LSU baseball lost its first series of the year, dropping two straight games to Sacramento State after scoring 15 runs Friday. The Tigers fell 6-1 Sunday.
It’s the first time LSU has lost a series to a non-power-conference since 2012 when it lost two of three against Appalachian State.
The Tigers’ greatest asset has become the facet of the game that they can’t seem to solve. They had the same amount of hits as Sacramento State, but they could never come at the right times.
The team is starting to look lost in the box, with only three hitters entering this game batting above .300. In the other dugout, the Hornets were taking advantage of every LSU mistake. Whether it was a walk, wild pitch or hit batter, Sacramento State kept stringing its strengths together.
“The summary is this: you get a good at bat, then you have a bad at bad, and then you have a good at bat with a bad result,” head coach Jay Johnson said. “We just couldn’t get anything sustained again.”
In the eighth inning, LSU had runners on the corners with two outs and Cade Arrambide up to bat. He flew out to center to end what could have been a desperately needed rally.
LSU couldn’t stop the bleeding after the Hornets put up multiple innings of crooked numbers.
Gavin Guidry hasn’t even looked like himself in his recent appearances, as he walked three and threw a wild pitch while allowing a run over his two innings on the mound.
William Schmidt started off his fourth start as hot as the previous ones. He retired his first six batters, including a couple of strikeouts that made opposing batters look silly.
Schmidt blew a 98 mph heater past Jakob Poturnak to end the first inning and had Cameron Sewell swinging out of his shoes to end the second.
Trouble arose in the third when the lead runner got on with a single and was scored when Mason Braun misjudged a deep fly ball to left field and let it get over his head.
The second run of the inning came around when Cade Arrambide beamed Erick Dessens in the head with the dropped third strike ball. Jay Johnson challenged for runner’s interference but was unsuccessful. Arrambide redeemed himself by catching him stealing second to end the inning.
Schmidt had another overall successful outing, fanning eight while allowing four hits in his 5.2 innings of work. His fastballs were wild at times, but his breaking balls were working until he started to find trouble in the sixth inning with his pitch count getting into the 90s.
“[I] thought he gave us a chance to win,” Johnson said. “The last inning there, maybe left the ball up a little bit and gave them some hard contact. If I could do it again, I would leave him in just because he’s probably our best pitcher right now.”
Cooper Williams inherited runners on the corners and hit his first batter to load the bags. He was subsequently taken out for righty Gavin Guidry so he could face the right-handed Jace Jeremiah. He walked him on five pitches.
Pinch-hitter Michael Perazzo then came up with an opposite-field grounder that scored two more Hornets.
LSU continues to be its own worst enemy as pitching that was once lockdown has now opened the gates to big innings for opposing teams that shouldn’t be able to come into Alex Box and tee off.
And the offense can’t help the team at all.
LSU had many balls hit hard in the first half of the game, but couldn’t even get a runner to third base until the seventh inning. Sacramento State’s corner outfielders robbed a few hits earlier that stuffed any scoring chance from LSU.
The Hornets brought their gold gloves on the trip to Baton Rouge, continuously stealing away hits. LSU couldn’t grab momentum if it was rolled to its feet.
“I thought Sacramento State pitched well, and we didn’t hit the mistakes,” Johnson said. “They did make some nice defensive plays on some well hit balls, but you got to have enough in the tank to live through those things.”
Even when getting a run across in the seventh from a Brayden Simpson base hit, LSU couldn’t keep runners moving across the basepaths with two outs. The same story LSU fans have seen over the last couple of weeks.
“We can do more collectively offensively,” Simpson said. “I think that’s what we just need to get back to doing as a team.”
Maverick Rizy came in to close out the ninth and had a strong inning with one hit as the lone blemish, giving LSU one more chance that it didn’t take.
The Tigers are now 12-5 entering the first week of conference play, with one more non-conference game to get right before heading to Nashville for the opening weekend of conference play. Creighton comes to Baton Rouge Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. before LSU plays Vanderbilt.
“Tuesday’s game is secondary to just improving the team, and we need time to do that,” Johnson said.