LSU baseball coach discusses struggles as Texas A&M sweeps Tigers

"That's what good teams do. Two out hitting, it's going to make the difference in the game. We had a couple chances. We had one in the first popped up. We had one, it was after [Steven Milam's] home run, and hit a ground ball to the shortstop.

"That's a glaring difference in the game. I know it was a six-run spread, but, you know, we're putting in different pitchers if we're not chasing runs, and it's not a six-run spread. They took advantage of those."

Growing pains and learning

After Saturday's loss, Johnson talked about the growing pains we're seeing from some of the young pitchers.

"It's a job interview for all of them every day. And I'm not talking about just LSU. Like, the guys we bring in, they want to play beyond this. And it's all tracked now. You know, everybody can see everything," Johnson said.

"There's still some growing pains that happen this time of year. And, you know, I don't think it's exclusive to us. Not that I really care about anybody else. But, you know, flip on the TV and see some things that, you know, maybe not be the best baseball, you know, happen in another game. But got to learn from it. Like I said last night, we have to get value out of this struggle. You know, otherwise it's just painful, you know, and you got to get some value out of it. And so we're going to try to continue to do that," Johnson said.

Jay Johnson talks development of Marcos Paz

"He's got everything you need to be great. And, again, like, he hadn't pitched in 18 months prior to this season starting. It was very minimal, you know, in the fall," Johnson said.

"I think he's going to be the best pitcher in the program. I really believe that. And I think he's moving in that direction," Johnson said.

On defensive struggles and wild pitches

After Saturday's game, Jay Johnson talked about the continued struggles of the defense, which includes wild pitches and passed balls.

"We'd still had three or four wild pitches or pass balls today. I don't know how they're categorized. But that's a bad sign. You want to look at struggle, literally look at those two stats, and it'll show you a team that's either playing clean or struggling. And I'm not blaming the pitcher. I'm not blaming Cade. That's not where I'm going with it," Johnson said.

"But I know we had two or three. I know one resulted in the first run of the game. Single, you know, from Wilson after they had moved up. We had two outs. I believe two strikes and a man on first, and they were able to move up, and then he got a single. So, you know, that would be the one thing I might pick at in this game. But, yeah, it was better. I think it's technically a zero in the air column. I don't know how many guys we struck out tonight or not. But, you know, again, like the bullpen, we'll take that as a positive."

The offensive slump continued on Sunday

"I thought we missed some pitches that we should hit. I thought we expanded the zone a couple times. I thought we struck out looking a couple times at very inopportune moments," Johnson said.

"And then I thought there was a stretch. We did hit five balls well and had really nothing to show for it. I've mentioned this before, hit a ball hard, bad result, maybe get a hit. And then a bat at bat, you never get any sustainable rhythm or chances to score. Probably a combination of all that."

The morale of the team

"That's not a question for me. That's a question for each individual player, and you might get different answers with the guys. But we're all in charge of that. You know, I'm in charge of the attitude, you know, of myself, my coaches, and what we translate to the team. And, you know, we had one small stretch like this before, you know, and I made a decision at that time, like I'm not going to go sour on them. I'm going to show up to work. It may not get us where we want to go. It may not. But, you know, I want them to keep going, so our coaching staff has to keep going. You know, I'm very honest, you know, in assessments and improvement that's needed, but also showing up is a big part of it. And, you know, two of the last three years it's been a lot of fun to show up here. It's not as fun right now, but you still have to. That's my job, and it's my coach's job, and, you know, it's these players' lives. Like this is the most important thing to them, you know, so, you know, we owe that to them."

This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: LSU baseball coach discusses struggles as Texas A&M sweeps Tigers