By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE — You don’t often hear a coach publicly admitting he made a huge mistake that’s affected the entire season.
LSU head coach Jay Johnson didn’t even wait until Sunday to do exactly that, when his team became just the second Tigers’ squad in the last 42 years to get swept in two consecutive three-game SEC series.
After the No. 10 Aggies (32-7 overall, 13-5 SEC) pounded LSU (23-19, 6-13) 10-4 in Friday’s series opener (to be followed by losses of 7-2 and 5-2 on Saturday and Sunday), Johnson said his mismanagement constructing the 2026 roster has put the Tigers in an untenable situation that won’t be fixed this season.
“I made some mistakes constructing this team trying to replace two guys who were irreplaceable,” Johnson said after the Game 1 beatdown. “We should have looked to replace them with guys who were already in the program.
“And then replace the guys who were more athletic who play defense and be more complete players. We won’t make that mistake again.”
Johnson used junior starting outfielder Jake Brown, who has gradually earned more playing time since his freshman season in 2024, as an example of someone maturing in the program.
“From this point forward, it will come from guys who started their careers here and developed into it like Jake has per se.”
Johnson won two national championships in 2023 and 2025 because he blended returning veterans with great portal buys.
Key transfers on the 2023 champs included starting pitcher Paul Skenes from Air Force (the No. 1 overall pick in the ‘23 MLB draft), North Carolina State third baseman Tommy White (the NCAA RBI leader that season), and relief pitchers Riley Cooper (Arizona) and Thatcher Hurd (UCLA).
Last year’s title squad had six transfers who were vital to LSU’s success, such starting pitcher Anthony Eyanson (UC-San Diego), catcher Luis Hernandez (Indiana State), second baseman Daniel Dickinson (Grand Canyon) and reliever Zac Cowan (Wofford).
On both championship teams, the aforementioned transfers contributed heavily to the successful end result.
This season’s four primary position portal buys — Grand Canyon first baseman Zach York, and infielders Seth Dardar (Kansas State), Trent Conway (Oregon State) and Braden Simpson (High Point) — have been so underwhelming that Johnson basically has benched all of them but Simpson in the last two SEC series.
“We have a process of winning here we have not connected to as a team,” Johnson said. “They know how I think about attitude, competition, commitment, those type of things.
“I’ve had way too many conversations about those things.”
Apparently, Johnson’s words have yet to penetrate many of his players’ noggins. The A&M series looked like a legit College World Series contender (the Aggies) taking apart a consistently inept squad (LSU) continually spiraling downward.
In a season of bad offensive performances, the Tigers were absolutely anemic vs. A&M.
They hit .218 (22 of 101), including .175 (7 of 40) with runners on base and .058 (1 of 17) with runners in scoring position.
Casan Evans, William Schmidt and Zac Cowan — LSU’s trio of starting pitchers — combined for a hefty 11.77 ERA. They allowed 17 hits and 17 runs (all earned) — in 13 innings.
The Tigers’ offense provided their starting pitchers just two runs (one each for Evans and Schmidt).
Now, just a season after LSU won its eighth national championship, it is on the verge of a dubious achievement when it heads to Mississippi State on Friday for its next SEC series.
No Tigers’ team in the history of the program has ever been swept in three straIght three-game SEC series. The school record for most consecutive conference losses in a season is eight set by the 1977 team.
“Two of the last three years it’s been a lot of fun to show up here,” Johnson said. “It’s not as fun right now but you still have to show up.
“That’s my job. That’s my coaches’ jobs. It’s these players lives. It’s the most important thing to them. We owe them that.”
Here’s a rapid recap of the Tigers -Aggies series:
GAME 1: TEXAS A&M 10, LSU 4 —Texas A&M right fielder Jorian Wilson hit two home runs and collected four RBI in Friday night’s opener.
A&M reliever Gavin Lyons (6-0) earned the win, limiting LSU to two runs – one earned – on four hits in 2.1 innings. LSU starting pitcher Casan Evans (4-3) allowed six runs on seven hits in 5.0 innings with three walks and eight strikeouts.
GAME 2: TEXAS A&M 7, LSU 2 — Aggies right-hander Aiden Sims limited LSU to two runs over seven innings in Saturday’s series-clinching win.
Sims (7-0) allowed two runs on three hits in 7.0 innings with two walks and six innings.
LSU starting pitcher William Schmidt (4-4) allowed seven runs on seven hits with four walks and four strikeouts in 5.1 innings.
GAME 3: TEXAS A&M 5, LSU 2 — Texas A&M took a 5-0 lead and withstood a spark of LSU offense in Sunday’s win for the Aggies’ sweep.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com