What happened to LSU?

The reigning national champion Tigers, ranked No. 2 after an 11-1 start to this baseball season, dropped four of five games against Northeastern, Louisiana and Sacramento State in a disastrous week that was designed to serve as a tuneup for the start of SEC play this week.

Instead, LSU is reeling entering Tuesday’s game against Creighton, before the Tigers visit Vanderbilt on Friday to start a three-game series. The Tigers dropped to No. 21 in The Athletic’s ranking Monday.

The culprit? LSU hit just .267 (44-for-167) in the five-game stretch. It collected two extra-base hits in losses on Saturday and Sunday against Sacramento State. The Hornets took the final two of three games in Baton Rouge, using the pitching effort of 5-foot-11 sophomore right-hander Carson Timothy on Sunday to clinch the series.

The latest in a group of unlikely performers to baffle LSU, Timothy allowed five hits in 6 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and no walks in the 6-1 Sacramento State victory.

HORNETS swarm the field and take the W 🚨 @SacStBaseball with the series UPSET against No. 2 LSU!#NCAABaseball pic.twitter.com/rbl9PzoDt1

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) March 9, 2026

“There are some guys that need our help,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said, “and we have to do the best job coaching that we possibly can.”

The Tigers lost 13-10 on Monday against Northeastern before the bats turned cold. In a Wednesday visit to Lafayette, La., to face Louisiana of the Sun Belt, LSU fell 7-2.

True freshman Sawyer Pruitt held the Tigers scoreless on two hits over the final four innings for the Ragin’ Cajuns. Pruitt, a 6-7, 240-pound right-hander, was once committed to Ole Miss and did not allow an earned run in 19 2/3 innings this season until Sunday against Dallas Baptist.

So he’s not quite an underdog on the level of Chris Walsh, the junior second baseman from Northeastern who slugged a three-run home run — the second of his career — against All-SEC pitcher Zac Cowan on Monday in Baton Rouge.

Sacramento State took the Cinderella story to a different level. After LSU won 15-4 on Friday in the series opener, the Hornets evened the series with a 5-4 win on Saturday. Second baseman Cameron Sewell hit a grand slam in the eighth inning against LSU’s Jaden Noot, once the No. 1 right-handed pitching prospect in the state of California.

The Hornets of the Western Athletic Conference feature none of those accolades on their roster. They entered the series against LSU just 3-9, with all three wins coming against Saint Joseph’s.

A year ago, LSU lost twice in the regular season out of conference. It just doubled that total in a week.

Around the horn

Not to be outdone, High Point won a series at No. 15 Florida on the strength of victories, 7-2 and 6-2, Friday and Saturday.

The Gators rebounded with a 12-11 win on Sunday, walking off the Panthers of the Big South on three consecutive bases-loaded walks after Brendan Lawson’s second homer of the game with one out in the ninth.

Oh no…..High Point just soiled a massive sweep with 5 walks in the 9th 😬

Gators avoid the sweep. Nothing gets easier here on out for Florida. pic.twitter.com/HvfphgGlvZ

— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) March 8, 2026

The slip against High Point came after Florida swept a pair of games last weekend at Miami. The Gators will host No. 12 Florida State on Tuesday.

Kentucky shortstop Tyler Bell, a first-round prospect as an MLB Draft-eligible sophomore, returned to the lineup Friday after missing 12 games with a shoulder injury. Concern existed that the injury, suffered last month in the season opener, might sideline Bell for an extended time.

Bell collected five hits, including a home run on Friday, in nine at-bats as the Wildcats swept three games against The Citadel.

Drafted by the Rays in 2024 at No. 66 overall in the second round, Bell opted to attend college and shattered the Kentucky freshman record with 10 home runs last season. Kentucky (14-2) opens SEC play Friday in Lexington against Alabama.

As conference play opened in the ACC, No. 14 Wake Forest swept a series against Stanford to improve to 15-1. And seventh-ranked Virginia won two of three at No. 10 North Carolina in a showdown of expected contenders.

Sophomore right fielder Zach Jackson homered in both victories for the Cavaliers, who improved to 13-3 under first-year coach Chris Pollard. The Tar Heels won in walk-off fashion, 8-7, on Saturday in the series finale as freshman Tyler Howe homered in the ninth inning, then singled home Owen Hull in the 12th.

Elsewhere, Boston College won two of three games at Miami. No. 5 Georgia Tech won a series against Virginia Tech, and Notre Dame won two of three at Duke.

In the Big Ten, eight teams began conference action. No. 1 UCLA scored five runs in the final two innings Sunday to complete a sweep at Ohio State with a 10-7 win. No. 17 USC stayed unbeaten at 15-0 with a sweep of Illinois.

Southern California beat Illinois 5-3 to finish off a sweep, meaning we’ll still have two perfect teams—USC and Texas, both 15-0—heading into Week 5. @USC_Baseball pitchers have allowed just seven runs over their last 36 innings. Truly remarkable effort so far this year.

— Jacob Rudner (@JacobRudner) March 8, 2026

Sticking with the theme of West Coast dominance, Oregon took two of three at Purdue, and Washington won two of three at Indiana. And Nebraska swept Michigan State to complete a 5-0 week at home after three weeks on the road to open the season.

Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson started hot with 10 home runs through three weeks of play. Then in the first full week of March, he unloaded.

Jackson hit a pair of grand slams, the first two of his collegiate career, on Wednesday against Western Carolina and Sunday against Queens. He finished with four home runs for the week to bring his total to a nation-leading 14 with 33 RBIs for the 11th-ranked Bulldogs.

Jackson, a junior, is slashing .408/.488/1.056 through 18 games for Georgia, which opens SEC play Friday in Athens against No. 22 Tennessee.

And finally

• Cal swept a four-game series in Berkeley against San Diego to extend its winning streak to 11 games ahead of a visit this week from North Carolina to start ACC play for the Bears. A year ago, Cal finished 9-21 in ACC play. It last made the NCAA postseason in 2019.

• A tip of the hat to the Hatters. After dropping the first two in a four-game series, Stetson of the Atlantic Sun Conference beat Arkansas 4-1 on Sunday in Fayetteville. The series wraps up Monday. Also in mid-major watch, Lafayette took one of three from NC State, and Wright State earned a 6-0 Sunday win at Tennessee in the series finale.

• Texas tuned up nicely for its SEC opener this week at Ole Miss with a sweep against USC Upstate. The Longhorns are 15-0 under second-year coach Jim Schlossnagle, aiming to end a three-year drought between College World Series appearances that equals their longest in the past quarter-century.

• Arizona continued its rebound after a 1-8 start. The Wildcats swept a series against Fresno State to improve to 6-9 ahead of a visit to Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Tuesday to face rival Arizona State.