The magic was gone. 
After rallying for two thrilling wins in this weekend’s heavyweight showdown, the No. 1 LSU baseball team ran out of steam against No. 2 Texas A&M in a 6-2 loss Saturday at Alex Box Stadium. 
The Tigers had already secured the series win with two dramatic come-from-behind victories Thursday and Friday, but a three-game sweep would’ve put LSU firmly in the driver’s seat of the Southeastern Conference race with nine SEC games left in the regular season. 
But in the series finale, the Aggies (37-7, 13-7 SEC) caught nearly all the breaks on a wet, mostly dreary day at the Box. 
After heavy thunderstorms forced a three-hour weather delay, the magic that had saved the Tigers (37-7, 14-6 SEC) the previous two nights was gone, and in its place were missed runs, missed plays and a missed sweep. 
“We wanted a sweep more than anything,” said junior shortstop Alex Bregman. 
LSU, which overcame a 2-0 deficit Thursday and a 5-2 deficit Friday for two emotional victories, faced a similar situation against the Aggies in Game 3. 
Like the first two games of the series, the Tigers found themselves in an early hole against the Aggies on Saturday. Only this time, LSU was responsible for its own deficit. 
With one away in the third inning, LSU junior first baseman Chris Chinea botched a routine throw from Bregman, which allowed Texas A&M junior catcher Michael Barash to safely reach first. 
It went downhill from there. 
LSU freshman starter Austin Bain (1-2, 2.83 ERA) struck out a batter, and the Aggies took the rookie right-hander for four runs — all unearned — on four consecutive two-out singles before a ground out ended the inning. 
Chinea, whose fielding error kickstarted the Aggies’ high-scoring third, blamed himself for the costly mistake. 
“When I turned to look at Alex, I didn’t pick up on the ball,” Chinea said. “By the time I picked up on it, it was on me already. It just hit my glove and bounced off. I shouldn’t be doing that. No excuse there.”  
The Aggies’ third inning explosion would’ve been a little easier for the Tigers to stomach had they taken advantage of a few scoring chances few scoring chances of their own in the first two frames.
LSU racked up five of its 11 hits in the first two innings against Texas A&M junior starter Kyle Simonds, but the Aggies’ defense kept runs off the board with a few momentum-swinging plays that were missing in the previous two games of the series. 
Texas A&M junior outfielder Logan Taylor threw out Bregman at the plate in the first inning and later teamed with senior shortstop Blake Allemand and Barash on a 7-6-2 relay to get Chinea out at home in the second. 
Chinea’s play at the plate came moments after Barash gunned down Tigers junior outfielder Andrew Stevenson, who was caught stealing.
LSU coach Paul Mainieri couldn’t explain his team’s misfortune. 
“We had three base runners thrown out early in the game,” Mainieri said. “We were hitting the ball hard [but] had nothing to show for it.”  
The Tigers eked out two runs in the bottom of the fourth, but senior designated hitter Chris Sciambra’s run to make it a 4-2 game was the last LSU mustered against the SEC’s top pitching staff. 
The Aggies held LSU, the nation’s No. 3 hitting club, to a .176 batting average (3-for-17) over the final five innings. The Tigers went hitless in three of  those         innings.
The Tigers — who won in walk-off fashion Thursday before erupting for seven runs in their final two innings Friday — didn’t score after their two-run fourth inning Saturday, leaving four runners on base in that span. 
“We dug ourselves a hole, and against their pitching staff, it’s awfully hard to come back,” Mainieri said. “We did it a couple of times this weekend, but           [Saturday] it wasn’t meant to be.”  
Though the Tigers failed to complete the sweep of Texas A&M, they managed to grab hold of the SEC-West lead with three weekend series remaining. 
LSU survived a series with the Aggies in the regular season, but the Tigers are certain they’ll have to do so again in the future. 
“We’ll match up with them down the road, whether it’s in the SEC Tournament, Omaha or the national championship,” Bregman said. “We’ll see them again.”  
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @dgray_TDR.