It’s been a rough road for LSU baseball as of Game 14 of the season.
Eleven wins and three losses to mid-major programs make for a rough opening, but head coach Jay Johnson took the brunt of the blame after the 7-2 loss to UL Lafayette on Wednesday night.
“I don’t think I set the team up for success with this schedule how I had it laid out,” Johnson said postgame Wednesday night. “I do believe we have enough to be successful in it, but I’m gonna own that part of it, learn from it, adjust it.”
There has been a lot of talk since the back-to-back losses that LSU needs to slow down a little bit, and this brutal schedule of 18 non-conference games in 26 days hasn’t helped. This stint has shown how exhausting the schedule has been during recent outings.
But baseball is historically known as a marathon, not a sprint. Johnson even said this after the team lost its first game of the season to McNeese.
“I hate to say it, but [losing] is part of this,” Johnson said postgame. “Just because we haven’t lost a lot here in a while [doesn’t mean it isn’t] part of this thing.”
At a school that is known for its capabilities on the diamond, it can be hard for fairweather fans to understand that it’s not possible to hold a baseball team to the expectations of a football record.
Getting the kinks out early will benefit LSU in the long run. Things will be squared away entering the games that matter: conference play.
The Tigers’ 2025 season started in a similar fashion: a lot of games in not a lot of time. This eventually slowed down into the more traditional three-game series and a midweek game every few weeks.
These early back-to-back games got LSU comfortable playing on little rest or without the “ideal” rotations on track before the hard-hitting games happened. It clearly worked in 2025 because the team ended up bringing national championship No. 8 back from Omaha.
So Johnson did it again in 2026.
While it’s led to some sluggish games throughout these first few weeks, Johnson has a method to his madness.
He said after LSU’s win over Northeastern that this schedule might be one of his more aggressive runs, but he’s used it to build his depth for later in the season.
“I think they’re feeling out of it a little bit mentally and physically,” Johnson said. “It is what it is, whether I think we should or they should. We’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep doing things like platooning.”
While most fans have been criticizing the two-time national championship-winning head coach, he could be preparing some of his other talent for harsher times.
Johnson has scheduled this top-heavy schedule each season he’s been at LSU. The past four seasons have been similar in number. The 2022-2023 schedule was a 17-game, 26-day schedule.
Each team has lost no more than three games entering conference play, and the last team that did this was the national championship 2023 team. Each of the other teams in Johnson’s tenure at LSU has boasted at least 16 wins entering conference play.
Once again, there’s a possibility the roughest of stretches is happening before SEC play even touches Alex Box Stadium.
The RPI that would come from this stretch could bring LSU to a top-eight national seed on Selection Sunday.
The 2026 team has a lot of new faces after the national championship, and a big part of this was reviving the depth of the roster. This front-loaded schedule will give a lot of answers about what Johnson and staff know about their team.
There could be back-to-back national championships on the line for Johnson, or there could be another disappointing loss to end the season like UNC in 2024.
Only time will tell LSU’s fate, but Johnson has faith in his team. He said this roster will take well to challenges as the season progresses, and the problems will work themselves out.
“With the personnel [LSU has], I thought it would be advantageous because we do have some depth,” Johnson said. “Having one or two more games to be able to sort it out a little bit cleaner going into league play was probably the main reason [for this schedule].”
