Around the Horn: LSU snags series at Tennessee

By Hunt Palmer

Through four weeks of league play, LSU hasn’t played very well.

That was the case in 2024, too. The difference is, this team has kept its head above water. LSU is 6-6 in SEC games despite lackluster defense, an inconsistent ace and some disheartening losses.

Criticize this group’s play. Sure. You can’t fault the fight, though.

LSU scored 10 in the last three innings to salvage a game at Vanderbilt, 10 in its last three at bats to win the series on Sunday over Kentucky, six in its last two at bats Friday to steal a win and 15 after the sixth to beat Tennessee in extras on Easter.

That’s not to mention the 6-1 deficit they erased against Southern in the midweek. Ideally, the team wouldn’t consistently fall behind, but credit the group for fighting and swinging the bats. I wouldn’t call a .500 record a perfect spot to be in, but it beats the heck out of 3-12 where the Tigers made the turn two years ago.

OFFENSE OUTBURST

LSU is finally swinging the bats.

The Tigers bashed 11 homers at cozy little Lindsey Nelson over the weekend. They also hit .378 with runners on base and .346 with runners in scoring position. Cam Appenzeller, who hasn’t given up a run in SEC play yet, choked the offense out for five innings on Saturday. Aside from his outing, LSU hit .282 for the weekend and produced 24 runs.

That adds to what is now a really strong eight-game stretch between a pair of midweek wins and six league games against Kentucky and Tennessee.

Over that stretch of eight games, LSU is hitting .314 (90-for-287) as a team with 13 doubles and 21 homers while scoring 10.4 runs per game.

Kentucky ace Jaxon Jelkin held LSU down like Appenzeller did. The last and most challenging piece to the puzzle is solving aces. LSU isn’t there yet. But huge contributions from guys like Seth Dardar, Cade Arrambide and John Pearson are crucial.

Dardar is hitting .444 over that stretch with four doubles, a triple and three homers. Pearson has a six-game hitting streak with three homers and nine RBI. Arrambide authored perhaps the best game in LSU history on Sunday. Oh, by the way, Steven Milam has seven hits in his last four games. He’s been known to get hot.

There are severe warts on this team, but the offense was the issue most likely to turn around. It’s doing that.

DEFENSIVE DISASTER

The defense is still a massive, massive problem.

Zach Yorke is mentally fried. He made eight errors in three full seasons at Grand Canyon. He’s got five in half a year at LSU. Playing first base in the SEC is not appreciably different than playing it in the Mountain West. It’s throwing and catching the ball, and Yorke isn’t doing it.

The ground ball through his legs on Saturday felt costly. I’m not prepared to say LSU was going to turn a 3-6-3 double play on it, but an out has to be recorded. That didn’t ultimately cost LSU the way it felt because the offense only scored one run. Sunday’s misplay on a bad throw by Dardar was also unfortunate. I’ve only seen the live television angle which doesn’t show whether or not the ball bounced or was just low. That’s an inexcusable throw from Dardar AND a play Yorke needs to make.

I’ll give Milam a pass for the wide throw to second on Sunday. He’s been brilliant. Jake Brown‘s throwing arm continues to be remarkably strong and inaccurate. A decent throw home on Sunday gets an out. It was 15 feet up the third base line, and Omar Serna paid for it. Brown has five errors on the season, and I believe they’re all throwing.

At this point, it’s just not going to get much better. You can make a change at first base. We’ll get to that. Dardar is going to be a liability defensively. He has to make up for it with offense. Same with Pearson at third. You just have to hope the misplays don’t come at costly moments. That’s not a comforting feeling.

FIRST BASE

I wrote it above, but Yorke is a mess. It looks mental. In SEC play, the big first baseman is 5-for-34 (.147) with 14 strikeouts and no extra base hits. He’s not doing the job on defense, either. You could see in his face after the two-homer game against Louisiana Tech that he was fighting it. He admitted to pressing.

Right now, he needs to sit.

Mason Braun played the outfield in high school. He may need to give you some games at first base. Serna is also an option with Arrambide behind the plate. I’m also not opposed to Eddie Yamin getting some run behind the dish with Serna at first. Yamin has hit the ball hard in very limited at bats, and he looks to be decent defensively. He’s certainly not a step down from the spotty defense LSU has gotten behind the plate thus far.

While the fanbase will write Yorke off for the next two months, I won’t. I still think he can hit. But right now, he’s just lost out there. Baseball is a lonely sport when that’s the case.

MOVING FORWARD

After four weeks of SEC play, 11 of the league’s 16 teams have been swept. That includes 8-4 Alabama, a really good Mississippi State team, Arkansas at home and an Auburn team that has spent time in the top five.

This LSU team doesn’t really feel elite in any phase. Still, it has avoided disaster and stayed afloat.

Casan Evans and William Schmidt are talented. Zac Cowan has emerged as a force again. The lineup is coming to life, and they fight like hell.

The best coach in college baseball is also in the dugout.

It’s almost time to look at some metrics which aren’t especially reassuring. LSU’s RPI sits at 70 with four Quad 4 losses. The non-conference strength of schedule is 257th, and that won’t look any better after Bethune Cookman leaves town on Tuesday.

However, 18 SEC games remain before Hoover. That’s a mountain of time to make a move. I get asked daily what I think about this team. My answer has remained consistent. I think they’re better than they’ve played and not championship caliber.

That puts them around 15 league wins and likely to travel for postseason play. That’s just one guy’s opinion. What’s not opinion is that this thing could look a lot worse than it does today at 6-6. But it’s not.

LSU still has brutal road trips coming to Starkville and Athens. That’s six of the toughest games anyone in the country will play. South Carolina offers some opportunity at home, and Florida, Texas A&M and Ole Miss all have their issues despite real talent on their rosters.

I don’t know how things will shake out with this group. That includes Cooper Moore‘s future. He is scheduled to start throwing the ball this week. What I do know is that they’re in a decent spot right now relative to the type of baseball they’ve played.

On to Oxford.