The reigning national champion continues to fade farther from the NCAA Tournament picture as LSU’s woes continued to mount this weekend with a third straight sweep by an SEC opponent.
Mississippi State (34-10, 13-8) became the latest foe to further drive the stake into the Tigers’ frustrating season with its 13-8 win Sunday handing its visitors their program-record ninth straight conference loss and 10th loss overall in the past 12 games.
The Bulldogs also topped LSU (24-21, 6-15) by margins of 10-8 in 11 innings Friday and 9-8 on Saturday before claiming its most lopsided victory of the series in Sunday’s finale.
“I’m proud of the team,” coach Jay Johnson said following Friday’s heartbreaker. “The competitiveness, the fight, the care level with all we’ve gone through, I’m good with that. We need to play better, but I can live with this game tonight.”
But the Tigers only had more trouble keeping pace with Mississippi State by the day, even despite strong starts in every contest.
LSU scored three runs in the top of the first inning all three games and led in the sixth inning each time out only to watch its advantages evaporate in front of a delighted Dudy Noble Field crowd in Starkville, Miss.
The Bulldogs outscored the Tigers a combined 14-2 from the seventh innings and later in the series.
LSU led, 8-5, entering the bottom of the sixth Sunday before Mississippi State erupted for four runs to take a lead it would not relinquish, only adding two more in each of the seventh and eighth innings to pull away.
Junior third baseman Ace Reese drove home four runs to pace the Bulldogs’ efforts in the finale and continue a weekend-long performance killing the Tigers, including a home run in all three games.
LSU had bright spots at the plate as well, including freshmen Mason Braun and Omar Serna Jr., who combined for six hits, four runs and three RBIs Sunday to finish the weekend a combined 15-for-27 with 10 runs, eight RBIs, a Serna home run every day and a Braun triple Sunday.
“They are two of our best hitters right now,” Johnson said. “That is a positive, a silver lining, and I like the make-up of the people that they are and what they are going to mean to our program going forward. We can build off of the experience they’re gaining now.”
Junior stars Cade Arrambide and Steven Milam each homered early Sunday as well, in the first and third innings, respectively, to help build the early cushion. Arrambide now sits at 13 for the season after two this weekend, with Milam’s marking his seventh of the spring.
But salvageable as the finale felt for a stretch, the bullpen struggled again late and the offense went silent for the final three frames.
The Tigers led as late in the prior games as 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth Friday and 7-2 in the bottom of the seventh Saturday.
But eight runs in each game proved insufficient to steal even a single win from the Bulldogs.
LSU has now suffered three SEC sweeps in a single season for just the second time since 1980.
The Tigers return home Tuesday to host Southeastern Louisiana at 6:30 p.m. with just three weeks remaining in the regular season and the only viable route to a potential NCAA Tournament becoming increasingly limited to a miraculous SEC Tournament run.
