HOOVER, Ala. — Auburn starter Jake Marciano went six efficient innings on 86 pitches, reliever Jackson Sanders closed the door with three scoreless innings on 50 pitches, and the No. 6 seed Auburn Tigers eliminated the defending national champion No. 14 seed LSU Tigers 3-1 on Wednesday night at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Two solo home runs — by catcher Chase Fralick in the bottom of the fourth and third baseman Eric Guevara in the bottom of the sixth — were the difference. Auburn advances to a Friday quarterfinal matchup with No. 3 seed Texas A&M.
LSU’s season ends at 30-28 overall and 9-21 in SEC play. The Tigers’ title defense, which had survived a tense night against Oklahoma 24 hours earlier on the back of a Steven Milam two-run home run and a Sheerin shutdown bullpen performance, came undone against an Auburn club that has spent the season as one of the steadier programs in the conference.
Auburn improved to 37-18 overall and 17-13 in SEC play. The Tigers — ranked No. 6 in the most recent D1Baseball Top 25 — face Texas A&M on Friday, May 22 at 8 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. The Aggies, ranked No. 10 in the D1Baseball Top 25 at 29-13, get Auburn coming off elimination-night work; both staffs will need to plan their pitching around Friday’s matchup carefully.
For Jay Johnson, in his fifth season at LSU and one year removed from his second national championship, Wednesday’s loss closes a season that has been defined by injury and by the impossibility of the No. 14 seed’s path. Right-hander William Schmidt — the projected weekend starter — was scratched before Tuesday’s first-round game against Oklahoma after experiencing back tightness in warmups and has not pitched in Hoover. Outfielder Omar Serna Jr., LSU’s freshman All-SEC selection, suffered a cut hand sliding into home plate Tuesday and missed Wednesday’s game; Johnson signaled Tuesday postgame that Serna’s availability for the tournament was in doubt.
For Butch Thompson, in his second season at Auburn and now five wins from a potential NCAA Tournament regional host bid, Wednesday’s win positions the Tigers as one of the more rested teams entering the quarterfinals. Auburn used just two pitchers on the night. Marciano and Sanders combined to throw 136 pitches across nine innings on Wednesday — efficiency that gives Thompson rotation flexibility into Friday.
GET OUTTA HERE! ?
EG goes BIG fly to left! pic.twitter.com/z5iPbTS3y0
— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) May 21, 2026
Marciano was lights-out
The story of the game was Auburn’s starter. Jake Marciano — a right-hander whose efficiency has made him the most reliable arm in the Auburn rotation — was masterful through six innings. Across 22 batters faced, Marciano allowed four hits, one earned run, one walk, and struck out four on 86 pitches. He gave up the LSU run in the fourth on a Derek Curiel double and a John Pearson sacrifice fly, and otherwise navigated the LSU lineup without trouble.
Marciano spoke about the start in the postgame.
“I was excited to get the ball for the first game of the SEC tournament,” Marciano said. “I just trusted my team behind me, trusted Chase, and happy we’re able to get it done tonight.”
Asked what was working for him on the mound, Marciano credited his command: “Really just by command of all my pitches. I wasn’t really worried about the ABS system and how that affected my game, but really just throwing every pitch in locations I needed.”
When Marciano exited after six, Auburn had a 3-1 lead. He turned the ball over to Jackson Sanders.
“It’s actually the greatest relief ever,” Marciano said. “I know whoever comes in, especially Jackson, that they’re gonna get the job done. Having the best pitching staff in the country is really, really great.”
The redshirt junior right-hander — named to the 2026 All-SEC Second Team as a reliever on Monday — closed the door across three innings, allowing no hits, two walks, and two strikeouts on 50 pitches. Sanders’s nine-out save is the kind of two-inning-plus performance that defines tournament closers.
“It feels like the last six weeks, you can’t underscore what Jackson Sanders has done for this baseball team,” Thompson said. “You just can’t. Whether it’s been Marciano and Sanders or anybody and Sanders, it’s been a good formula for us.”
For Marciano, watching Sanders work the ninth from the dugout — and especially the bases-loaded, one-out moment LSU produced — was a moment of total confidence.
“It’s a great feeling, knowing that Sanders has the ball,” Marciano said. “I think he’s one of the best, the best reliever in the country, and I know that he’s gonna get it done.”
Fralick’s home run, and the at-bat that broke open the game
The decisive offensive moment came in the bottom of the fourth inning. After LSU had scored its only run on a John Pearson sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead, Auburn catcher Chase Fralick stepped in with two outs and the bases empty. The count went his way.
“I just got a plus-count fastball, and I was ready for it,” Fralick said.
Fralick caught it and drove it over the fence in left field for a solo home run that tied the game 1-1. The blast was Auburn’s first answer in a game that had been controlled by LSU starter Casan Evans through three innings.
Fralick — the senior backstop who has been Auburn’s catcher and offensive anchor for two seasons — finished the night 1-for-4 with the HR, the RBI, and a run scored. Behind the plate, he called the pitching for Marciano and Sanders’ nine combined innings.
“Behind the plate, our pitchers just did a great job pounding the strike zone and mixing it up,” Fralick said. “They did a great job getting outs for us.”
Chris Rembert — Auburn’s second baseman, also named to the All-SEC First Team Monday — watched Fralick’s HR sequence develop and was matter-of-fact about what it meant.
“Chase is a dog, man,” Rembert said. “I mean, nothing less than that. Almost expected from him, to be honest. He’s an awesome ballplayer. Awesome kid, awesome person, awesome teammate.”
The Fralick home run shifted momentum. Thompson called it “a big swing,” and elaborated.
“I thought Fralick’s big swing was a little exhale for us,” Thompson said. “That was a big one.”
The fifth-inning sequence: an LSU error, then Guevara
LSU got back into the game briefly in the fifth — but couldn’t sustain it. Auburn took advantage of an LSU throwing error that gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, and then in the bottom of the sixth, Guevara hit Auburn’s second home run of the night to make it 3-1.
Guevara’s HR landed in almost the exact same spot as Fralick’s.
“It was awesome,” Guevara said. “We put ourselves in a good position with some counts, and we were ready to hit some pitches, and I’m just excited that we got that win.”
Guevara — the Auburn third baseman who was named to the 2026 SEC All-Defensive Team on Monday — was the only Auburn player with multiple hits on the night, adding a bunt single in the eighth inning that helped Auburn manage the late-game tempo.
“EG, we needed that one,” Thompson said of Guevara’s home run, “because we were defending the runner at first base there in the ninth. So the two-run lead wound up being big.”
Casan Evans’s career start
For LSU, the night belonged to a senior right-hander who, on paper, had no business pitching this well in the role he was asked to fill.
Casan Evans — the same arm that closed the 2025 College World Series final and won LSU its national championship — was making his second start of the 2026 season. His ERA as a starter coming into the night was over 6.00. In a single-elimination tournament setting on the night his team needed everything, Evans delivered: 4.2 innings, four hits, two runs, one earned run, one walk, and eight strikeouts on 87 pitches. The eight strikeouts were a season high for Evans as a starter.
“Casan Evans’s ERA being 6.00 isn’t really a great picture of who he really is,” one LSU fan posted on r/collegebaseball as Evans worked through the Auburn lineup. “He is basically the relief arm that won us the World Series last year. He just has not translated to an everyday starter.”
It translated tonight. Evans struck out the side in the third. But in the fourth, the plus-count fastball that Fralick was waiting on left the park. Then in the fifth, an LSU throwing error opened the door for the go-ahead run. And in the sixth, Guevara’s blast closed it.
Evans exited at 87 pitches having allowed two solo home runs across 4.2 innings. The relief turnover came too late. Ethan Plog entered for one out, then Zac Cowan worked the final 3.0 innings — 3 hits, 1 run, 1 earned run, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts on 42 pitches.
The ninth inning
LSU’s last gasp produced one of the night’s most tense innings. Auburn led 3-1 with three outs to go.
Cade Arrambide led off with a flyout to center. Curiel followed and worked the count full, then drew a walk after an LSU ABS challenge on the 3-2 pitch was overturned from a strike to a ball. Steven Milam stepped in and reached on a fielder’s choice to shortstop; Curiel was out at second.
With one on and one out, Brayden Simpson — the pinch-hitter who came in to DH after the Serna injury — worked another full count and drew his second walk of the night on the 3-2 pitch, also after an ABS overturn. The walks loaded the bases with one out for John Pearson.
Pearson — the LSU third baseman whose 24th RBI of the season came on his fourth-inning sacrifice fly — fouled off pitches across an extended at-bat. The count went to 3-2. A foul. Another foul. The eighth pitch of the at-bat ended on a groundball from Pearson that was fielded by Sanders and turned into a 1-6-3 double play to end the game.
The bases-loaded, one-out ninth inning ended with a double play. LSU’s title defense ended.
“There were a couple big moments that we were able to push through there,” Thompson said. “I’m glad that we absolutely are going for it like every team should.”
The crowd, the culture, the calm soul
Wednesday’s first-round game drew what Thompson said was a crowd in the conversation of the best he’s been part of in his career.
“I think the SEC and Hoover and everybody should be excited about a Wednesday night crowd like that,” Thompson said. “I heard you guys have to tell me — a top five crowd ever, and a Wednesday night, in a game one. That’s about as big as I can remember being a part of, over three schools, over these 25 years.”
Auburn’s players gave credit, as they have all season, to their head coach.
“Coach Butch is the best,” Guevara said. “He leads us the best way possible. He’s a great baseball mind. Man, we’re all super happy to be able to play with him and for him.”
Rembert echoed it: “Not only is he an awesome coach, but I think he’s an even better person. He’s very personable with all the players on the team, no matter who you are. That’s one thing that stood out to me in the recruiting process — just the family-oriented-ness of all the coaches, and the whole environment of Auburn.”
Fralick described Thompson as “a super calm soul that we need. Whenever we get nervous, he’s there to calm us down. He’s a great baseball mind, and he always leads us in the right direction. We just have to trust him and we’ll always find ourselves in the right direction.”
Pearson and Curiel did the offensive work
For LSU, the offense came on a Derek Curiel double that led off the fourth inning, followed by a Steven Milam walk to put two on with nobody out. Two batters later, John Pearson lifted a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Curiel from third for LSU’s only run of the night.
Curiel — who finished Tuesday’s game against Oklahoma 3-for-6 with two doubles and now wore the “Playoff Steve” praise from his shortstop teammate — finished Wednesday 2-for-3 with a double, a run scored, and a walk. He was the only LSU player with multiple hits. Mason Braun added a 1-for-4 night. Pearson went 1-for-3 with the lone RBI.
LSU finished with four hits total. Auburn finished with seven.
The lineup never broke through against Marciano. The Auburn starter, working in front of the Hoover crowd on his second start of the tournament-week schedule, threw exactly the kind of game Thompson needed.
Auburn moves on; the Aggies wait
Auburn now faces No. 3 seed Texas A&M on Friday, May 22 at 8 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. The Aggies — ranked No. 10 in the D1Baseball Top 25 at 29-13, but armed with 2026 SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Gavin Grahovac and All-SEC Second Team second baseman Chris Hacopian (with All-SEC First Team teammate Caden Sorrell in the outfield) — get Auburn off the kind of efficient pitching night that suggests Thompson’s staff is set up for a multi-game run.
The Auburn-Texas A&M matchup pits two national-program-pedigree teams. Auburn’s last College World Series appearance was 2019; Texas A&M reached the CWS in 2024. The Aggies hold the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye; Auburn arrives with the No. 6 seed and the kind of road that has now produced one win.
For Rembert and the Auburn lineup, having Sanders in the pen gives the offense a margin to work with.
“Man, having Jackson on the mound is just — you get so much confidence, in the field, at the plate,” Rembert said. “You just know that he’s gonna hold the other team to a lead or to zero. All we gotta do is just score one or two runs and win ball games.”
The LSU dynasty closes
For Jay Johnson and LSU, the season ends here. The defending national champions, who came into the SEC Tournament as the No. 14 seed after a 9-21 conference season, found their tournament-survival path stretched too thin by the injuries to Schmidt and Serna, and ended their season against an opponent that played a cleaner, more efficient game.
The Tigers’ 2026 NCAA Tournament fate is now in the selection committee’s hands. Selection Monday airs at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, May 25 on ESPN2. D1Baseball’s most recent bracketology projects LSU as a likely No. 3 or No. 4 seed in someone else’s regional — not as a host, certainly not as a top-eight national seed. The team that brought the championship trophy back to Baton Rouge last June will start the 2026 tournament on someone else’s field.
For Curiel — the sophomore center fielder who in Tuesday’s postgame called Steven Milam “Playoff Steve” and made the case that the LSU pitching staff had the depth to navigate the SEC Tournament — the night was reflective.
“We know our backs are on the wall,” Curiel had said after Tuesday’s win. “We know if it’s winter, go home. If we lose, our season’s over. We’ve got to take it a game at a time.”
The night came. The season ended.
The grind
Day 2 in Hoover concluded with LSU’s elimination, the fourth game of the day for the Hoover Met crowd, and the eighth straight game across 26 hours at the same field. The single-elimination format compresses the regular season’s pace into something more relentless — four games in 11 hours for two days running, all on the same diamond, with the grounds crew, vendors, umpires, and police escort that brings each visiting team to the field all in continuous motion.
Thursday brings two more games at the Hoover Met, with the schedule moved up due to expected inclement weather. Mississippi State faces No. 1 Georgia at 1 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. Florida faces No. 4 Alabama approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 9. The bracket thins. The grind continues.
By the Numbers
Score: Auburn 3, LSU 1 (FINAL)
Hits: Auburn 7, LSU 4
Errors: Auburn 0, LSU 1
Left on base: Auburn 4, LSU 6
Auburn pitching: Jake Marciano (W) 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 86 pitches. Jackson Sanders (S) 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 50 pitches.
LSU pitching: Casan Evans (L) 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 87 pitches. Ethan Plog 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 4 pitches. Zac Cowan 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 42 pitches.
Auburn hitting leaders: Eric Guevara 2-for-4, HR, 1 RBI, 1 R. Chase Fralick 1-for-4, HR, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 K. Chris Rembert 1-for-4, 1 K. Bub Terrell 1-for-4, 2 K. Brandon McCraine 1-for-3, 1 R.
LSU hitting leaders: Derek Curiel 2-for-3, 2B, 1 R, 1 BB. Mason Braun 1-for-4. John Pearson 1-for-3, 1 RBI (sac fly). Steven Milam 0-for-3, 1 BB. Brayden Simpson 0-for-2, 1 BB.
ABS challenges: LSU initiated two challenges in the 9th inning, both successful — a 3-2 pitch to Curiel was overturned ball-to-strike-correction (Curiel walked), and a 3-2 pitch to Simpson was overturned (Simpson walked). Both came in the final inning of LSU’s season.
For More on the 2026 SEC Tournament
- Game 7 Recap: Arkansas 8, Tennessee 4
- Game 6 Recap: Florida 8, Vanderbilt 3
- Game 5 Recap: Mississippi State 12, Missouri 2 (7 inn.)
- Game 4 Recap: LSU 6, Oklahoma 2
- Game 3 Recap: Tennessee 11, South Carolina 6
- Game 2 Recap: Vanderbilt 8, Kentucky 5
- Game 1 Recap: Missouri 10, Ole Miss 8
- How to Watch the 2026 SEC Baseball Tournament
2026 SEC Baseball Tournament Schedule
All times Eastern. Second game of each session begins approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first.
Tuesday, May 19 — First Round (SEC Network)
Game 1: No. 9 Ole Miss vs. No. 16 Missouri — 10:30 a.m. (Missouri 10, Ole Miss 8 — FINAL)
Game 2: No. 12 Vanderbilt vs. No. 13 Kentucky — 2 p.m. (Vanderbilt 8, Kentucky 5 — FINAL)
Game 3: No. 10 Tennessee vs. No. 15 South Carolina — 5:30 p.m. (Tennessee 11, South Carolina 6 — FINAL)
Game 4: No. 11 Oklahoma vs. No. 14 LSU — 9 p.m. (LSU 6, Oklahoma 2 — FINAL)
Wednesday, May 20 — Second Round (SEC Network)
Game 5: Missouri vs. No. 8 Mississippi State — 10:30 a.m. (Mississippi State 12, Missouri 2 — FINAL, 7 inn.)
Game 6: Vanderbilt vs. No. 5 Florida — 2 p.m. (Florida 8, Vanderbilt 3 — FINAL)
Game 7: Tennessee vs. No. 7 Arkansas — 5:30 p.m. (Arkansas 8, Tennessee 4 — FINAL)
Game 8: LSU vs. No. 6 Auburn — 9 p.m. (Auburn 3, LSU 1 — FINAL)
Thursday, May 21 — Quarterfinals (SEC Network)
Game 9: Mississippi State vs. No. 1 Georgia — 1 p.m. (moved from 4 p.m. due to weather)
Game 10: Florida vs. No. 4 Alabama — TBD
Friday, May 22 — Quarterfinals (SEC Network)
Game 11: Arkansas vs. No. 2 Texas — 4 p.m.
Game 12: Auburn vs. No. 3 Texas A&M — TBD
Saturday, May 23 — Semifinals (SEC Network)
Game 13: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10 — 1 p.m.
Game 14: Winner Game 11 vs. Winner Game 12 — TBD
Sunday, May 24 — Championship (ABC)
Game 15: Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14 — 2 p.m.
