Heading into this past weekend, you knew there was a chance LSU could sweep South Carolina, but it was far from a given considering the Tigers had lost nine straight SEC games heading into the series against the Gamecocks.
But LSU played its best weekend of complete baseball since winning three games in Jacksonville back in February to get the much-needed sweep over South Carolina.
LSU is 28-21 overall, 9-15 in the SEC, giving the Tigers a shot at winning 13 SEC games, which is needed for your NCAA Tournament resume.
Why did LSU have so much success?
First of all, South Carolina is a bad baseball team, and the only reason they had more SEC wins than LSU coming into the series is that they swept an even worse team in Missouri.
But you still have to throw strikes, field the baseball, and get timely hits to beat anyone in the SEC, and that’s what the Tigers did this past weekend.
LSU got three great starts.
Game 1: William Schmidt 6 innings, one run, and struck out seven.
Game 2: Marcos Paz five innings, one run, struck out eight.
Game 3: Zac Cowan six innings, no runs, and struck out seven.
LSU pitchers only walked eight hitters, and the defense only committed two errors, one of which was by Gold Glove shortstop Steven Milam.
Sophomore Cade Arrambide continues to lead the way offensively for the Tigers as he had seven more hits this past weekend. One of his hits was a homer and drove in four runs for the series.
The freshmen keep producing.
Mason Braun had a two-run homer in Game 2.
Omar Serna had three hits in Game 2, and on Sunday, he homered and drove in four runs.
William Patrick had four hits for the series.
Jack Ruckert had a two-hit day on Sunday.
Coach Jay Johnson said two interesting things after the doubleheader sweep on Saturday.
“We got the right out there who are executing.” And “You can’t put a price on the amount of experience these guys are getting.”
It took a while for Johnson to find the right combination of players to play. You can say why he didn’t play Ruckert and Patrick earlier in the season. The simple answer is they were not ready yet.
But now they are, and if LSU falls short of reaching the NCAA Tournament, at least they are getting this experience.
LSU made it look easy against South Carolina. The Tigers’ next opponent will be tough.
Georgia might be the best team LSU has played this season. The Bulldogs are ranked 5th, and they just swept Missouri.
The Tigers will go from facing the worst-hitting team in the SEC to the best.
Let’s see if LSU has truly turned a corner and is poised to make a late-season run for an NCAA Tournament bid, or will we see more growing pains from a young team?
At least LSU swept South Carolina, so we get another weekend of relevant LSU baseball.