A whole lotta the same and a whole lotta bad
LSU’s offense no-showed Saturday afternoon on Rocky Top and the Tigers (22-14, 3-11) lost 3-1 to Tennessee (29-6, 9-5).
With LSU losing today and 6-3 on Friday, the Tigers have officially dropped the series against the Vols. LSU is now 0-5 in SEC series this season, and it’s the first time since 1977 the Tigers have dropped five consecutive conference series.
Luke Holman was more than deserving of the win as he had a no-hitter through 5.1 innings. Holman finished the evening after 5.2 innings. Holman gave up two hits and two runs, struck out four and walked three.
“Everything was working for Luke tonight,” Jay Johnson said, “he’s the best player on our team, and he pitched like it again tonight. He did a great job; he did everything he could to help us win the game.”
Griffin Herring came on in relief of Holman and was good, but maybe not great. Herring pitched the final 2.1 innings in which he gave up three hits, one run, struck out four and walked one.
But neither Holman nor Herring got the run support they needed to even the series. Even though LSU had nine hits, the offense was only able to scratch one run across. LSU was 1-10 with runners in scoring position, and 3-20 with a runner on base.
“We’re going to have to get over the pressure barrier and move the baseball on offense,” Johnson said. “We collected hits off of Beam, but he was consistently in the strike zone. Credit to him, he threw strikes and he mixed his pitches the entire game.”
LSU will try to avoid the sweep on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 and the game, unfortunately, will be broadcasted on SEC Network.