Saturday Night Recap

Two pull off a sweep in baseball, you must win the first two games. A sweep is what the Tigers need this weekend and they did exactly what they needed to do to reach that goal after defeating the Gamecocks twice on Saturday. The game 2 win marked the first time all season that LSU won the first two games of an SEC series. It’s only the second time that they’ve done that all year, having not set themselves up for a true sweep since opening weekend against Milwaukee.

As it did in game 1, Tiger pitching dominated. For the second consecutive game, they only used two pitchers to get through the entire game. That’s just four pitchers for 18 innings of baseball on Saturday. Marcos Paz recorded his first career win and now sits with a 1-2 record, but that record does not reflect the rapid improvement by the freshman right-hander. It’s been a slow build up since reaching the 18-month post-Tommy John milestone that coincided with the beginning of the season, but we’re finally seeing why there was so much hype around his name. He is simply phenomenal and star in the making. Deven Sheerin followed with the typical brilliance that we see from the big redshirt-sophomore. Saturday was his second longest outing of the season, as he recorded team-leading 4^th save of the season.

The offense continued it’s upwards trend. Jay Johnson said that they would fix the problems and although it took way longer than anticipated, he’s done just that. The bats have been red-hot and for the second weekend in a row, have provided plenty of run support for the pitching staff. So far in this series, it’s been enough. LSU banged out 13 hits in game 2, totaling 21 on the day. Four Tigers recorded multiple hits, something that hasn’t occurred very often in 2026. The most promising aspect of these performances is that it’s largely being driven by the underclassmen. While postseason hopes still do slightly exist this season, the promise for the future is as bright as can be.

Pitching

Marcos Paz had an interesting 1^st inning, to say the least. Although he gave up a solo homerun to the second batter of the game, he struck out the side and looked untouchable outside of that one pitch. It was a quick 1-2-3 2^nd inning, including one strikeout. After his 5^th strikeout to start the 3^rd, he gave up a walk to 9-hole hitter Luke Yuhasz, but Cade Arrambide gunned him out at 2^nd base trying to steal. A flyout would retire the side in order and Paz was through 3 innings of work with only 1 run allowed. It was another solid inning in the 4^th, including another strikeout, then pitching around a 1-out walk. Through 4 innings, he was sitting at 60 pitches and working efficiently through the Gamecock lineup. After a strikeout and groundout to start the 5^th, he walked his third batter of the game, but bounced right back with strikeout #8. After setting his career-high with 5.0 innings pitched, Paz’s night was done. He gave Jay Johnson and his team everything they needed and more, putting the LSU pitching staff in fantastic position to get through the second half of the series.

• Final line: 5.0 IP / 1 hit / 1 run / 8 K / 3 BB / 79 pitches (47 strikes, 59%)

Deven Sheerin took over to start the 6^th and breezed through his first inning of work. After a flyout and groundout, he dotted a fastball across the corner of the plate to strike out Talmadge LeCroy looking. After walking the leadoff hitter in the 7^th, the big right-hander recorded three straight outs to prevent any damage. Sheerin recorded two quick outs to start the 8^th, but ran in to some damage after an infield single and he hit a batter. He was able to induce a flyout to William Patrick to escape, though. Back to close things out in the 9^th, a pop out in foul territory to Jack Ruckert put the first out on the board. Two pitches later, Sheerin forced another high pop up on the infield, but Seth Dardar missed it and the runner made it all the way to 2^nd base. As it often does in baseball, the ball finds the guy that’s struggling and that’s exactly what happened as a slow-roller was chopped to 3^rd base, but Dardar was unable to gather it to make a throw and just like that, the Gamecocks had something going. That was followed with an RBI single to cut the lead to 7-2 and put runners on 1^st and 3^rd. A passed ball brought in another run and the score was 7-3. After a groundout to Milam, Sheerin drew a another pop up to the infield, but this time it went to the safest glove on the field. Steven Milam hauled it in and the Tigers closed out the victory.

• Final line: 4.0 IP / 3 hits / 2 runs / 3 K / 1 BB / 58 pitches (37 strikes, 64%)

Hitting

Omar Serna stayed hot with another 3-hit performance on Saturday night. He doubled in game 1 of the doubleheader and did so, again, tonight. He also drove in a run and finished 3-4.

Speaking of hot, Cade Arrambide is part of the trio that has been on fire the past two weekends with Serna and Mason Braun. The sophomore blasted his 14^th homerun of the season, which was his team-leading 9^th in SEC play. He scored 3 runs and finished 3-5.

Seth Dardar returned to the lineup for the first time since game 2 at Ole Miss three weeks ago when he was trying to play on a bad ankle. He got the start at 3^rd base and although he had a few miscues in the field in the 9^th inning, his bat showed up just as it has throughout conference play. Coming in to this weekend hitting .286 in SEC contests, Dardar raised that average with a 2-4 night. He drove in an RBI and also doubled.

Tanner Reaves delivered his second multi-hit game in the past three games for LSU. He started in left field in game 2 and finished 2-3 with a double of his own on a beautifully executed hit-and-run. The senior also scored and drew a walk.

The final piece of the aforementioned trio that have been crushing the ball, Mason Braun found himself on base a couple more times. He also blasted his 3^rd homerun of the season, which was his 1^st in an SEC game. The freshman continues to thrive in the leadoff position, getting on base in 6 of his 9 at bats across the doubleheader on Saturday. In game 2, he finished 1-3 with 3 RBI and also drew a walk.

Up Next

LSU and South Carolina will return tomorrow for game 3 to finish up their series. First pitch is for 2:00 pm central. With the two wins today, the Tigers passed the Gamecocks in the SEC standings and now hold a 8-15 record, while South Carolina falls to 7-16. LSU is looking for their first SEC sweep of the season, with this series being the first that they’ve won both games 1 and 2 here in 2026. Both teams have TBA listed for starting pitchers, but the Tigers have plenty of top arms available, a few that have starting experience this year like Zac Cowan and Gavin Guidry. Alex Valentin is expected to start for South Carolina, a junior left-handed pitcher who went viral last year while at Texas State due to his aggressive pitching attitude.

Follow me on X for much more @DCBilliotJr