By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LAFAYETTE – No. 2 and falling LSU continues to put up the numbers … 11 strikeouts and only seven hits by its offense, nine hits allowed and three walks off eight of its pitchers, three more errors by its defense and three more wild pitches.
The Tigers also left seven runners on and lost their second straight game on Wednesday night, 7-2, at Louisiana-Lafayette in front of 5,736 mostly partying Cajun fans at Tigue Moore Field. It was the third largest crowd in ULL history with the previous two both set with LSU in town 7,583 in 1994 and 6,266 in 1989.
LSU (11-3) has now committed errors in its last six games and 12 in all over that span.
LSU comes back strong, but it wasn’t enough as Northeastern wins 13-10.https://t.co/QC3OaZv8jA
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 3, 2026
The Tigers committed four errors Monday in a 13-10 loss to Northeastern at home. The Tigers fell behind 10-0 in the third inning in that one.
The Cajuns (10-3) took a 3-0 lead in the first inning in this one off LSU’s Gavin Guidry, a redshirt junior reliever who started for just the second time in his college career and first time since his freshman season.
After one out, Guidry got into trouble by walking Drew Markle and allowing an RBI single to Lee Amedee. Then Amedee got to third on a throwing error by Guidry on a pick-off attempt. And the adventures were just getting started.
Rigoberto Hernandez grounded into a potential double play to LSU’s Zach Yorke at first base. Yorke fielded it cleanly and had time to touch first and throw home to end the inning. But he threw without touching the base, and threw low. It was still a catchable ball for the tag by catcher Cade Arrambide, but he couldn’t come up with it. And it was 2-0 with just one out.
Colt Brown followed with a single, and Steven Spalitta made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly to center field.
“I’ve got to set a tone better than that,” Guidry said. “I can’t allow a three spot in the first inning. Got to come out cleaner. But it’s college baseball. You’re going to get punched in the face. Just feels like it’s been happening a lot lately.”
Ethan Plog replaced Guidry in the third and pitched well for an inning and two thirds, allowing no runs and no walks with two hits and two strikeouts. Guidry (3-1) took the loss, allowing three runs on two hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
The Tigers made a game of it in the fifth by drawing within 3-2. With two outs and one one, Trent Caraway hit a two-run home run to left field that chased Parker Smith. But LSU blew a chance for more. After Derek Curiel and Jake Brown singled off left-hander Bryce Wilson to put runners on the corners, John Pearson flew out to left field to end the threat.
The Cajuns answered with three runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 6-2 lead off fresh reliever Connor Benge. Donovan LaSalle greeted Benge with a double. He scored when Drew Markle bunted for a single. Benge fielded it, then threw wide left of first base into right field, allowing LaSalle to score and moving Markle to second. Reliever Mavrick Rizy surrendered an RBI single to Rigoberto Hernandez for a 5-2 deficit, and Hernandez later scored on Rizy’s second wild pitch of the inning after he hit a batter.
The Cajuns made it 7-2 in the seventh on an RBI single by Steven Spalitta off Grant Fontenot – LSU’s seventh pitcher.
“That’s clearly a top 25 team,” Johnson said of the unranked Cajuns, who are No. 14 in the Ratings Percentage Index. “We’ve got to play better. This is an awesome atmosphere man. This is about the Cajuns playing great baseball tonight. We didn’t.”
Asked about the wild pitches and errors, Johnson said, “I’ll say this, when that number goes up, there is a correlation with difficulty to win games.”
The Tigers get a much anticipated off day Thursday after five games in six days before hosting Sacramento State (3-9) Friday through Sunday at Alex Box Stadium. That is, unless LSU coach Jay Johnson decides to practice.