The LSU Tigers baseball team went beyond midnight to take on the Oklahoma Sooners and move on to the second round of the SEC Tournament. They returned to the diamond on Wednesday for another late-night matchup, this time against the Auburn Tigers.
The defending national champions took an early lead but failed to score in the final five innings, resulting in a 3-1 loss. That ended the Bayou Bengals’ 2026 season with a 30-28 record.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The first third of the game could be described as a pitcher’s duel. Auburn’s starter, Jake Marciano, allowed just two hits and had one strikeout through the first three innings. For LSU, its starter was Casan Evans, who gave up a single to Bub Terrell in the second inning and punched out four to keep the game scoreless heading into the fourth inning.
The Tigers took the first lead of the game at the top of the fourth, and Derek Curiel got it started with a leadoff double down the right field line. Steven Milam walked, and both runners advanced on a Brayden Simpson sacrifice bunt. John Pearson then hit a sac fly to bring Curiel home and put the Bayou Bengals ahead 1-0.
Chase Fralick tied the game with a solo home run over the left field wall to begin the bottom of the fourth. Evans rebounded after that, not allowing a hit and striking out another pair of batters to get out of the inning.
Evans’ night came to an end in the fifth after an errant third by second baseman Jack Ruckert to third base. It began with the McCraine brothers getting on base on back-to-back plays. LSU’s starting pitcher had another two punchouts before disaster struck in the infield. Chris Rembert singled up the middle with Ruckert coralling the live ball and throwing it too far to the left, near LSU’s dugout. That led to an unearned run and a 2-1 lead for Auburn. Evans was replaced by Ethan Plog, who forced Fralick to pop out in shallow right field. Evans finished the night with eight K’s in 4.2 innings.
The Plainsmen added another run to the board when Eric Guevara went yard with one out on the board. Zac Cowan was on the mound for the Tigers when the moon ball was hit.
LSU made a couple of changes to the batting lineup in the eighth as Edward Yamin IV pinch hit for Ruckert, and Zach Yorke did the same for William Patrick. Neither got on base and contributed to the Tigers going three-up-three-down in the frame.
The rain started to pour down in Hoover, which didn’t help LSU’s chances at a comeback. Curiel, Milam, and Simpson got on base, with Curiel getting called out at second on Milam’s single. Pearson was LSU’s final batter as he grounded out to Auburn’s pitcher Jackson Sanders. That final play ended the Tigers’ season in a 3-1 game on Wednesday.
BIG NUMBER: 22
This last loss was LSU’s 22nd against SEC opponents in a single season, a program high. The second-most conference losses in the team’s history were 18 in 1978.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jake Marciano
Marciano earned his fifth win of the season after going six innings in Auburn’s 3-1 win over LSU. The Plainsman’s starting pitcher allowed just four hits, one run, one walk, and struck out four more in 22 batters faced.
UP NEXT: The LSU Tigers baseball team will have to wait until next spring to return to the baseball diamond.
