Tigers’ torrid offensive start has slowed for two days

LSU Baseball

By Hunt Palmer

LSU’s sizzling bats have cooled this weekend.

The Tiger offense roared out of the season’s starting blocks averaging 11.4 runs per game through nine contests. Against Dartmouth and Northeastern over the last two days, LSU has scored eight total runs on 10 hits without a long ball.

Jay Johnson, who is an offensive coach, isn’t concerned.

“If you’re winning 15-13 this time of year, there’s going to be a ceiling for your team,” Johnson said. “I think when you win 3-1, there’s a bigger ceiling for your team because you’re going to be in games.”‘

LSU has won both games entering Sunday thanks to strong pitching from Casan Evans, Gavin Guidry, Cooper Moore and Devin Sheerin. That quartet has worked 18 innings of three-run baseball with 28 strikeouts against six hits.

That’s allowed the LSU offense to get away with some struggles.

“We worked hard (Saturday) before the game,” Johnson said. “You’ve got good players missing some pitches that they usually hit. Like I said yesterday, some of it is approach. Some of it is swing. Some of it is attitude. That’s an important aspect of hitting. We’ll keep digging into that.”

Slumps become a little more digestible when they come from players with track records. This LSU group is extremely old by college baseball standards.

Steven Milam, Jake Brown, Seth Dardar, Trent Caraway, Zach Yorke , Brayden Simpson, and Chris Stanfield, who is out with an injured hand, are all in at least their third years as starting players. Derek Curiel isn’t, but he was the National Freshman of the Year in 2025.

Cade Arrambide is off to a fantastic start, so is freshman Mason Braun.

All the ingredients are still there, and two days of subpar swinging doesn’t change that.

“I’m optimistic,” Johnson said. “A week ago you’re having articles written saying this is the best lineup in the country. It’s never as good as it seems, obviously, right there. And it’s never as bad as it seems when maybe you’re not running balls out of the park and hitting liners

“Some of the guys that I know will do better are some of the guys that can play better right now. That’s actually good thing to have.”