Scooter Hobbs column: Tigers hit a low point … and not much else
Published 4:59 pm Tuesday, March 10, 2026
To its credit, Sacramento State resisted the urge to dogpile in the middle of LSU’s Skip Bertman Field Sunday night.
So, there was a bright spot for LSU after the visiting Hornets took two of three from the No. 2-ranked Tigers.
Check that. The formerly No. 2 Tigers. After losing four out of five last week, it’s now the No. 13 Tigers.
But about that bright spot …
The Tigers, who reverted to their anemic ways after hitting six home runs in a 15-4 rout of Sacramento Friday night, will carry on. It only seemed like it was time to turn in the equipment for the year, including those stone-cold bats.
Never mind that it’s barely March. Minus an opponent’s dogpile, the whole weekend had the look and feel of one of those shocking Super Regional flops that have occasionally shocked LSU out of its birthright College World Series trips in years past.
Such as 2012, when LSU turned little known Stony Brook into a household name after dropping two of three and sending the Cinderella Seawolves to Omaha.
Or 2016 with Coastal Carolina, before the Chanticleers became a college baseball staple, when the Tigers were swept in the two super regional games at home. LSU got its revenge last June on that one, you recall, but Coastal won the whole CWS in 2016.
There was no understanding them then. There is no understanding now what is happening to LSU, seemingly out of nowhere.
All of a sudden Sacramento State, which came to Baton Rouge 3-9, looked more and more like the defending WAC champions, which they are, while LSU seemed intent on putting more and more distance between itself and its most recent national championship, which, if memory serves, the Tigers won last year.
Frustration, thy name is LSU.
True enough, any frustration this perplexing has to have some Murphy’s Law mixed in.
If Mr. Murphy isn’t in the neighborhood, then explain while LSU is frittering away opportunities left and right, opponents seem to take full advantage of every crack in the door.
Johnson stopped short of blaming the whole, sordid mess on the confounding eccentricities of baseball — “I don’t want to say we couldn’t catch a break,” Johnson said after Sunday’s game. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
Oh, but by gosh, it sure sounded like he wanted to say it.
He crept right up to the edge of excuse and peered over the precipice, seemingly ready to jump in with both feet and a woe-is-me proclamation.
Finally, though, decorum prevailed. He sighed deeply and said …
“The ‘take’ is our best friend right now,” Johnson said, suddenly extolling the virtues of the leaving the bat on one’s shoulder. “More good is happening when we don’t swing than when we do swing.”
That was an earth-shattering epiphany for Johnson. When it comes to confidence in his own coaching, particularly with hitting, Johnson has few peers. It’s one of his best qualities and often seems to rub off on his wards.
Yet he almost seemed fresh out of answers Sunday night.
You kept waiting on him to throw up his arms and take suggestions from the floor (which, sadly, contained nothing but media wiseacres).
His pitching, for the most part, is doing the job, especially the starters. And he has enough bullpen arms that he can generally sort through them until he finds one or two to finish the job. Defense has had a few hiccups but isn’t yet any real cause for alarm.
But suddenly, LSU … Can … Not … Hit … A … Baseball.
Not a lick.
OK, that’s not fair (unless the shots are headed for extra bases; then they’re foul). And they do hit a lot of balls really, really hard — that’s not the problem — almost unfailingly right at defenders. If not, Sacramento State had an outfield full of speedy vacuum cleaners.
LSU can hit it. It’s getting a hit that is eluding what once looked like a powerful hitting team.
“You get a good at-bat, then you have a bad at-bat,” Johnson said. “And then you have a good at-bat with a bad result. You know, hit the ball hard — right at somebody — it’s not going to produce any runs.”
Slumps happen in baseball.
But this is going on two weeks now, while the team batting average has dropped 76 points, .367 to .291.
And Southeastern Conference play starts this weekend.
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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics for the American Press. Contact him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com
