LSU baseball was swept by Texas A&M over the weekend. It marked LSU's second-straight weekend coming out on the wrong end of an SEC sweep after Ole Miss got the best of LSU before the Aggies did. LSU has dropped seven of its last eight games, and LSU is facing significant pressure down the stretch.
If the NCAA Tournament started today, LSU would probably be sitting at home. That's far below LSU's program standard, especially for a team that was ranked No. 2 in most major polls when the season began.
Texas A&M was the more complete team and outplayed LSU in every facet of the game. A&M's lineup is the best in the SEC and the Aggies flexed their muscles in Baton Rouge. In all three games, Texas A&M jumped on LSU early and the Tigers didn't have an answer.
Let's take a look at the weekend through the eyes of LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson. Here are some of his comments that stood out after all three games.
After batting consistently in the leadoff spot last year, Curiel bounced around the lineup throughout 2026 as Johnson attempts to figure out what works best.
"He's the best player on our team, so putting him in the right spot to be successful for our team to be successful is really all I'm trying to get out of that and he'll hit wherever I tell him to hit. That's one player that I don't ever have to worry about."
"The cleanup thing helped us a little bit. We'll look back at that, but we also left him on the deck at least a couple away late in some games and that's the risk that you run. For a while, we were able to get some big swings that you would risk that, because we were cashing in. It depends on the game. It depends on the pitcher.
"He can hit anywhere, he's not going to go any lower than 4, at least playing for me."
"We were like two outs, two strikes, like three or four times that inning, and didn't get off the field. [Chris] Hocopian just kind of stayed on a slider and muscled it out there to take the lead and then they moved up to second and third and [Jake] Duer punched one up the middle."
"That's what good teams do. Two out hitting, it's going to make the difference in the game. We had a couple chances. We had one in the first popped up. We had one, it was after [Steven Milam's] home run, and hit a ground ball to the shortstop.
"That's a glaring difference in the game. I know it was a six-run spread, but, you know, we're putting in different pitchers if we're not chasing runs, and it's not a six-run spread. They took advantage of those."
After Saturday's loss, Johnson talked about the growing pains we're seeing from some of the young pitchers.
"It's a job interview for all of them every day. And I'm not talking about just LSU. Like, the guys we bring in, they want to play beyond this. And it's all tracked now. You know, everybody can see everything," Johnson said.
"There's still some growing pains that happen this time of year. And, you know, I don't think it's exclusive to us. Not that I really care about anybody else. But, you know, flip on the TV and see some things that, you know, maybe not be the best baseball, you know, happen in another game. But got to learn from it. Like I said last night, we have to get value out of this struggle. You know, otherwise it's just painful, you know, and you got to get some value out of it. And so we're going to try to continue to do that," Johnson said.
"He's got everything you need to be great. And, again, like, he hadn't pitched in 18 months prior to this season starting. It was very minimal, you know, in the fall," Johnson said.
"I think he's going to be the best pitcher in the program. I really believe that. And I think he's moving in that direction," Johnson said.
After Saturday's game, Jay Johnson talked about the continued struggles of the defense, which includes wild pitches and passed balls.
"We'd still had three or four wild pitches or pass balls today. I don't know how they're categorized. But that's a bad sign. You want to look at struggle, literally look at those two stats, and it'll show you a team that's either playing clean or struggling. And I'm not blaming the pitcher. I'm not blaming Cade. That's not where I'm going with it," Johnson said.
"But I know we had two or three. I know one resulted in the first run of the game. Single, you know, from Wilson after they had moved up. We had two outs. I believe two strikes and a man on first, and they were able to move up, and then he got a single. So, you know, that would be the one thing I might pick at in this game. But, yeah, it was better. I think it's technically a zero in the air column. I don't know how many guys we struck out tonight or not. But, you know, again, like the bullpen, we'll take that as a positive."
"I thought we missed some pitches that we should hit. I thought we expanded the zone a couple times. I thought we struck out looking a couple times at very inopportune moments," Johnson said.