The margins are razor thin in SEC play. LSU felt fortunate to grab rubber matches against Kentucky and Tennessee after falling well behind. It looked like the Tigers were destined to pull off a hat trick, coming back from another massive Sunday deficit. It wasn’t meant to be as Ole Miss scored in the bottom of the seventh to retake the lead and finish off the sweep in Oxford.
Mother Nature didn’t allow Texas and Texas A&M to finish their three-game series on Sunday. The Aggies won the first two, meaning 13 of the 16 teams in the league have played a winless weekend. LSU met that fate at Ole Miss.
Entering the weekend, Ole Miss’s offense was the worst in the SEC. In league games, the Rebels had the fewest hits in the conference and were 15th among 16 teams in batting average. They had the third most strikeouts and third fewest runs scored. A team with a .256 batting average hit .348 against LSU.
Every level of the staff is responsible. Evans and Schmidt are solid SEC arms, yet haven’t demonstrated championship-caliber potential as a starting pair. The Tigers are 2-3 in Evans’s SEC starts and 1-4 behind Schmidt, totaling a 3-7 record.
SEC opponents are averaging 6.7 runs per game against LSU. The Tiger staff has held teams to three or fewer runs just twice in 15 games. Conversely, LSU has given up eight-plus runs in six of 15, nearly half.
Friday night featured defensive miscues by LSU. Clauss failed to step on second base receiving a throw and overran a safety squeeze bunt. Dardar threw wide of first on a backhand ground ball. Stanfield’s throw home was twenty feet offline as a runner scored. All occurred in one inning during the Rebels’ three-run eighth.
We’ve reached the midway point, and LSU sits at 6-9. The Tigers must post a 7-8 record in the second half to feel comfortable getting into the field of 64.
This group is porous on defense, questionable in the rotation and has not hit top-end SEC pitching. Failing to produce against quality arms represents a significant concern moving forward.
