BATON ROUGE — LSU baseball had made the NCAA tournament 13 straight seasons.
For the first time in 14 years and the first time under head coach Jay Johnson, the Tigers fell short of making an NCAA regional. Monday’s NCAA tournament selection show confirmed what everyone in and around the LSU program knew was coming, that the 2026 college baseball postseason would not include the reigning national champion Tigers.
This season was one of the worst in recent memory for the Tigers (30-28), and in some way was one of the worst seasons in program history. LSU’s 9-21 SEC record was the worst in LSU baseball history, an ugly conference slate performance was expounded by the team getting swept in three straight series and in five of its last six series in the regular season.
LSU’s final hope to make the NCAA field was dashed in the second round of the SEC tournament with a 3-1 loss to Auburn at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Alabama last week.
“We were short in a lot of areas,” Johnson told reporters following LSU’s exit from the SEC Tournament. “I’m not talking about players, it was a little bit in how we recruited, a little bit in how we developed in both the individual player and the team. We lost a lot of close games and that’s been a hallmark of why we have two championships in the last four years. We’ve been able to be on the right side of games like tonight. Against the best team, we just couldn’t do it. There’s a lot to that.”
LSU entered the 2026 season after capturing the 2025 College World Series title and opened the season a consensus top-two team in the nation.
But by and large, the Tigers couldn’t overcome an injury-riddled season headlined by junior pitcher Cooper Moore needing season-ending surgery on his elbow a couple of weeks into SEC play, and star outfielder Jake Brown, who was LSU’s best hitter for the better part of the year, breaking the hamate bone in his hand during the Texas A&M series in mid-April, causing him to miss the rest of the season.
Casan Evans, who was LSU’s Friday night pitcher, also missed time with arm discomfort.
“We’ve had a lot of good fortune. Sometimes, baseball is going to baseball you. Sometimes, life doesn’t go the way that you want it,” Johnson said. “There was a little bit of a stretch here where it was like, ‘OK, I’m paying for the sins that helped us get the two championships.’ It felt like that sometimes.
“I feel bad because we didn’t get to where we needed to be or wanted to be, or where this team could have been. I don’t know if I’ve ever said that in my entire career. That stings. And that’s why there will be not only a ton of reflection but action. This is about what we do with this.”
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball won’t play in NCAA tournament for 1st time in 14 seasons