quick outs and then allowed two singles. Jay Johnson pulled him at 90 pitches, and Cooper Williams came in to plunk a hitter on his third pitch. With the bases loaded, Gavin Guidry walked in a run and allowed the slow roller through the infield to make it 5-0.

Relievers are brought in to get their first hitter, and neither Williams nor Guidry did. That sealed LSU’s fate.

The Tigers scored in the bottom half of the seventh thanks to a throwing error that allowed Arrambide aboard. He scored on Brayden Simpson‘s RBI single.

The Hornets got that run back with a walk, a wild pitch that should have been caught, a single and a safety squeeze.

LSU’s pitching was fine all weekend. The lineup is on ice. That will eventually change, but every person in that home dugout is now feeling it. And its cost them some real metrics that will show up on Memorial Day. A loss like Sunday’s is not a big deal. Two weeks like this is.

THE SCORECARD

William Schmidt: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 90 pitches, 58 strikes

Both teams got 8 hits.

LSU didn’t have an extra base hit and only struck out five times.

Sacramento State had one extra base hit.

LSU was 6-for-34 (.174)

LSU was 3-for-16 (.188) with runners on.

LSU was 1-for-8 (.125) with runners in scoring position.

WHAT’S NEXT

Omaha talk? LSU is back in action on Tuesday when Creighton comes to Baton Rouge. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.