The postseason usually doesn’t await for a team that loses five of its first six conference series.
The LSU baseball team (28-17, 7-14) endured those defeats yet still finds itself in contention for the Southeastern Conference and NCAA tournaments due to mediocre records tattered across the SEC Western Division.
“I know it’s not the standard around LSU, but it is what it is,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “We’re where we are right now, and we’re trying to salvage something out of the season.”
Every team in the SEC West sits below the .500 mark in conference play, with Alabama and Arkansas in a tie for first place with 10-11 records.
One of the main reasons for this conundrum is the sheer dominance atop the SEC Eastern Division.
South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Florida    — all ranked in the top five nationally in the Baseball America poll — each boast 17-4 records in the SEC.
Georgia, the SEC East’s fourth-place team, has a three-game lead on the leaders of the SEC West.
The difference between the first and last place teams in the SEC West is three games, while the SEC East’s best and worst are separated by 13 games.
“It’s not unreasonable that 15-15 or 16-14, or it might even be 14-16 wins the division,” Mainieri said. “You never know.”
The mediocre and inferior play in the SEC West allows a team like LSU to make a late run, and it may be primed to do just that with its upcoming schedule.
LSU swept Kentucky this past weekend and plays Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi State to cap the SEC season — none of which have winning conference records and which possess a combined 23-40 conference record.
“Nobody’s solidified their spot in the SEC West,” said junior center fielder Mikie Mahtook. “If we keep doing our job on the field and playing hard and getting wins, things will take care of themselves.”
LSU has already faced No. 5 Florida and No. 4 Vanderbilt and won’t have to battle No. 2 South Carolina this season.
The rest of the SEC West doesn’t have it so easy.
The Tigers can make up ground this weekend against Alabama, which runs into South Carolina in its regular season finale.
Arkansas faces a daunting schedule with the Gators and Gamecocks still on its tab, and Ole Miss also sees South Carolina before season’s end.
Mainieri said he sat down with the Tigers on Monday and mapped out the SEC schedule and what they thought would happen in each series.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable, and neither did our players, to predict that a team like Ole Miss could go 4-8 over their last 12 games based on the schedule they’re playing,” he said. “We felt the same way about Arkansas, and we felt the same way about Alabama, and we thought Mississippi State might be 5-7 or something like that.”
Mainieri said after he talked it out with the Tigers, he could see their emotions rising prior to the Kentucky series.
“All of a sudden the kids started sitting up in their chairs and nodding their heads and smiles started coming on their faces,” Mainieri said.
Junior third baseman Tyler Hanover, who went 3-for-3 against Nicholls State last week in a game after Mainieri called together a team meeting amongst the veterans, said the Tigers unquestionably have the talent to make a late run.
 
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Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]