No. 4 Tigers open last SEC regular season series tonight at Georgia

23.1 innings + 11.19 earned run average from LSU’s bullpen in losing four of the Tigers’ last six SEC games and two consecutive league series equals lousy timing for a nosedive.

Postseason play starts with next week’s SEC tournament followed by the NCAA regionals beginning June 2.

Considering LSU has won six national titles in 18 trips to the College World Series and earned NCAA tournament invites 33 of the last 37 seasons (not counting the COVID cancelled 2020 season), this is the time of year LSU baseball fans live for.

That’s why they are understandably unhappy after watching the Tigers fall apart the last two weekends in SEC series losses at Auburn and then at home to Mississippi State.

Ranked No. 1 nationally the first 12 weeks of the season, LSU was the talk of college baseball. Yet, whether it’s physical fatigue and the mounting pressure of trying to return to the CWS for the first time since 2017, the now-No. 4 Tigers (40-12 overall, 16-9 SEC West) desperately need to re-start their engines opening their last regular season SEC series at Georgia (28-24, 10-17 SEC East) tonight at 5 p.m. CT.

LSU second-year head coach Jay Johnson, available to the media just a handful of minutes since this past weekend’s stunning fail vs. Mississippi State, said on his Monday night weekly radio show he and pitching coach Wes Johnson (no relation) expect better execution from the Tigers’ pitchers this weekend.

“Wes has a plan and a process to develop those guys arms and to develop a plan for them to get outs,” Jay Johnson said. “He pairs that with what we believe the hitters weaknesses are, trying to give our pitchers simplicity and something that they can go execute and not let the situation become bigger than their plan.

“We want them to understand what we're trying to get out of them and put them in a good headspace to pitch with conviction. We obviously did not do that in the final two innings on Saturday and we didn't do it basically all day Sunday.”

On the other hand, Johnson has been encouraged by last weekend’s performances of game 2 starter Ty Floyd and game 3 Javen Coleman starter after game 1 starter Paul Skenes threw a complete game three-hitter in a seven-inning 12-1 run rule series opening win.

Right-handers Skenes and Floyd and lefty Coleman pitched a combined 15.2 innings with a 1.72 ERA. The trio allowed just eight hits, struck out 28, walked five and threw 69.4 percent (172 of 248) of their pitches for strikes.

Floyd, who struck out seven straight batters at Auburn on May 5 before imploding in the fourth inning, allowed one run in six innings vs. MSU.

“We made some adjustments from the Auburn game and I felt we were going to get a good response,” said Johnson of Floyd, who struck out 10 MSU batters and walked one. “He did great and I really wish we could have finished that off in the bullpen for him because that's not an outing you want to waste for sure.

“I do think it's a good sign of things to come if we can get that effort from him going forward.”

Coleman, in just his fifth appearance this season after missing all of last year when he underwent Tommy John surgery, allowed one run and threw 2.2 hitless innings to open Sunday’s loss in which MSU came back from a 13-4 deficit for 14-13 win in 10 innings.

He struck out five and walked three, throwing his season-high 50 pitches before he was lifted.

“I told him when I took him out of the game that I didn't think he had great stuff,” Johnson said of Floyd. “But he really competed and that's what we need more than anything else. I thought he set a good example for the rest of our pitching staff they can look at and go like `Hey, even when I don't have my best stuff, if I just attack I got a chance to be successful.

"His recovery from Tommy John surgery is the best one I've ever seen of any pitcher at any time. I’m proud of him for his recovery. If we can continue to extend him that'll be great for our team.”

The Tigers are trying to avoid becoming just the second LSU team since 1995 to end the season losing its last three SEC series. LSU won its last regular season league series 33 of the last 37 years.

The last time the Tigers closed the regular season vs. Georgia was in 1991 when they swept the Bulldogs in Athens, a few weeks before then-LSU head coach Skip Bertman won the first of his five national titles

The recent Tigers’ SEC losses have made LSU’s chances for a top eight NCAA tourney seed seem a little less certain.

“We’re 11-4 against top 25 teams, an RPI of 5 and one of the best resumes in the country,” Johnson. “We had a little bit of wiggle room to make a mistake. Now, it's not about any of that. It's about correcting the mistakes so we can play our best baseball as we're moving into the postseason.”

Johnson said since the spring semester ended last Friday, his tired, battered and bruised team will benefit by solely concentrating on rest and baseball.

“Having no school is going to be a nice lift off them,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be good for guys to get rest and recover. When we finish on Saturday at Georgia, we’ll stay the night and then bus over to Hoover (on Sunday).

"Hopefully, we’ll get two or three days where they can basically just be in a hotel, rest, feed them well and then get them in a good spot for when we start the SEC tournament (on Wednesday). That'll be good, good reset. The goal is to get them fresh and get our best baseball in front of us.”

No. 4 LSU (40-12 overall, 17-9 SEC West) at Georgia (28-24, 10-17 SEC East)

WHERE: Foley Field (3,291 capacity).

STADIUM FENCE MEASUREMENTS: 350 feet LF, 370 LC, 404 CF, 365 RC, 314 RF.

Game 1

Tonight, 5 p.m. CT (SEC Network +)

LSU – Jr. RH Paul Skenes (10-1, 1.69 ERA, 79.2 IP, 14 BB, 152 SO)

UGA – Fr. LH Jarvis Evans (2-0, 4.67 ERA, 17.1 IP, 5 BB, 21 SO)

Game 2

Friday, 5 p.m. CT (SEC Network +)

LSU – Jr. RH Ty Floyd (6-0, 4.53 ERA, 59.2 IP, 27 BB, 69 SO)

UGA – Jr. LH Charlie Goldstein (3-1, 4.50 ERA, 44.0 IP, 15 BB, 45 SO)

Game 3

Saturday, 12 p.m. CT (SEC Network +)

LSU— So. LH Javen Coleman (1-1, 6.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 9 BB, 15 SO)

UGA – Jr. LH Liam Sullivan (4-2, 5.83 ERA, 58.2 IP, 29 BB, 70 SO)

LSU AND GEORGIA IN SEC RACE HEADING INTO THE FINAL WEEKEND

LSU: Third place in the overall league standings and second place in the West Division 1½ games behind Arkansas in both cases.

GEORGIA: Tied for sixth place with Missouri in the East Division. The Bulldogs would currently be the No. 12 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament.

STATS

LSU: No. 1 in the SEC in team batting average (.314) with 100 doubles, 13 triples and 104 home runs. The pitching staff is No. 6 in the SEC with a 4.68 ERA and has recorded 570 strikeouts in 438.1 innings while allowing a .226 opponent batting average and 46 home runs.

GEORGIA: No. 7 in the SEC with a .289 team batting average with 94 home runs and 33 steals in 39 attempts. The UGA pitching staff is No. 13 in the SEC with a 6.41 ERA and has 477 strikeouts in 445.1 innings while allowing a .271 opponent batting average and 77 home runs.

STARS

LSU

DYLAN CREWS, CF – No. 4 nationally and No. 1 in the SEC in batting average (.438). No. 2 nationally and No. 1 in SEC in on-base percentage (.592). Has reached base in 56 straight games, which includes all 52 games this season and the final four games of last year. No. 3 nationally and No. 1 in SEC in walks (56).

PAUL SKENES, P – 10-1 on the season and leads the nation and SEC in strikeouts (152). He’s also No. 1 in the SEC in ERA (1.69), innings pitched (79.2) and opponent batting average (.162).

TOMMY WHITE, 3B – No. 1 in the nation in RBI per game (1.79) No. 2 in the nation and No. 1 in the SEC in total RBI (86), No. 4 in SEC in batting average (.400).

GEORGIA

CHARLIE CONDON, 1B – No. 13 nationally and No. 2 in the SEC in batting average (.415), No. 3 nationally and No. 2 in the SEC in home runs (24) and has 65 RBI.

CONNOR TATE, LF – No. 5 in the SEC in batting average (.390) with 19 doubles, 15 homers and 53 RBI.