The LSU baseball team earned its biggest series victory of the season at Alex Box Stadium over the weekend.
The Tigers took down No. 1 Texas A&M twice to earn their third consecutive series victory. They defeated the Aggies 6-4 on Friday and Saturday before dropping the final game of the series on Sunday 14-4.
Here are five takeaways from LSU's massive weekend.
Bullpen up and down
It was an interesting weekend for the LSU relievers.
The Tigers were lights out over the first two games. Right-hander Fidel Ulloa and left-hander Griffin Herring didn't allow an earned run in 3⅔ innings Friday.
On Saturday, right-hander Christian Little surrendered just two hits and one earned run in 3⅔ innings before right-hander Gavin Guidry closed out the win in the ninth.
Little was up to 98.5 miles per hour with his fastball and consistently fooled the Aggies with his off-speed stuff in the strike zone. It was the kind of performance LSU desperately needed from someone other than Herring out of the bullpen.
"He's just executing pitches. He's throwing it where he wants, when he wants, how he wants, changing speeds," LSU coach Jay Johnson said Saturday. "He's pitching, that would be the simplest answer,"
Sunday was a completely different story. After left-hander Nate Ackenhausen threw 1⅔ scoreless innings as a starter, right-handed reliever Sam Dutton gave up four earned runs in the fifth inning after 2⅓ scoreless innings prior.
Left-hander Justin Loer and right-hander Thatcher Hurd combined to allow five earned runs despite recording only one out. Right-hander Aiden Moffett calmed things down over the next 3⅓ innings, but left-hander Cam Johnson and right-hander Will Hellmers gave up five more earned runs in the ninth inning.
"We just ran out of steam," Johnson said Sunday.
Clutch hitting
Getting big hits in big moments has been a problem for LSU throughout Southeastern Conference play.
Hitting with two outs and runners in scoring position wasn't an issue for the Tigers against Texas A&M, though.
"Two outs, runner on second, you've got to hit the ball in the gap with the fans screaming, there might be two strikes. It's a tough scenario," Brady Neal said. "Just slowing down and experience (are key). Have you been in that spot before?"
LSU was 4 for 7 with runners in scoring position Friday. It went 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position on Saturday but counterbalanced that with a 6 for 15 mark with two outs.
Even in Sunday's loss, LSU went 3 for 8 with runners in scoring position.
Impressive 1-2 punch
Left-hander Gage Jump and right-hander Luke Holman didn't have their best outings against the Aggies.
Jump gave up six hits and had only four strikeouts. Holman walked five batters, including three in the first inning.
But, against one of the best lineups in the country, LSU's top two starters kept the Tigers in each game and further proved they're one of the better 1-2 punches in the conference.
Jump allowed just three earned runs in 5⅓ innings, while Holman gave up the same amount of runs in five innings. Holman also struck out 10, and the only runs Jump allowed came on solo home runs.
Because of Holman and Jump, LSU was one of only three SEC teams heading into Sunday's games to have multiple starting pitchers with an ERA in conference play under five.
Pearson's big weekend
Josh Pearson only had three hits against the Aggies, but two of them were series-changing knocks.
Pearson hit a two-run double with the bases loaded and nobody out during the sixth inning Friday to kick-start a four-run inning.
"I was the first batter (the reliever) was going to face," Pearson said. "So we just went over my approach, my plan.
"I was able to see every pitch he threw, so it really made it a lot easier (for me) on the 3-2 pitch when he threw something out over the plate."
He then hit a two-out double and scored after Hayden Travinski's single in the third on Saturday. For good measure, Pearson also drew two walks and had a run-scoring single Sunday.
NCAA tourney outlook
The lucky number LSU fans should focus on is 13. That's the number of wins in conference play the Tigers will need to get to for a realistic shot at making the NCAA tournament.
At 9-15 in SEC play entering the final six games of their conference schedule, the Tigers need four wins combined over Alabama on the road and Ole Miss at Alex Box to reach that goalpost.
Obviously, 14 or 15 conference wins would make an NCAA berth more of a certainty. But the Tigers made the tournament with just 13 victories in conference play despite losing in the first round of the SEC tournament in 2021.
What happened then doesn't guarantee anything now. But what happened three years ago does give LSU proof of concept for what it needs to do, at a minimum, to make the NCAA tournament.