LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson admits roster construction mistakes after latest loss
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Last year’s LSU Tigers, the College World Series champions, finished the season with a 53-15 record. This year’s LSU Tigers, following a 10-4 defeat to Texas A&M on Friday night, have already surpassed that loss total (23-16). And it doesn’t seem like there’s much optimism in a late-season turn around.
After his team dropped Friday’s series opener against the Aggies, head coach Jay Johnson took responsibility for the Tigers’ struggles. He said choices he made in roster construction have plagued the squad.
“It’s a deep-rooted thing… we’re off, and this will never happen again,” Johnson told reporters. “I made some mistakes in constructing the team, in trying to replace 2 guys that were irreplaceable, where we should have looked for replacing them through guys that were already in the program… we won’t make that mistake again.”
Johnson centered his attention on the team’s approach in the batter’s box. He believes there is too much focus from players on exit velocity and the long ball, as opposed to quality, competitive at-bats.
“We have plenty of home runs… if you attached professional at-bats, which is what we’re known for… [and] is why we have 2 national championships, with the power on this team, it would be plenty,” Johnson said. “Texas A&M… won the game tonight because they hit the ball hard and low the other way… the appearance is, we’re trying to do too much. And trying to do too much is not a plan, or a sign of a mature offensive baseball team.”
LSU could take its series versus Texas A&M with wins today (5:30 p.m. E.T., SEC Network+) and Sunday (2:00 p.m. E.T., ESPN).
