“Not much to say,” Coach Paul Mainieri opened in the brutally cold atmosphere of Alex Box after LSU’s ugly 2-0 loss to Eastern Kentucky Friday night. 
The story of the night, much like the story of Wednesday’s night loss in Thibodaux to Nicholls State, was inconsistency. For every strikeout an LSU pitcher delivered, a base on balls soon followed. For every runner LSU managed to get on base, that same runner was stranded, for a total of eight on the night. 
Cole Henry, who started for the Tigers, and pitched five innings, took the loss after giving up the only runs of the night. He walked three and struck out three. 
In his first two innings, it looked as though Henry was going to be in for another special Friday night that LSU fans had grown accustomed to after his dominant play towards the end of last year. But something went wrong. 
“I lost a little bit of focus,” Henry said. 
Henry cited the cold weather as part of his struggles as the game progressed. 
“These type of nights, it’s hard to get a grip on the baseball. You just gotta battle for your fastball. Changeup was there most of the time, but I pretty much had a nonexistent curveball.” 
Jaden Hill went 2.2 IP, gave up one hit and three walks, but struck out five on 45 pitches. He diagnosed a hindrance in his game, one that also seems to be common among many of his fellow pitchers: first pitch strikes. 
“At the end of the day, I need to get ahead in counts,” Jaden Hill said. “I was behind a lot in counts today, and that’s something I really need to work on throughout the week, for next time.” 
While both Henry and Hill struggled with their command throughout the night, their talent could still be seen through their difficulties tonight. They found ways to use their full arsenal of pitches to keep their team within striking distance through all nine innings. 
“I didn’t have my best stuff, so I know I had to pitch today. I wasn’t able to open power, so I needed to use all five of my pitches today,” Hill explained. 
But with all the good to take away, Coach Mainieri is not ignoring the gravity of losing back to back games and starting the season 3-3. 
“It’s very concerning. We want to win every game we play, and we’re not playing nearly well enough to win these last couple of games,” Mainieri said with sobriety. 
“Tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully, we’ll come out and play a lot better.”