The final game of LSU’s weekend series versus Kentucky included drama, long bombs and long innings, but LSU topped the series with Sunday’s 17-10 win.
It’s a new season for the Tigers as they’re about halfway through the 2026 campaign. After a rough start to the year, LSU has found its stride.
“We have to have a turning point in our season at some point, and we decided this is gonna be the week,” centerfielder Derek Curiel said. “That’s how we’re playing from now on. It’s a new half of the season … It’s a new era.”
Seth Dardar gave the Tigers the spark it needed with a moonshot home run that hit the roof of the Marucci Performance Center beyond the right field bleachers. His bat went about 40 feet up in the air after his home run, drawing exception from Kentucky coach Nick Mingione.
Curiel recalled that he was saying a prayer for Dardar during that at-bat, and right before he finished, the ball was launched out of Alex Box.
Head coach Jay Johnson thought that Dardar was going to get thrown out for the celebration, so he told him to flip his bat lower next time.
Dardar went to talk to the umpires, which drew Johnson out from his dugout to defend himself and his team. Zach Yorke also had to be held back from charging out of the LSU dugout.
“Just another weekend in the SEC,” Johnson said.
The two biggest parts of that play were a constant theme throughout the game. It was an emotive and animated afternoon for Johnson and the Tigers, who were digging the long ball.
But Johnson had been agitated all game long. When the Wildcats clawed out to a 7-0 lead in their first three offensive frames, he was visibly frustrated and moved through multiple pitchers quickly.
His unhappiness was apparent in the fifth inning when Mason Braun was out by a mile trying to advance to third, despite receiving the stop sign from Josh Jordan at third base.
But things started to change when a new mindset and the long ball saved LSU.
“It was an attitude thing,” Curiel said. “I think everyone in that dugout today knew that you just felt it. You felt the attitude change, and you felt the mind shift.”
Dardar blasted a home run, and John Pearson hit a grand slam, which was the highlight of a six-run third inning to bring the Tigers within one. Curiel added a solo home run in the sixth inning as well.
“There’s no one else you’d want up [to bat] besides John,” Curiel said. “John’s been smashing the ball,” Curiel said. “It was kind of the momentum and the energy we needed.”
Johnson said Dardar and Pearson’s home runs were the biggest swings of the year so far.
“We recruited John because I thought he would be a hitter, and in the games he’s impacted, he’s really been a hitter,” Johnson said.
The Tigers also had three doubles to go with the home runs and help open this game up. All of those extra base hits changed the trajectory of the game, where it seemed like LSU continuously tried to shoot itself in the foot.
But in the other halves of the innings, walks were killing the pitching staff. Through the first 18 batters of the game, LSU allowed seven to reach without issue, walking six and hitting one with a pitch. Through five innings, LSU walked 10 batters, with three of those walks starting as 0-2 counts.
LSU didn’t walk anyone else after that, however.
But the damage had already been done to the bullpen, with Kentucky and LSU combining to use 18 pitchers in the game.
Gavin Guidry got the start but only lasted 1.1 innings before being taken out after allowing six runs. Four more pitchers came in quick succession to get just enough outs. Cooper Williams threw 1.1 innings and could have stayed in longer, but Mavrick Rizy relieved him and let a few runs cross.
Deven Sheerin had to come in and finish the fifth, where he had the Wildcats down to their last strike, but two straight hits broke the game open again as Kentucky went back up by four.
Sheerin was visibly upset with himself after the second hit and almost forgot to back up the catcher on the throw home.
Danny Lachenmayer and Grant Fontenot helped move the game to the ninth inning, where the Tigers entered up seven after they added a few more runs in the eighth from wild pitches and errors.
Fontenot closed out the ninth inning to end the marathon.
After taking the final two games of the series from Kentucky LSU earned its first SEC series win. The Tigers are now 19-10 and 4-5 in SEC play.
The Tigers face Southern at home on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. before traveling to Knoxville on Easter weekend for a three-game series with Tennessee.
