LSU right-hander Paul Skenes was named the National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball this week.

Nothing new there. It’s the sixth time this season the nation’s strikeout leader has won the honor.

But the rest of the weekend was the real story for the Tigers (37-10, 16-7 SEC), who eventually lost an SEC series for the first time this season, not to mention their No. 1 national ranking and the top spot in the conference standings.

There was only so much Skenes to go around.

LSU and its injury-depleted pitching staff had been flirting with trouble in recent weeks. It caught up with the Tigers at Auburn, dropping them to a consensus No. 2 nationally in the major polls and a half-game behind Arkansas in the SEC West and both Arkansas and Vanderbilt in the overall standings.

After Skenes struck out a career-high 15 Friday, with Nate Ackenhausen and Thatcher Hurd combining for three more in a 3-0 victory over Auburn, it all careened off the rails for the Tigers.

They spent the rest of the weekend desperately trying to find a strike let alone a strikeout.

“We’ll address it the best we can and try to put those guys in a better position to be successful this week,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. “We have some injuries and we have some guys that have pitched well that didn’t pitch well on Saturday and Sunday. That’s how I see it.”

The Tigers host Northwestern State (25-20) tonight before staying home this weekend against Mississippi State (24-23, 6-18) which is tied for last place in the SEC.

Things went awry for the Tigers last week after Saturday starter Ty Floyd lost his command in a bizarre fourth inning. It featured a lengthy delay in the middle of an at-bat while umpires tried to sort out who among the LSU coaches they’d ejected from the game an inning earlier.

Floyd, who didn’t allow a run in the first three innings, gave up three while walking four and didn’t finish that fourth.

Floyd, Johnson said, admitted the long delay got to him, but Johnson liked it that Floyd added it should not have been an excuse.

Sunday was a disaster from the beginning for LSU — starter Christian Little lasted five hitters, walking four of them, with an RBI single sprinkled in before reliever Griffin Herring came on to walk the two batters he faced.

Six walks and one single put LSU in a 6-1 hole before the Tigers recorded an out.

Gavin Guidry, a freshman from Barbe High, came on to finish the first inning and eventually threw 3 1/3 innings while allowing one earned run on two hits.

“I thought Gavin did a nice job right there to come in in a tough spot,” Johnson said. “Got a strikeout, gets a really good hitter.”

It was also Guidry who came on during Saturday’s strange fourth inning to get the final out.

Otherwise, “Outside of Skenes,” Johnson said, “We’ve got to find a way to line it up better.“

LSU was missing two of its best arms before the season started and Pitkin’s Garrett Edwards was added to the list a month ago after Tommy John surgery.

Most of the rest left Johnson pondering his limited options.

“We’ll make some adjustments that we need whether it be mental or physical,”Johnson said. “There’ll be some shifting of personnel and those types of things to help them all be in a position to be successful.”