Pitching Dominates, LSU Evens Series With UK
David Billiot Jr • March 28, 2026
LSU - 7, Kentucky - 0
Saturday Afternoon Recap
Saturday was as much of a must-win game as you can find halfway through the season. After dropping game 1 of the series last night and having no defined starting pitcher for game 3 on Sunday, LSU simply had to have this game. Give credit to Jay Johnson and his squad, because they showed up and played like it. William Schmidt pitched in and out of trouble as he has all season. Kentucky did a fine job of making him work, a hallmark of pesky offenses like theirs. He refused to give in, though, shutting them down at every turn. Schmidt earned the win to improve his record to 4-1. Zac Cowan followed him and was just as magnificent, if not more. Jay said after the game that he believed that was Cowan’s best performance in his LSU career, which had plenty of them in 2025. He also explained just how important he is to their team, saying that Cowan was a top 5 reason that they won the College World Series a year ago. He earned his first save of the season.
The offense was much better. Although they only scored three times in their eight at bats, they put up crooked numbers each time and never appeared satisfied. LSU recorded 9 hits as a team and only struck out 5 times, a far cry from last night. The most promising note is that they did their damage with only 3 combined hits from Jake Brown, Derek Curiel, and Steven Milam, the typical leaders of the team. Today, it was two freshman that delivered multiple times and that is something this team has been lacking.
Pitching
William Schmidt was looking to get off to a more efficient start and despite a 1-out infield hit off of Zach Yorke’s backhand attempt, he did just that. Things got interesting for a bit, as Omar Serna hesitated on a steal attempt and then threw the ball in to centerfield to put the runner on third base. Schmidt delivered back to back breaking balls to 4-hole hitter Hudson Brown to strike him out and end the threat. After a 3-pitch strikeout to start the 2nd, he allowed another 1-out single, but another fantastic play by Steven Milam and a pop out to Serna would lead to a quick 9-pitch inning. The 3rd inning was the stiffest test, yet, for the sophomore. After a leadoff infield single, Schmidt started the second hitter 3-0, but came back to record the big out. Kentucky executed a perfectly drawn up hit-and-run to put runners on the corners with 1 out with Tyler Bell coming to the plate. A 96 MPH fastball on the inside corner with a 3-2 count locked up the star shortstop for a massive second out. A fly out would keep the Wildcats off of the scoreboard, yet again. They got right back on the basepaths in the 4th, drawing a leadoff walk, but a beautifully turned 6-4-3 double play by Milam and Seth Dardar, followed by a one pitch flyout would quickly get Schmidt off of the field with an 8-pitch inning. Schmidt danced around more trouble in the 5th after hitting the leadoff hitter, despite starting him 0-2 and then throwing a wild pitch to allow him to second base. A 1-out single put runners on the corners and set up the defensive play of the game. On a shallow flyball to Jake Brown, Kentucky tried tagging up to score, but the former pitcher gunned him out at home to a raucous applause from the Alex Box crowd. The day would end for Schmidt in the 6th after allowing a walk and a single, with a flyout between. He finished with 88 pitches and battled throughout the day. Kentucky got at least one baserunner on in every single inning for the first 6 innings.
- Final line: 5.1 IP / 6 hits / 0 runs / 3 Ks / 2 BBs / 88 pitches (52 strikes, 59%)
Zac Cowan was a name many considered as a possibility to fill Sunday’s TBA spot, but he was called upon with runners on 1st and 3rd and only 1 out with LSU holding a 5-0 lead. A quick stolen base put both runners in scoring position, but the senior struck out consecutive hitters to leave a Wildcat runner on 3rd base for the fourth time in the game. The 7th inning was the first 1-2-3 inning for the Tigers all day. In the 8th, Cowan had to pitch through some trouble, but as it was all day, it was no issue. The inning started with a very good play on a slow-roller by Dardar, but then a walk and a single put runners on 1st and 3rd with only 1 out. Like he did when taking over for Schmidt in the 6th, Cowan struck out back to back hitters to end the threat. Two more Ks in the 9th helped only the second 3-up, 3-down of the day and LSU closed out a 7-0 victory to even the series.
- Final line: 3.2 IP / 1 hit / 0 runs / 7 Ks / 1 BB / 54 pitches (39 strikes, 72%)
Hitting
Mason Braun made the start at DH and despite not playing as much recently as he did earlier in the season, he delivered multiple times today. His RBI double in the 2nd was just the first impact swing, but it wasn’t even his biggest. In his next at bat in the 4th, Braun launched a 3-run homerun through a strong wind that was blowing straight in. That swing pushed LSU’s lead to 5-0 and was the type of insurance that they have struggled to find at times this season. The freshman finished 2-4 with 4 RBI and a run scored.
Omar Serna made his third consecutive start at catcher and continued to deliver in every facet. After throwing out a base-stealer last night, he followed up with a stellar job of blocking pitches in the dirt and preventing extra bases for Wildcat runners. At the plate, he went 2-4 and also drew a walk.
Steven Milam only finished 1-4, but his one swing was huge. In the 6th, LSU had put runners on 2nd and 3rd base with 0 outs. A groundout with the infield drawn in and a pop out to the second baseman kept both runners in place and it appeared as if they may miss a giant opportunity. Milam stepped in and ripped a ground ball down the 1st base line to bring both runners home and extend the lead to 7-0.
Jake Brown’s numbers aren’t going to jump off of the page today with a 1-5 finish, but it is worth noting that his 8th inning single was his first time on base today and that makes it 27 of 28 games that the star outfielder has reached base in 2026. As I mentioned earlier, he also threw out a runner at home with a rocket of a throw that helped preserve the shutout.
Seth Dardar followed up his 3 doubles night with a 3 walks performance. Officially, he finished 0-1, but he reached base at a .750 rate today and he also scored once. The senior also played excellent defense at 2nd base today, drawing praise from Jay Johnson in his postgame press conference.
John Pearson and Zach Yorke each finished 1-2. Pearson had a double, walked twice, and also scored twice. Yorke drew a walk, scored twice, and drove in an RBI.
Up Next
LSU and Kentucky will return for a massive rubber match tomorrow. First pitch is set for 12 noon central. Jay Johnson told us after the game that they needed to sit down as a coaching staff and look at what options they have available to decide who they will start, as it is currently listed as TBA. Junior LHP Ben Cleaver will start for the Wildcats. He started game 1 for Kentucky last week at Ole Miss and went 3.2 IP and allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, while striking out 4 and walking 2 hitters.
Follow me on X for much more @DCBilliotJr
A quick share helps us a lot!
ULM set for homecoming dance with familiar foe
Just a week ago, Saturday’s matchup between LSU and Texas A&M looked poised to be a top-10 showdown in Tiger Stadium. The Tigers were off to a solid start after throttling Clemson in the season opener and the Aggies were coming off of their first College Football Playoff season and a 10-2 season. Unfortunately, Ole Miss and Kentucky had other plans. The Rebels took down Lane Kiffin in his return to Oxford, albeit by surviving a furious comeback by the Tigers. As for Texas A&M, they suffered a 10-point loss at home to the Wildcats. That’s right, University of Kentucky went in to Kyle Field in College Station as 17 point underdogs and beat the Aggies by double digits. Both teams fell to 2-1 and some, not all, of the mystique that was surrounding this game had faded away. I said “some”, because this is still a massive game. LSU only dropped to #10 and that’s understandable, considering that their loss came on the road to another top-10 team in a hostile environment and with the best quarterback in the country. As for Texas A&M, it’s hard to justify them staying in the top-25 at all, but, alas, they remain at #23. The loser of this game is in big trouble. Suffering a second loss before the calendar flips to October is essentially a death sentence for playoff hopes. It wouldn’t be possible, but it would be highly unlikely. The winner can get back on track and regroup. Losing a game in the first month of the season isn’t ideal, but you can survive it. There are a lot of parallels between these two teams. They each have quarterbacks that have struggled with accuracy, missing throws that they shouldn’t miss. Those quarterbacks are both playing behind questionable offensive lines that have each seen mid-game replacements. They’ll both likely send out a different starting-five than they have for the first three games of the season. Their highly talented defensive lines were negated in losses. Finally, both put a lot of resources in to making the CFP this season. For LSU, patience is key. It’s year 1 under Kiffin and while the program invested a lot of money in to this roster to compete, expecting them to make the playoff immediately is a tall task. Is it possible? Absolutely. It’s not an indictment on the new staff’s potential if they don’t, though. As for Texas A&M, they are coming off of a season in which they started 11-0, before losing to their bitter rival, Texas, in the season finale. They earned the #7 seed and hosted what was their first ever playoff game. After being tied 3-3 for 58 minutes of that game, Miami scored a touchdown with 1:44 left in the game and pulled off the upset before making a run to the national championship. A season, that was becoming historic for the Aggie program, suddenly crashed in to a wall with back-to-back losses. Still, it was a remarkable campaign for Mike Elko in only his second season, but that led to high hopes for 2026. Marcel Reed is now a senior with over a full season of experience as an SEC starter, which is why Texas A&M was ranked #8 coming in to the year. They hope that the Kentucky game was the outlier, but unfortunately for them, a Saturday night in Death Valley is a one of the last follow-ups that they’d want to see on their schedule, despite Reed’s success against LSU the past few years. LSU offense vs. Texas A&M defense Passing game The Tigers come in with three major questions. First, and most importantly is, can Sam Leavitt settle down and find his accuracy? We talked about his shortcomings against Ole Miss last week. He was frantic early and that led to most of his night being erratic. The main reason for his jitteriness leads to our second question. Can the offensive line protect better? Against the Rebels, the pass protection, as a unit, graded out with a 41.8 PFF grade. That’s unacceptable. Kiffin has mentioned potential shakeups could be coming. The first two spots to look will be at left guard for Bo Bordelon and right tackle for Weston Davis. While I don’t expect Aliou Bah to be replaced this week, he needs to be better, as well. Finally, the last question is who steps up in Trey’Dez Green’s absence. No one needs a written explanation of how important he is. He will be out, likely for a few weeks, so someone has to step up. Winnie Watkins and Eugene Wilson III have been Leavitt’s two other most targeted receivers, but someone else needs to step up. They’ve tried to get Jackson Harris involved, so could it be him? Does Jayce Brown finally get more opportunities? Maybe Malik Elzy gets back on the field consistently. Regardless of who it is, someone has to step up. Mike Elko’s defense has been far from their dominant self that we watched in 2025. While ranked 7 th in the SEC with 281.3 yards allowed per game, it’s been their struggles at times against the better competition that they’ve seen. We spoke with Billy Liucci on Wednesday’s episode of Geaux Deep Dive and he told us that the most surprising things have been the lack of physicality up front and the miscommunication in the secondary. As a team, the Aggies only have 3 sacks this season. That’s last in the SEC. The guys to watch are defensive ends TJ Searcy and Marco Jones, each having 1.0 sacks. Anto Saka is another name to watch out for. The secondary has guys like Dez Ricks, which is a name LSU fans should be familiar with. He was a 5-star coming out of high school and younger brother to Eli Ricks, who became a Freshman All-American and Second-Team All-SEC in his one season with the Tigers. He transferred to Alabama the next year and Dez followed him, before transferring to Texas A&M following his freshman season. Julian Humphrey and Dalton Brooks are both former 4-stars, but for whatever reason, it’s been a struggle this season. They are suffering busted coverage far too often, which led to Kentucky receivers running wide open last week. Running game Dilin Jones has had two really good games with a mediocre one in-between. He broke 100 yards rushing against Clemson and Ole Miss, but had a much slower performance against Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs did a phenomenal job of bottling him up in the first half of LSU’s offensive struggles with 10 carries for just 3 yards. Last week against the Rebels, it was Jones who started finding holes, which led to the entire offense getting going. Texas A&M has been fairly pedestrian against the run this season. Coming in ranked #8 in rush defense, the Aggies are allowing 102.7 yards per game. Last week, Kentucky gashed them over and over. CJ Baxter finished with 19 carries for 87 yards and 2 touchdowns. All together, the Wildcat running backs combined for 27 carries for 159 yards and a 5.9 yards per carry average. The three backs that took a carry each had long runs of 16, 22, and 14 yards. Texas A&M’s defensive line has been getting pushed around and that’s extremely surprising for an Elko defense. There’s no doubt about it, the best way to help Sam Leavitt settle down is by establishing the run earlier in the game. In the first three games, LSU has called only two running plays combined on each of their opening drives. I would fully expect that to change on Saturday night. Look for Charlie Weis Jr. to get Jones involved early, taking some of the pressure off of the now limited passing attack that’s missing Trey’Dez Green. LSU defense vs. Texas A&M offense Passing game After shutting down Chris Vizzina, Tait Reynolds, and LA Tech’s Blake Baker through the first two weeks, Trinidad Chambliss brought the Tiger pass defense back down to earth. They come in ranked 8 th in the SEC, allowing 203.7 yards per game. After two solid performances in coverage, PJ Woodland was picked on against Ole Miss. He was targeted 7 times, the most of anyone on the defense, and allowed 4 catches for 47 yards and a touchdown. DJ Pickett, on the other side, allowed just one less catch and the same yardage. To be fair, some of those receptions allowed came in soft zone coverage, which is not what either cornerback is best at. While the Aggie offense has been highly disappointing as a whole, Marcel Reed’s throwing ability is a cause for concern for Texas A&M fans. They’re only averaging 222.7 yards per game through the air, which is 14 th in the SEC. That’s just slightly more than LSU’s defense has allowed per game and they had to face the top quarterback in the country on his home field. Reed’s 59.6% completion percentage is far too low, especially when you watch him miss wide open throws. It’s not like he doesn’t have the ability to make the throws, considering we saw him do it against teams like Notre Dame in South Bend against a Marcus Freeman defense. It’s a big night for Woodland and Pickett. They’ll face off with two good receivers in Mario Craver and Isaiah Horton. Craver’s 19 receptions are 2 nd in the SEC. Neither have been able to find the big play, though. Their longest catches of the season are 33 and 36 yards, respectively, along with yards per catch averages of 10.2 and 14.2 yards per catch. It appears as if the Aggies could get back Ashton Bethel-Roman, who has been battling an injury through the first three games. Although he only has 2 receptions for 13 yards in limited time this year, he caught 5 touchdowns and over 500 yards in 2025. The biggest difference in this year’s LSU defense compared to last season is the pass rush. The Tigers are ranked #1 in the SEC with 16 sacks and that could disrupt Reed. He’s been able to glide around and take off the past two years, so the pressure from guys like Princewill Umanmielen and Jordan Ross off the edge will present a new challenge. True freshman, Deuce Geralds, is second on the team with 2.0 sacks behind Umanmielen’s 6.0. Pressure up the middle can disrupt the best of the best quarterbacks, so his impact could be felt, as well. Running game There isn’t a better run defense in the country than LSU. That’s not hyperbole, either. Blake Baker’s unit is ranked #1 in the entire country, allowing just 33.0 yards per game. Although he exited the game halfway through the 3 rd quarter, Kewan Lacy was being shut down. He had 9 carries for 43 yards with a 4.8 yards per carry average, but 22 of those came on one run. Ole Miss ran for only 63 yards. Even Reed’s running ability has been less effective than a year ago. His 117 yards through three games feels low, especially considering that he has the potential to get that in one game. Rueben Owens is their primary running back, coming in to the game with 186 yards rushing and a 4.1 yards per carry average. He’s only found the end zone once. As a whole, the Aggies rank #10 in the conference with an average of 171.7 yards per game. This is probably the most important part of the game on Saturday night. Can LSU keep Marcel Reed contained. They’ve failed the past two seasons, leading to Reed publicly expressing his confidence in playing the Tigers. He ran for 108 yards and 2 touchdowns last year, following up his 62 yards and 3 rushing touchdowns in 2024 in a game in which he only played the second half. Mobile quarterbacks have been the bugaboo for Blake Baker, despite how elite of a defensive coordinator he is. It has to change on Saturday night. The biggest difference in this year’s game is having Whit Weeks and TJ Dottery. Weeks missed the game last year with his ankle injury, having to watch his defense chase the back of Reed’s #10 jersey all night. With those two on the field, this could be the chance to turn the tide. Prediction LSU is favored by 8.5 points and I honestly believe that is too much. I understand that Texas A&M just lost to Kentucky at home by 10, but the core of the team that made the playoff a year ago is still there. Will it come together on Saturday night? Who knows, because it’s not guaranteed that it will ever happen. It could happen, though, and that’s what makes these early season games so tough to predict in the first month of the season. With that being said, I believe the Tigers win this game. I believe that the additions of TJ Dottery and Princewill Umanmielen, along with Whit Weeks being on the field, will be the difference in limiting Marcel Reed. I have faith that Sam Leavitt will show more composure, as he’s put in good positions by Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr. LSU – 31 Texas A&M - 24