Michael Bacigalupi
By Hunt Palmer
LSU made a change at first base coach on Tuesday.
Josh Simpson generally mans that spot, but Marc Wanaka took on the duties against Southeastern. Simpson hasn’t been demoted. He was on the road.
“(Simpson) was out recruiting today,” said LSU head coach Jay Johnson. “I don’t like doing that, but we’re at a point where we need to do that. I held off. I was considering doing it with him and coach Jordan last week and decided not to do that which was the right decision. (Simpson) needed to go cover some ground today and tomorrow, so he’s out of out of town recruiting.”
LSU’s performance certainly didn’t suffer on Tuesday night. The Tigers thrashed Southeastern 12-4. This 2026 team has three SEC weekends remaining, and right now the Tigers sit at 6-15 in league play, 15th. Postseason hopes are slim.
That’s uncharted territory for Johnson.
“I’ve never been in a position like this,” Johnson said. “Even in the Mountain West, you had the Mountain West tournament as double elimination. My first year at Nevada, we would have had to win the tournament to get in. But every other year, it’s like we’ve been in position to be in the NCAA Tournament. That’s not really the case as we sit today.”
LSU would likely have to finish 7-2 in SEC games down the stretch to have a reasonable at-large case. Considering the team hasn’t won a league game since Easter Sunday at Tennessee, seven of nine is a stretch.
Still, Johnson believes in his group and has seen better baseball in the last week.
“We need to figure out where we’re where we’re headed with some guys,” Johnson said. “And since I inserted (young players), or we inserted those guys, we’ve scored eight runs in five consecutive games, and we look like our team offensively now.”
LSU has scored 46 runs on 53 hits over the last five games. The hits include 11 doubles and nine homers. Mason Braun and Omar Serna enjoyed huge weekends in Starkville, and Jack Ruckert has six hits in the last five games including three doubles.
William Patrick is holding a starting outfield role, and Marcos Paz is expected to make another SEC start over the weekend on Saturday or Sunday depending on the availability of Casan Evans.
Young players have provided some optimism about the future, but Johnson knows the MLB Draft in July will also greatly impact his program moving forward. LSU lost eight high school signees to the professional ranks last season.
“I want to do better in the draft this year,” Johnson said. “We can’t fight guys getting $3 million in the fourth round, …it’s a good class, a lot of guys that can make some impact. We’re going to have six or seven guys drafted off this team. I think maybe eight, but I would probably say six would be my guess right now. So, you’re filling some of that. There are some seniors obviously moving along. So, it’s a kind of a turnover year for us.”
With an eye on the future, Johnson knows there is still a month of baseball left for this team to play. Any of the three games in Starkville could have gone differently.
“We don’t feel good about our record and where we’re at in the immediate and the 2026 season, but it’s not over yet,” Johnson said. “There’s still baseball to be played, and we’re going to make the most of it. I’m proud of the guys (Tuesday night). That was a long bus ride home after three gut punches where the offense frankly did its job and the pitching and the defense did not. We win as a team, and we lose as a team. I was very interested to see how we showed up (Tuesday). And I couldn’t be happier.”
More LSU Stories
