Jay Johnson doesn't believe LSU came out flat before losing in SEC Tournament

LSU enjoyed a three-day stay at this year’s SEC Tournament, winning their first game 10-3 over South Carolina before bowing out with consecutive losses to Arkansas and Texas A&M, both by a 5-4 score. Despite the 1-2 record, it’s not a bad week of play and the Tigers batted in more runs than they let up overall, but just couldn’t execute well enough in key moments to snatch victory out of defeat on Thursday and Friday.

After their tourney-ending loss at the hands of Texas A&M, coach Jay Johnson joined the SEC Network crew to discuss a frustrating couple of days in Hoover for his team. First off, he was asked if his team came out flat vs. the Aggies, to which he responded sharply: “I did not see that.”

However, he did see a lot to like from starting pitcher Ty Floyd, who gave LSU five innings flat at the mound while only allowing one run.

“I thought Ty had pitched well again, which was great,” shared Johnson. “I think we were in control of the game for five innings. I think we could have put ourselves in more control of the game, and against a good offense. I mean, it’s the same team that was in Omaha last year, as old a team as there is out there. You want to create distance, and we didn’t do that.”

The Tigers just didn’t take advantage of a terrific start from Floyd, and once A&M got their hitters going later in the afternoon, LSU just didn’t have enough to pace them.

“When you give guys like Haas and Moss and Werner chances, Bost, they’re going to capitalize,” Johnson continued. “I think if we could have created a little more distance, would have taken a little pressure off the pitching staff and would have been in a better spot, especially there at the end of the game.”

Overall, he doesn’t think Friday’s performance was flat, per se, but rather a little bit off at the plate. Obviously he was happy with what the starting pitching looked like. “I didn’t see flat. I saw we were out of character in some at-bats today,” Johnson summarized.

Just a tough couple days for LSU. Nonetheless, those are close game that had coin flip results — and the Tigers also beat up on a South Carolina team that’s still right in the hunt for a national seed, so the weekend wasn’t a total wash.