LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson is not one to stay quiet if he sees something he does not like. After the Tigers’ 5-3 win over Milwaukee on Saturday, a game that saw LSU only have one extra-base hit through seven innings, Johnson held a team meeting to remind the players of the high standard that is expected.
“Setting the highest bar for how we do things, it has nothing to do with winning, just the high standard of everything. It was not like it was bad; some of it might be new players getting acclimated to this,” Johnson said. “Getting back to what makes them tick.”
The team responded to the pep talk by pounding out 17 hits and scoring three touchdowns, if you would in a 21-7 win over the Panthers.
Not a surprise to see team leader and junior right fielder Jake Brown lead the way. Brown belted two home runs, including a grand slam, and had a career-high 6 RBIs.
“Jake is the leader of this team, there’s no question about that,” said Johnson. “I’m very thankful that he is a Tiger, and I think he’s got a chance to be one of the best players in the country this year.”
“I don’t know if there is anyone in the country to show up more ready to play than we were,” said Brown “The last couple of days there’s a little bit of adversity, but also I feel like we’ve been able to respond to that really well, offense struggled (Saturday) and today it’s coming out and putting up 21.”
LSU’s pitching staff for the weekend struck out 49. That’s a new school record for a three-game series.
“Executed at a high level, I thought they did a good job across the board,” Johnson said.
Sophomore right-hander William Schmidt was the winning pitcher. Schmidt continues to struggle to find that consistency. He struck out nine, but walked three and also hit a batter as he gave up three runs in four innings.
“William is developing tremendously, I think there were some really good steps for him in this game,” Johnson explained. “I’m looking for signs that indicate he’s going to play baseball for a very long time, and I saw signs of that today.”
Three Strikes
Cooper Moore
Starting pitchers Casan Evans and William Schmidt had their struggles at times, but Kansas transfer Cooper Moore was dominant. Milwaukee had no answers for his offspeed pitches. He struck out eleven in six innings on Saturday and allowed one run.
Gavin Guidry
Guidry pitched for the first time since 2024 on Friday, and he gave the Tigers a jolt of energy. The Tigers were down by one run in the seventh inning, when Guidry came out of the pen and struck out the side. He ended up striking out five of the seven hitters he faced to earn the win. His breaking stuff is nasty; let’s see if he can get the fastball in the low 90s regularly.
Seth Dardar
A lot of hitters had impressive weekends. Catcher Cade Arrambide went 6-for-12, with a home run and 4 RBIs. Oregon State transfer Trent Caraway was 4-for-8 with 5 RBIs.
But what a start for Kansas State transfer Seth Dardar. The fifth-year senior from Mandeville hit two home runs over the weekend, including in his first at-bat as a Tiger on Friday.
Depth and Versatility
My main theme about this LSU baseball team is its depth. The Tigers used 18 position players this past weekend and 13 pitchers.
The versatility was also on display. Trent Caraway started games at both third and second base during the opening weekend. He even got some time at shortstop.
Tanner Reaves has primarily been an infielder at LSU and played a little left field on Sunday.
Brayden Simpson, known as an infielder, started in left field on Sunday.
Freshman Mason Braun played both left field and first base on Sunday.
Johnson has a lot of pieces, and it will take a while to figure out where they will all go.
LSU has another game Monday as they host Kent State at 6 PM.
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