The LSU baseball earned its second consecutive series victory in the Southeastern Conference this weekend, taking down Auburn twice in a three-game set at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU took the first game of the series on Friday 5-0 before earning a 3-2 walk-off victory on Saturday. Auburn took the series finale on Sunday 7-5.
Here are five takeaways from LSU's second series victory in conference play.
A big step in the right direction for the bullpen
For the first time this season in SEC play, LSU's bullpen was superb from start to finish over a weekend series.
LSU relievers allowed just two earned runs in 12⅔ innings against Auburn, resulting in a 1.42 ERA. Their control was excellent, only walking three batters, including one intentionally, the whole weekend.
"It is the difference in why we are winning right now, is the pitching staff," LSU coach Jay Johnson said after Saturday's win.
Right-hander Christian Little threw 3⅔ scoreless innings across two appearances (Friday and Sunday), and right-hander Gavin Guidry, left-hander Nate Ackenhausen and right-hander Thatcher Hurd tossed 2⅓ scoreless innings Saturday.
On Sunday, Little, right-hander Will Hellmers, left-hander Griffin Herring, left-hander Justin Loer and right-hander Sam Dutton combined to surrender just two earned runs and three extra-base hits in 8⅓ innings.
The unit picked up left-hander Kade Anderson on Sunday, who allowed five earned runs and failed to escape the first inning.
"They gave us a chance," Johnson said Sunday. "After a bad first, you like that they did that."
Ashton Larson's consistency
Mentioning Ashton Larson as a bright spot in LSU's lineup has started to become a weekly tradition.
The freshman had at least a hit in each game of the series, including three on Saturday. He finished the weekend going 6 for 13 at with a double and three RBIs.
"I think I had a lot of growing up to do in the fall in terms of adjusting to this level of pitching," Larson said. "And the coaching staff did an unbelievable job, and I'm super grateful to them for helping me develop and continue to get better and better."
No matter the outcome of this season, LSU fans have to feel good about Larson as a reliable top-half of the lineup option for the Tigers over the next two seasons.
The situation in center
LSU had started the same nine players in the same order for four straight games heading into Sunday.
Paxton Kling lead off and started in center in each of those matchups. But that changed on Sunday when Johnson inserted Mac Bingham into his spot in the order and position in the field.
Kling had struggled during the first two games of the series, going 0 for 6. But Bingham wasn't any better on Sunday when he went 0 for 4. Bingham also has just one hit in his past eight at-bats and hasn't recorded a multi-hit game since March 30.
With Bingham and Kling struggling at the plate, LSU's options in center field aren't just limited to them. Freshman Jake Brown only has one hit in conference play but is a plus defender and was projected to be an everyday starter in the outfield at the start of the season.
Sunday blues
Much like the Game 2 losses to Florida, Arkansas and Vanderbilt, Sunday's Game 3 with Auburn became another sliding doors moment for LSU.
LSU, once again, was a play here or a decision there away from changing the complexion of its season for the better. A win over Auburn would have handed LSU its first series sweep in SEC play this season.
But Anderson's rough first inning put LSU in a major hole, forcing Johnson to use left-hander Griffin Herring earlier than he would have liked.
Johnson could have just started Herring in the first place, but he said after the game that he knew Herring had a certain pitch count limit and LSU was going to have to use at least four or five arms at some point in the game anyway.
"All of those guys that pitched were going to have to pitch at some point today," Johnson said. "And it didn't work, it clearly didn't work."
But even with that deficit, LSU had plenty of opportunities to come back and tie the game after cutting the Auburn lead to two in the fourth inning. LSU went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position and had three opportunities to add runs on the board in the latter half of the game.
Can LSU still make the NCAA Tournament?
Yes, but Sunday's loss to Auburn and Saturday's loss to Missouri did not make matters any easier.
Victories in those two tight losses would have put LSU at 9-12 in conference play heading into next weekend's series against top-ranked Texas A&M. That would have made LSU's path to 13 wins against the SEC — the same number of victories LSU had in 2021 when it snuck into the NCAA tournament — much more attainable.
Now, LSU will have to win six of its final nine games in conference play just to reach that 13-game win marker before the start of the SEC tournament.
Within that last stretch of games includes the Aggies and a trip to Tuscaloosa. Alabama won its series on the road against Ole Miss this past week and entered this weekend as a top-25 team in D1Baseball's ranking.