Jay Johnson breaks down LSU's struggles with men on base during CWS Finals

For LSU baseball, when it rained on Sunday, it poured… and then hailed… and then broke out into a full-blown monsoon by the end of the afternoon as Florida pummeled the Tigers 24-4 to even the count at 1-1 in the championship series of the College World Series.

While that crooked final score paints a pretty ugly picture for LSU, head coach Jay Johnson actually saw some spots in the first few innings where the Tigers could have kept the game closer and maybe changed the course of it.

Alas, it was runners on base that Florida batted in and LSU did not which ultimately proved the difference in Game 2. Gator batter Ty Evans smashed a grand slam when UF had the bases loaded in the third, meanwhile LSU proceeded to blow their bases-loaded opportunity and came away with nothing.

Afterwards, Johnson was asked if leaving all those runners on base was a big issue since LSU is up to 30 runners left on through two games vs. Florida. But he wasn’t too panicked about it

‘You know, I mean, sure, I guess,” Johnson surmised without much enthusiasm. He didn’t necessarily agree that leaving runners on base is indicative of poor offense overall. “I mean, I don’t really know how to answer that. We’re one of the best offensive teams in the country. When you lead the country in on-base percentage you’re going to leave more runners on base.”

Johnson did point to the Florida pitching staff to credit them for making outs in numerous tough spots when the Tigers had runners in scoring position. “I feel part of the credit has to go to the pitcher at times,” he added. “And I think it was (Blake) Purnell did a nice job inducing the ground ball for the double play.”

Johnson didn’t seem totally bothered by the untimely hitting for LSU on Sunday as clearly there were larger problems in play. Also, it’s just one game where the Gators were able to get outs at vital moments in order to keep their lead and eventually add to it. This evening, perhaps it’s the Tigers who hit a grand slam and Florida who grounds into a double play with the bases jacked.

Despite the 24-4 final line, there were moments that could have changed the outlook of Sunday afternoon early on. Jay Johnson is just waiting for the luck to come around.

“Yeah, we’ve got our guys — we’re not going to bring in a bunch of free agents for tomorrow night. It’s a 27-man roster. And I’m good with that; I’m totally good with that.”

Win, lose or having been throttled, there was always a new day Monday morning waiting for LSU if they couldn’t get the job done on Sunday with one more opportunity awaiting them to win it all. The time is now for both clubs as they prepare for the rubber match in a true standalone national title game later tonight.