A Texas-sized collapse
Sorry I wasn’t around to give more detailed recaps of all three games from this weekend, y’all. My dad had neck surgery in the fall and is starting to have some complications from it so I spent Friday with him, and Saturday there was a lot going on with baseball, gym, women’s basketball, and football adding a commitment.
With all that said, here’s a quick summary of LSU dropping two out of three in Austin.
Friday
Things got off to as swimmingly of a start as LSU could have hoped for as the Tigers won the opening game 8-2.
Kade Anderson had arguably his best performance yet as the sophomore lefty went six innings in which he allowed a pair of runs off of seven hits, eight strikeouts and, most importantly, zero walks.
Anderson handed the ball to Zac Cowan who Jay Johnson rode all the way home to a Game 1 win. Cowan pitched the final three innings and only allowed one hit; Cowan was credited with his second save of 2025.
“Kade and Zac both did a great job of pounding the zone with all of their pitches,” Jay Johnson said. “They’re hard to deal with because they change speeds so well, and they locate. They really know what they’re doing, and they both did a great job tonight.”
Trailing 2-0, Luis Hernandez gave the Tigers the lead in the fourth inning, when he hit a two-run home run, his third of the season. Hernandez ended the night 3-4 at the plate with three RBI.
LSU blew the game open in the seventh inning with four runs. The Tigers sent its entire lineup to the plate, with Michael Braswell, Chris Stanfield, and Jared Jones all driving in runs. Braswell laid down yet another bunt single that scored a run, and Jones went opposite field to drive in a pair.
Saturday
While Anderson and Cowan did not issue a single walk in Friday’s game, the Tiger pitchers on Saturday night could not replicate the same success and that played a big part in LSU coming up short 11-7.
Anthony Eyanson got the Saturday start once again and wasn’t nearly as effective as Anderson was. Eyanson pitched into the fifth inning before being pulled and finished the night with 4.1 IP, four hits, four runs, all earned, six strikeouts against two walks. He wasn’t outclassed by Texas’ starting pitcher Luke Harrison (4 IP, 4 hits, 5 runs, 3 Ks, 2 BBs) by any means, but he just isn’t pitching deep enough into games through two SEC starts.
I realize I’m going to sound like a broken record, but LSU’s bullpen aside from Cowan and Casan Evans can’t be trusted to throw strikes, and that was a big problem in Saturday’s game.
Connor Ware was pulled after just five pitches. He walked the only batter he faced and wasn’t done any favors by Herandez who allowed a passed ball that scored a Texas run. Ware was replaced by William Schmidt and he gave up a three-run home run to Rylan Galavan. Schmidt allowed four of the five batters he faced to reach base and was pulled for Connor Benge.
To his credit, Benge had a 1-2-3 sixth inning, but things fell apart for him in the seventh. Benge gave up a lead off home run and after getting a groundout allowed back-to-back base hits. His night was over after that, and DJ Primeaux came on in his stead.
Primeaux wasn’t good, Jacob Mayers was worse, and Dalton Beck, incredibly, had the worst outing of the three and was pulled in the middle of an at bat after just three pitches.
Sunday
If you want to be nice you’d say LSU’s day was “weird” on Sunday. If you want to be honest, you’d say LSU was “bad.” As with all things, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but the result ended up the same: Texas 6, LSU 2.
Chase Shores got the start and it flopped. Shores threw 96 pitches but was only able to give LSU four innings, but not before giving up seven hits and five runs. Shores was taken deep by Max Belyeu who was 2-4 with four RBI today. Johnson eventually turned to Casan Evans, but by that point LSU was already down 5-0.
If there is a silver lining its that Casan Evans gave the type of effort LSU needed out of Shores today or any of the bullpen arms from last night. Evans went 3.2 innings and only allowed one run off of four hits.
Offensively LSU surprisingly had no answer for Texas’ Ruger Riojas who, despite pitching earlier in the week and making his first start of the season, had the Tigers flummoxed. Riojas went 5.2 innings where he gave up two runs off of seven hits.
As mentioned above, Sunday was just weird for LSU as well. Tanner Reaves couldn’t quite come up with a grounder to third base and Steven Milam, for reasons I still can’t explain, kind of just watched the ball and Texas turned what could have been a ground ball out into a double. Jake Brown flat out dropped a ball in right field. Then Johnson turned to Ethan Frey to pinch hit but the defensive lineup shuffled around resulting in Jones playing third, Frey playing right, and Jake Brown playing first. Brown had another fielding gaffe at first base that cost LSU a double play and they instead had to settle for a fielder’s choice. Oh and if all that wasn’t enough, Jay Johnson got ejected in the bottom of the eighth inning.
All in all the results of this weekend isn’t really all that surprising. In fact it’s probably expected? LSU went on the road to a top-10 team and took it on the chin two out of three games.
That said, the LSU we saw Friday night versus the team we saw in the back half of Saturday and the entirety of Sunday are in completely different universes. That Friday night team could win a national championship; the Sunday afternoon team may not get out of a regional.
The good news is it’s March and LSU still has eight more weekends to figure things out, and it sure looks like one of Zac Cowan or Casan Evans needs to start taking the mound to start Sundays. But if you’ve only got two trusted bullpen arms, can you really justify moving one? Is it worth the tradeoff of bolstering your rotation for worsening what’s clearly your biggest weakness, especially when Gavin Guidry is still nowhere to be found?
Jay Johnson’s got a lot of questions to figure out and he needs to come up with some answers quickly. LSU will host ULL on Tuesday night and welcome in Mississippi State to The Box for a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series.