The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns shut down the LSU Tigers' offense, handing the Tigers their second straight loss.
The LSU Tigers’ already stumbling baseball season hit another bump on Wednesday night, as they fell 7-2 to the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns.
This was the Tigers’ second consecutive loss. After starting off the year 8-0, the best start in the Jay Johnson era, LSU is now 11-3.
Heading on the road to Lafayette seemed like an unfortunately timed trip after Monday’s loss to the Northeastern Huskies. That proved to be the case.
Johnson made some interesting decisions in the starting lineup. He inserted Daniel Harden into left field after strong performance against the Huskies. The team went with a rotation of hitters at DH. Gavin Guidry made his first start of the season.
All of these decisions seemed sound, but none of them paid off. Harden and the group at DH combined for 0-for-8 with six strikeouts. Guidry gave up two hits and three runs with a walk and two strikeouts in 2.1 innings.
One move that did pay off and should continue is Derek Curiel leading off. He was 3-for-3 with a walk, getting on base every time.
Having him in the two-hole would have made sense if there was a big power increase this offseason. There hasn’t been yet, but he’s still batting .333 on the year.
Jake Brown even still had a nice day, going 2-for-4. The middle of the lineup just didn’t produce anything for them. Neither Brown nor Curiel scored.
Ethan Plog had another solid outing, surrendering two hits in 1.2 scoreless innings. His ERA is down to 2.70 this season.
The rest of the bullpen was up-and-down. Jaden Noot had a clean innings and Mavrick Rizy bounced back well.
The Tigers have four more games before the SEC season begins against the Vanderbilt Commodores. They kick off a series against the Sacramento State Hornets on Friday.