Liner notes in my baseball/softball scorebook. Not just a golf scorecard this time. Everything else is changing in sports, it seems, so why not?

• For perhaps the first time this season, the LSU baseball team got what it needed this past weekend when the Tigers a three-game sweep of South Carolina.

Necessity need not be celebrated beyond its station — the Paul Mainieri-less Gamecocks were and remain one of the worst teams in the Southeastern Conference, just a notch below LSU. Despite the sweep, the Tigers (28-21, 9-15 SEC) are still mired in 14th place in the conference and open the week with a still tepid RPI of 55.

Nonetheless, you can only beat who you play and LSU took care of business, going 4-0 including a mid-week win over SLU. Pitching looked improved (again, it must be said, against an anemic-hitting South Carolina team), defense generally was better and, most encouraging for LSU baseball fans who have given up on this season, the offense looks like it’s starting to bunch hits and get them in a more timely fashion. And with freshmen doing a lot of the hitting, a sign of optimism for 2027.

The 2026 Tigers still have a long, long way to go to get to 13-14 SEC wins, including the tournament, which is what’s assumed to be needed to get into the NCAA tournament. Injuries still have lowered this team’s ceiling – Jake Brown is out, Cooper Moore is out, previous Friday starter Casan Evans didn’t pitch – but there is finally some optimism.

The future is daunting, though. After Tulane on Tuesday, another must-win game for the Tigers, LSU goes on the road to face SEC leader Georgia and closes the regular season at home against a Florida team fighting to earn an NCAA regional host slot. The Tigers need to find some way to take at least one game off Georgia (the Bulldogs perennially come up short of baseball expectations so anything’s possible) and win two, if not three, against Florida. Twelve SEC wins would at least give LSU a shot at an NCAA bid in a road regional, probably as a No. 3 seed.

None of this is remotely close to the Tigers’ typical expectations nor their lofty preseason goals when they started ranked No. 2 in most polls. But for the first time in a long time this LSU season is pointed in a positive direction, at least for now.

• Baseball’s sweep wasn’t the only one by an LSU team this past weekend. The softball Tigers ended their regular season against Auburn with a 3-0 slate, including an eye-popping and record-breaking 25-0 demolition Saturday of the Tigers from the plains.

Remember all that hot seat talk about coach Beth Torina going into the season? Well, LSU heads into this week’s SEC tournament with a respectable 37-16 record and a No. 11 RPI (the Tigers are the No. 8 seed in the tourney). It all adds up to put LSU in line to once again host an NCAA regional, though, Torina’s Tigers have a long way to go to be considered for a top-eight national seed. That would probably mean winning the tournament this weekend in Lexington, Kentucky.

Still, Torina looks to be on solid ground as do her Tigers, though getting through a regional and at least back to a super regional would help her cause immensely.

• The Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Monday announced its tournament dates for 2027, the week: April 19-25. The tournament, like many non-majors or elevated events on the PGA Tour, still faces an unknown future beyond 2027 with talk of the tour revamping its schedule. But with a committed sponsor and a date tournament organizers want to maintain — balanced between the Masters tournament and the PGA Championship — things could definitely be much worse. Hopefully the PGA Tour will do one of its solid citizens a favor and spread out the surrounding big purse signature events crowding the Zurich into other parts of the schedule.

From the Much Worse Dept., we have LIV Golf. That tour is having its funding pulled by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund after the Saudis dumped at least $5 billion down its rabbit hole over the past four years, proof that even uber-rich people eventually tire of losing money. LIV says with typical “Ignore the riot behind me, all is well” aplomb it will try to pivot to other investment streams. But with pitiful TV ratings and stars jumping or considering jumping ship, that looks like a fool’s errand.

Meanwhile, what of LIV’s proposed tournament in New Orleans? The June tournament at Bayou Oaks in City Park was scrapped, with some vague talk of a smaller, exhibition-style event coming to the city this fall. Great idea, right in the middle of football and hurricane season.

Hopefully, LIV, like the hurricanes, just stays away entirely. The state of Louisiana did no favors to the Zurich, a tournament that began way back in 1938 and annually funds numerous charities in the New Orleans area (there were no firm plans of charitable contributions from LIV before the tournament was scrapped) by inviting the competing if lesser golf tour into the market.

If there is any silver lining it’s that there were improvements made to Bayou Oaks, namely its practice facility, a benefit for local public golfers in the Crescent City. But to put a modern spin on an old Frank Sinatra tune, LIV-ers stay away from my door.