Around the Horn: LSU fights for first SEC series win

By Hunt Palmer

Sunday was a gut check for LSU.

In a fight for a first series win, LSU was knocked to the canvas, down 7-0, and rose to the challenge with 11 runs in the last four offensive innings to win 17-10 and send Kentucky back to the Bluegrass.

There are two different discussion points here — LSU is in reasonable shape as far as the SEC standings go, and LSU isn’t playing good baseball.

You can determine which one is more important.

On one hand, the Tigers are tied with Auburn and Arkansas in the league. Those teams were in the top five in the country according to D1Baseball before they were swept this weekend. On another, this standard of play, if not improved, will make for a rough final seven weeks.

Jay Johnson made a statement on Sunday. He put technical coaching aside for a moment and engaged in a verbal confrontation with Kentucky’s pitching coach. If he’s going to ask his players to bring the fight, he’s got to do it, too. His team responded.

Maybe it’s something of a turning point. Maybe it’s just a wild Sunday in the SEC. Time will tell.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST

In two of the three SEC weekends, LSU has scored 28-plus runs. LSU scored 31 in Nashville and 28 against Kentucky. The Tigers collected 32 hits in 100 at bats for a .320 average over the weekend and had 13 extra base hits to Kentucky’s four.

Seth Dardar was 6-for-10 with four doubles, a homer, four walks and five RBI. That’s the player who led Kansas State offensively last season. He’s not going to reach base 10 times most weekends, but he’s also not a .220 hitter which is what he showed up to the park as on Friday.

Kentucky doesn’t have much pitching talent beyond Jaxon Jelkin who really stymied the LSU offense on Friday for eight innings. Over the final 17 offensive frames, LSU collected 27 hits and scored 26 runs. Twenty-two were earned.

Mason Braun, John Pearson and Chris Stanfield all provided important swings. Some of that depth is going to have to produce beyond Jake Brown and Derek Curiel. It did over the weekend.

BAD BASEBALL

There was plenty of poor play from LSU, too. Some of this stuff has nothing to do with the opponent. If you get beat by a Friday night starter with a 97 mph heavy sinker, like LSU did, that happens. The other stuff has to be cleaned up.

Omar Serna missed a hit and run sign on Saturday. He also failed to slide into second base and was nearly called for obstruction on review on Sunday. Trent Caraway threw a ball home on Friday that should have gone to first base. Serna caught it eight feet in front of home plate as the runner scored. Curiel was thrown out trying to steal third with no one out on Friday. With a left-handed hitter up giving the catcher a clean throw to the base, that’s just a steal you can’t attempt. Braun was thrown out easily at third base on Sunday because he ran through Josh Jordan’s stop sign. Dardar spiked a double play turn that Zach Yorke couldn’t pick at first base.

None of these mistakes are forced, and the plays themselves aren’t especially egregious. It’s the collection and amount that is so flagrant.

LSU hit five Kentucky batters and walked 20 more. Some of that is Kentucky’s approach, but far, far more of it is LSU staff not commanding the baseball.

LSU is just not a buttoned-up team at this point, and it’s hard to envision the team getting to that point.

EVANS’ ISSUES

It feels like months ago, but Casan Evans didn’t have his good stuff on Friday.

To his credit, the Tiger ace did find a way to complete six innings after a very bumpy start. He faced the minimum in his last three frames. It was the first three that did him in.

Facing a team with very little offensive punch, Evans walked the leadoff man in the first and hit the second batter. He threw the first pitch for a strike to only seven of the first 19 hitters he faced, walked six men and hit two more.

He had zero command of his fastball, and Kentucky made him pay for it. Evans threw 53 strikes and 47 balls.

Allowing four earned runs in six innings is not a disastrous start for a pitcher on just about any level. Evans is graded on a different curve because of the role he’s occupying. When you’re the “Friday Guy” at LSU, it has to be better than that.

The Friday guy at Alabama or Georgia can get away with an outing like that. At LSU, it needs to look like Kade Anderson or Paul Skenes or Alex Lange or Aaron Nola. Those are the arms that put LSU in position to win SEC weekends, regional rounds and games in Omaha. It’s a tall curve, but there are enough examples to make it a realistic expectation.

Evans delivered that effort last week against Oklahoma. He showed the potential against Little Rock and UCLA last June. However, he’s made seven starts to this point, and six of them have fallen below that standard. Friday was an opportunity to build on that brilliant OU effort, and he fell short.

BULLPEN BREAKDOWN

The bullpen roles have changed.

Gavin Guidry has to move down a peg, and Zac Cowan is back to being a high-leverage arm. He should join Deven Sheerin as the stoppers.

Guidry has now made three SEC appearances. He’s pitched 6.1 innings and allowed 12 runs on eight hits. He’s walked eight and struck out 11. Sunday’s start made sense. It just didn’t go well.

By contrast, Cowan has worked 8.1 shutout SEC innings with only two hits allowed. Saturday, he struck out seven. Evans and William Schmidt combined to strike out six in their two starts. Kentucky doesn’t hit much, but they don’t strike out. Cowan mowed them down with relative ease using that changeup.

MOVING FORWARD

LSU’s next two weeks come on the road.

What looked like a brutal gauntlet on paper now takes on a little bit of a different feel. Tennessee was swept in Nashville over the weekend and has made a change atop its rotation. Ole Miss scored six total runs in a weekend sweep at the hands of Mississippi State in Oxford. Only two came Saturday and Sunday as the Rebels struck out 28 times in two games.

Both teams are 3-6 in league play.

The way LSU is playing, none of the SEC weekends are easy. I’m not even remotely suggesting the next two will be. However, Tennessee and Ole Miss have significant flaws like LSU. The weekends look more winnable now than they may have prior to the season.

Trying to map out a path for LSU is a fool’s errand. The league produces zany results weekly. Alabama has swept Auburn and Florida. Those Gators turned around and swept Arkansas. Just this weekend seven of the eight series were swept. LSU and Kentucky were the exception.

For LSU, it’ll be about Evans finding consistency and the offense building on a nice weekend effort.