​It doesn’t happen often, but LSU missed the postseason in 2026, coming off of their second national championship in three years under Jay Johnson. Failing to make a regional means that the season ends at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, which is at the end of May. Not having a single LSU baseball game in June is tough, specifically because it makes the offseason feel incredibly longer.The offseason was kind to the Tigers, though. First, Jay Johnson went big game hunting and landed players like Bino Watters, Dawson Park, and Angel Laya. A pitcher like Landon Hood is considered one of the top arms in the portal and he’s now wearing purple and gold.Johnson followed up his top transfer portal class with one of the most stellar incoming freshman classes that the program has ever seen. According to Baseball America, LSU landed 8 of the top-100 freshman in the entire country. While only 6 of them made Perfect Game’s list of 100, the number is still extremely high. Players like Malachi Washington, Dominic Santarelli, Lucas Nawrocki, and Cooper Sides were considered longshots to every put on an LSU uniform, but on Thursday evening, they all took the field at Alex Box for the first scrimmage of the fall baseball calendar.With some veterans like Jason Wachs, Dawson Park, and the aforementioned Watters seeing a lot of summer ball action, they were mostly rested for the opening scrimmage. Plenty of freshman and sophomores got opportunities on Thursday night, with some taking full advantage of their first chance.Jay Johnson’s scrimmages are unique and unorthodox. While they’re mostly played as 3-out half innings, there are times where they place runners on base to work on situations. They have a point-based system that allows them to score on basic things like throwing a first pitch strike or moving a runner over, so keeping score is not necessarily traditional.I’ll list the defensive lineups, but as I mentioned earlier, players like Watters, Wachs, and Laya did not play the field, which meant that two LSU staffers were in the outfield at times. More clarity will likely arrive as we draw closer to the first official fall ball game on October 31st, but for now, this is what we got.Defensive alignmentPurple teamSP: William SchmidtC: Cade Arrambide1st: Dylan Minattee2nd: Cade KurlandSS: Parker Loew3rd: John PearsonLF: Eddie YaminCF: Nate DavisRF: StaffGold teamSP: Cooper SidesC: Omar Serna1st: Dominic Santarelli2nd: Malachi WashingtonSS: Steven Milam3rd: Jack RuckertLF: StaffCF: William PatrickRF: StaffScrimmage notesWilliam Schmidt was the first pitcher to take the field and was excellent. After a groundout, he struck out both Lucas Nawrocki and Dom Santarelli. He was sitting mid-90s with his offspeed.RHP Cooper Sides was excellent as the starting pitcher on the other side. He finished with 2.0 IP and didn’t allow a hit, while striking out 2. His stuff looked filthy, pushing his fastball up to 96 mph and a slider in the upper-80s. It’s immediately c