The LSU baseball team has found itself in the same situation from almost one year ago to the day.
On April 8, 2005, South Carolina came to Baton Rouge for a three-game series with LSU.
The Gamecocks swept LSU, and the Tigers’ league record dropped to 5-7. LSU fell into sixth place in the Southeastern Conference Western Division.
Today, the Tigers are in the exact same place.
The team is fresh off a South Carolina sweep and is again in sixth place in the Western Division.
“Last year, it was about the same time, the same team came and whipped us,” said coach Smoke Laval.
But Laval is not pushing the panic button just yet as No. 21 LSU (21-10, 2-7 SEC) travels to Knoxville, Tenn., this weekend for a series against Tennessee.
After the South Carolina sweep in 2005, LSU won 13 of its next 18 games going into postseason play.
“[Last season] we beat Ole Miss twice here,” Laval said. “Then we went and swept Arkansas.”
Laval said he cannot predict how his team will perform this week and was honest about his assessment of the team.
“We may not come out of it,” Laval said. “We’re not playing poorly; it’s just we’ve not been very opportunistic.”
Most recently, LSU left 13 runners on base in a one-run loss to South Carolina on Sunday.
LSU senior third baseman Will Harris said it’s the seniors’ job to help pull the team out of its recent skid.
“It’s up to the older guys that have been through this kind of stuff before to help the other guys understand that the only people that can change this are us,” Harris said. “And it’s something we have to work through and something we have to get better with.”
The Volunteers are dealing with their own slump and have won just two conference games.
Tennessee has lost twice to No. 6 Mississippi State, twice to No. 26 Kentucky and twice to No. 13 Arkansas.
Laval said freshman Louis Coleman will start Friday with juniors Clay Dirks and Derik Olvey starting Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Coleman will replace freshman Daniel Forrer in the starting rotation.
Forrer has a 1-2 record this season with a 5.85 earned run average and surrendered six runs in five innings against South Carolina this past Friday.
Coleman will be making his sixth start of the season and has a 2-2 record on the season.
Harris said this weekend’s series is important because the team needs something to change and go its way.
“It’s just kind of a sense of urgency around here,” Harris said. “We can’t afford to stay on the slide we’re on. Something has to change, whether it be the attitude or whatever is around the ballpark.”
 
Contact Kyle Whitfield at [email protected]