How LSU baseball ended up with the No. 3 seed in SEC Tournament

BATON ROUGE – LSU baseball will have the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament after falling to Georgia in Game 3 of its three-game series with the Bulldogs on Saturday, 9-5.

The Tigers (42-13, 19-10 SEC) will face the winner of Tuesday's first-round matchup between No. 6 seed South Carolina and No. 11 seed Georgia in the second round on Wednesday (9:30 a.m., SEC Network).

LSU had the chance to earn the No. 1 seed in the tournament if it had beaten Georgia and Arkansas had lost to Vanderbilt on Saturday. But the Tigers lost, dashing their hopes of the No. 1 seed and an SEC regular-season title despite the Razorbacks' loss to Vanderbilt.

The Tigers also had no chance of earning the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament because Florida, per SEC tie-breaker rules, had automatically earned a top-2 seed in the SEC Tournament by being atop the SEC East.

The Gators ended up defeating Kentucky on Saturday and clinching the No. 1 seed in the tournament after Arkansas' loss to Vanderbilt, sharing the SEC regular-season championship with the Razorbacks in the process.

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As for Saturday's game, LSU took an early lead over Georgia after Tre Morgan's two-run home run in the first inning. But the Bulldogs went on to score six unanswered runs to take a commanding lead that never shrunk to fewer than two runs.

Starting pitcher Javen Coleman allowed three earned runs in three innings pitched, but the bullpen after him struggled even more. The Tigers' relief corps surrendered five earned runs and eight hits over five innings pitched.

LSU's offense wasn't dormant as it hit three home runs. But the Tigers struggled to capitalize with runners in scoring position, going 3-for-17 with runners on base and 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

The Tigers won the series over Georgia, winning the first game 8-5 in 12 innings and Game 2, 8-4. But given the bullpen's continued struggles Saturday and LSU having dropped its last two SEC series prior to this week, the Tigers still have work to do before they can regain their status as national title favorites.

Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley.