Jay Johnson’s meeting with his LSU baseball team was short Saturday afternoon, following a 13-3 loss to Vanderbilt.
“Practice time for Monday,” Johnson told reporters when asked what was talked about in the meeting. “They have to answer their competitive level question.”
LSU never looked like it was in the game against Vanderbilt on Saturday. The Commodores scored in every inning of the game, tallying 14 hits along the way.
The star of the game for Vanderbilt was freshman left field Braden Holcomb, who hit two home runs and drove in five.
His first home run was a true no-doubter. He laced a fastball from Javen Coleman over the scoreboard in left field, starting the onslaught.
Coleman got the start on a day where LSU used six pitchers. He pitched two innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits while striking out three. No other LSU pitcher pitched more than two innings and each allowed at least one earned run.
LSU’s bats never got going with much consistency either.
The Tigers had seven hits but outside of short spurts of offense in the third and sixth innings, they never put much pressure on Vanderbilt.
That was due in large part to the play of Vanderbilt starting pitcher, Carter Holton. He held LSU to two earned runs and struck out 10 in six innings.
Jared Jones was the one LSU batter to crack Holton, hitting a two-run home run in the sixth inning. Jones struck out twice and was hit by a pitch once in his three other plate appearances.
The loss is LSU’s third run-rule loss in a Game 3 of a series this season, all three coming in SEC play. Each series has been a similar story too.
Apart from getting swept against Arkansas, LSU usually wins Game 1, loses Game 2 in heartbreaking fashion before getting blown out in Game 3.
That was the story in the first two series against Mississippi State and Florida, and it became the story again against Vanderbilt.
Despite winning Thursday night, Jay Johnson said Game 1 was when the problems began. LSU led 9-0, but Vanderbilt cut into the lead, forcing LSU to use more of its bullpen than it originally was planning to.
The effects of that were felt throughout the weekend and it was extremely evident in Sunday’s game. LSU simply couldn’t get outs in Game 3, and the lack of pitching depth has caught Johnson by surprise.
“We should have somebody else that you can go to. And right now we don’t. And that’s a lot of reasons for that. Am I surprised about that? I’m really surprised about that.,” Johnson said.
It doesn’t get any easier for LSU either. The Tigers’ next SEC challenge is a road series against Tennessee. After another series loss, LSU sits at 3-9 in conference play, nearing the halfway mark with far more questions than answers.
“We’ll try a different way. We are trying a different way. I was hoping that I would get some answers and how to do that with how we had the game set up today, but we didn’t get anybody out,” Johnson said. “I can’t say that I’m closer to that as I sit here today. I’ll try to get there by Tuesday.”
