GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU lost as many games in three days over the weekend at No. 9 Auburn as it did over the previous 56 days.
The Tigers ventured onto The Plains ranked No. 3 in the nation at 31-3 with one loss in February to Omaha and only two in March at Texas, which is now No. 1 in the nation.
And they were flattened, 8-4, 4-2 and 3-2.
LSU (31-6, 10-5 Southeastern Conference) now finds itself at No. 9 in the nation with a No. 9 RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) and hovering around the cut-off for one of the eight national seeds for the all-important right to host the NCAA Regional and Super Regional rounds – if those came out today.
And the Tigers host one of the hottest teams in the country tonight in No. 26 RPI McNeese State (27-5, 14-4 Southland Conference), which only has the nation’s longest winning streak at 12 games, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Then No. 15 Alabama (29-8, 8-7 SEC), which has a No. 11 RPI, opens a three-game series at LSU on Thursday (7 p.m., ESPNU) with a 6 p.m. Friday game on SEC Network + and the series finale on Saturday (5 p.m., SEC Network).
LSU coach Jay Johnson is not panicking, but he did hold a practice on Monday – the day after a Sunday game and the day before a Tuesday game, which he usually does not do.
“It was a quick and efficient practice,” Johnson said on his radio show Monday night. “I wanted to make sure they were right.”
Mainly because they sure didn’t look right at Auburn. The Tigers hit the “Loveliest Village on The Plains” at No. 2 in the SEC in batting average at .328.
And they left after hitting .187 (18-for-96) with an uncanny 38 fly outs and scored all of eight runs through 27 innings after averaging in double digits most of the season. The Tigers were a pitiful 4-for-27 with runners in scoring position and left 26 men on base.
“We had the table set,” Johnson said. “We were an at-bat short too many times. The pitchers did enough to win in games two and three (and game one with better defense). Unfortunately, we just didn’t score enough.”
LSU also committed two errors to give Auburn two unearned runs in the 8-4 loss on Friday. There were no errors charged in the 4-2 loss on Saturday, but left fielder Derek Curiel let a fly ball get over his head for an RBI double in the fourth inning. Then right fielder Josh Pearson could’ve been charged an error on the next at-bat as he let a ball dislodge from his glove on a dive. That was another RBI double.
“We just didn’t make the plays that we normally do,” Johnson said. “Those two plays were enough to make the difference in the game when you’re playing a high-level team. That’s how it goes.”
Johnson hates the saying, “That’s baseball.” But it fit at Auburn, which came in with the No. 12 earned run average in the 16-team SEC at 4.72.
“For 34 games, this team was fantastic before the 72 hours at Auburn,” Johnson said. “And so, we can choose to believe which team that we are. A little perspective is important. And you have to take the lessons that were learned in losing and turn them into wins later on. That’s what the best teams do. That’s what we’re going to choose to do, and we’re going to have to do it, because everybody that we play from this point forward is just like that team we just played.”
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