BATON ROUGE — LSU and Mississippi State renew one of the longest and most storied rivalries in all of college baseball this weekend when the two clubs hook up for a three-game Southeastern Conference series at Alex Box Stadium.
The series opens Friday at 6:30 p.m., with game two at 2 p.m. Saturday and game three at 1 p.m. Easter Sunday. Friday’s game will be televised on a tape-delay basis in Baton Rouge only on at 9 p.m. WGMB-Fox 44 (Cable Channel 6), while Sunday’s game will be televised tape-delay in Baton Rouge at 7 p.m. on Cox Cable Channel 4. All three games can be heard on the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge and WWL-870 AM in New Orleans) and on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
The Fighting Tigers enter the series coming off a 9-7 win on Tuesday at Southeastern Louisiana, leaving them at 16-11 overall and 2-4 in the Southeastern Conference, tied for fourth place in the West division with Arkansas and Ole Miss.
LSU is led by the hitting of junior third baseman Wally Pontiff, who enters the weekend on a 19-game hitting streak. The Tigers’ captain hit his fourth home run of the season on Tuesday and is hitting .389 on the season.
The Tigers’ pitching rotation remains the same as it has in the first two SEC weekends, with junior right-hander Bo Pettit (2-3, 3.69) going on Friday, sophomore left-hander Lane Mestepey (4-2, 3.52) on Saturday and junior right-hander Jake Tompkins (2-0, 3.57) on Sunday.
The Bulldogs are again under the leadership of legendary coach Ron Polk, who has won 901 games in 23 years at Starkville. Polk returned to Starkville after two years at Georgia, where he led the SEC’s other Bulldogs to a 47-22 mark in 2001, the SEC championship and a berth in the College World Series. Polk has won a combined 980 games in the SEC, 110 more than former LSU coach Skip Bertman, who stands second on the conference win list.
State split a pair of games with New Orleans this week, losing 7-3 on Tuesday and winning 7-1 on Wednesday to stand 13-8-1 overall and 3-3 in the SEC.
MSU has improved significantly at the plate, raising its average 41 points from last season’s final average of .273 to .314. Leading the way is sophomore third baseman Steve Gendron, batting a team high .375 after hitting .281 in 2001.
Polk will go with a familiar rotation as well, sending one of the nation’s top pitchers to the hill on Friday in sophomore left-hander Paul Maholm (4-1, 2.52). The Bulldogs will throw senior right-hander Tanner Brock (3-1, 3.90) on Saturday and junior left-hander Joey Collums (2-1, 2.40) on Sunday.
The visiting team has won two of three in each of the last three years, as LSU won the first two games in 2001 at Starkville, 9-1 and 7-1, before MSU came back to win the finale 13-0. The Bulldogs won a fourth meeting between the teams 4-1 in the SEC Tournament championship game in Birmingham. The Bulldogs scored 40 runs in 2000 at Baton Rouge, the most runs ever scored by an opponent in a three-game set at Alex Box Stadium, in taking two of three (15-13, 15-18, 10-3).
MSU holds a 184-148-1 series edge, and Polk is 57-42 as the Bulldogs’ coach against the Tigers. LSU coach Smoke Laval was 1-9 against MSU during his seven-year tenure as coach of Louisiana-Monroe.
The Tigers conclude their brief homestand on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. when they welcome New Orleans to Alex Box Stadium. LSU continues SEC play on the road next weekend at Auburn.