LSU baseball endured one of its worst stretches last week in recent memory, losing four of its last five matchups against unranked, non-conference opponents and falling from No. 2 in D1Baseball’s latest rankings to No. 13.
Each visitor left Alex Box Stadium with a ‘highest-ranked win’ storyline in some form.
The Tigers, who started the season 11-1, fell to Northeastern and Louisiana in midweek contests on Monday and Wednesday, respectively, and lost their three-game series over the weekend to Sacramento State, 2-1. Surprisingly, they were outscored by just five runs (35-30) across the seven day span.
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The caveat? 25 of the Tigers' runs came in two games.
Half of the 30 came in Game 1 against the Hornets. LSU bounced back from the loss to Louisiana, winning in seven innings, 15-4, helped by 14 hits.
It went downhill after that, with the Tigers scoring five runs and collecting nine hits combined in the next two contests against Sacramento State, who entered Saturday with a 4-8 record.
The Hornets led 1-0 for most of Game 2 until second baseman Cameron Sewell broke it open with a grand slam to right in the eighth, his first homer of the season to cap off a career-RBI day (five). LSU made a late push, scoring three runs, but stranded the tying run on second.
𝘽𝙔𝙀 𝘽𝙔𝙀 𝘽𝘼𝙎𝙀𝘽𝘼𝙇𝙇!
— Sac State Baseball (@SacStBaseball)
His RBI double in the second was the first run of the game, but his bases-loaded big fly in the eighth gives Cameron Sewell five RBI on the day and a 5-0 lead over #2 LSU in the B8th x
Sacramento State won 5-4, limiting the Tigers to two hits outside of the eighth, marking the program’s highest-ranked win since 2004.
The historic feat continued on Sunday spearheaded by right-hander Carson Timothy. The UC Santa Barbara transfer put together his best collegiate performance yet, holding the Tigers to an unearned run, five hits over 6.2 innings.
LSU couldn’t get anything going even after Timothy’s day was over, picking up just one hit in the eighth and ninth, losing 6-1. It marks the Tigers' first non-conference series loss at home since 2021.
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They hit just .267 (44-for-167) throughout the week — .136 with two extra base hits versus the Hornets on Saturday and Sunday. Sitting at 9-4 at home, they've only lost 10+ games in Alex Box Stadium twice in the last decade.
LSU will welcome Creighton on Tuesday in hopes of rebounding from last week’s blunder and snapping its three-game skid in midweek battles before the start of SEC play against Vanderbilt.
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