Baseball Swept by Arkansas

Three steps forward and three steps back, that’s where the LSU baseball team finds themselves over the past two weekends.

After sweeping Mississippi State in Starkville, the Tigers got swept by Arkansas in Fayetteville. LSU lost 5-4, 4-0, and 6-2.

“We had opportunities to score today, we just didn’t get them in,” Jay Johnson said after Saturday’s loss. “We’ve got to go to work on Monday and improve. We’re halfway through the SEC schedule, and we need to get better in order to beat the teams at the top of the league.”

LSU came into this past weekend with a chance to take control of first place in the SEC West. After losing all three games to the Razorbacks, LSU dropped from second place in the West to fifth and are 7-8 in the conference. What’s more, the Tigers have lost the head-to-head tiebreaker to not only Arkansas, but Auburn, and Texas A&M.

The Tigers do have some winnable series on the horizon though. As we roll into the back half of the season, LSU will host Missouri next weekend, go to Alabama the first weekend in May and close out Alex Box hosting Ole Miss (May 13-15). LSU does, however, have to host Georgia (April 29-May 1) and go to Vanderbilt (May 19-21) the final weekend of the regular season.

Of course if the LSU defense continues to be weak at shortstop and catcher it doesn’t matter how many winnable games remain.