BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Road to Omaha begins for the LSU baseball team on Wednesday at 5 p.m. when the Fighting Tigers take on Auburn in a first-round game of the SEC Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
The game, along with all post-season action, can be heard on the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge), as well as on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
Games on Friday and Saturday, along with the championship contest on Sunday, can be seen throughout Louisiana on Fox Sports Net Southwest (Cable Channel 37 in Baton Rouge).
A victory over Auburn sends the Tigers into an 8 p.m. winners’ bracket game on Thursday against the winner of Wednesday’s late game between eighth-seeded Arkansas and SEC champion South Carolina, which will start at approximately 8 p.m. Should the Bayou Bengals lose to fifth-seeded Auburn, LSU will play the Arkansas-South Carolina loser at 1 p.m. Thursday.
The tournament is set up in the “Omaha” format, with two four-team brackets playing through Saturday before a single championship game that will take place Sunday at 3:05 p.m.
LSU (38-17, 19-10) enters the SEC Tournament as the fourth seed, falling just one-half game short of Alabama for the SEC West division title.
The Tigers won 22 of 27 games in the second half of the season, as well as 17 of their final 22 SEC contests after starting 16-12 and 2-5 in league play. The Tigers closed the regular season on a 12-game winning streak at Alex Box Stadium and a four-game winning streak overall, having swept the Crimson Tide this past weekend in Baton Rouge.
The Tigers will start the tournament with their ace, sophomore left-hander Lane Mestepey (10-3, 2.76), who earned his second consecutive selection to the All-SEC first team on Monday night.
Mestepey has thrown six complete games this year and is coming off of a complete game shutout of Alabama in which he limited the Tide to five singles and allowed just two runners to reach third base.
The rest of the Tiger pitching rotation for the tournament is dependant on the outcome of each game. Sophomore right-hander Brian Wilson (8-4, 3.82) is the probable starter on Thursday, with junior right-handers Bo Pettit (8-6, 3.38) and Jake Tompkins (5-0, 3.04) likely to take a turn in the rotation.
Tompkins, who leads the Tigers with four saves, was named as a second team All-SEC selection, as was junior third baseman Wally Pontiff.
Pontiff, the Tigers’ team captain and a first team All-SEC pick in 2001, batted .346 in the regular season with five home runs, 37 RBI, and leads LSU in doubles (20), walks (42) and on-base percentage (.453).
The Tigers’ top hitter is senior right fielder Sean Barker (.388-5-55), who is the only LSU player to start every game this season, while the hottest batter is freshman second baseman J.C. Holt (.356-3-21), who enters the tournament on a 16-game hitting streak.
Auburn (34-22, 15-15) lost two of three last weekend to Arkansas in Fayetteville, and it would not have even qualified for the tournament had it not been for a late-inning rally in Saturday’s game that saw the Tigers of the Plains overcome a 3-1 deficit with two out in the ninth inning to take 7-3, 10-inning victory.
Auburn will start sophomore right-hander Colby Paxton (8-4, 5.15) versus LSU. Paxton defeated the Bayou Bengals on April 6 at Auburn, giving up three runs over six-plus innings as Auburn won its only game of the series, 11-3.
Auburn features a pair of second team All-SEC performers at the plate in seniors Bobby Huddleston (.373-10-46), who has split time between designated hitter and catcher, and Trent Pratt (.301-8-51), a catcher who also played against LSU while at Arizona State in 2000.
One of Auburn’s hottest hitters of late has been freshman second baseman Tug Hulett (.319-0-30), who led Auburn in hitting in the series with LSU with a .538 average. Hulett, the son of former major league infielder Tim Hulett, is a Shreveport native who prepped at Evangel.
Another Auburn player with a major league pedigree is junior third baseman Jonathan Schuerholz (.316-0-17), the son of Atlanta Braves and former Kansas City Royals general manger John Scheurholz.
LSU won its first SEC series of 2002 in Auburn in early April, taking 9-4 win in the opener, losing 11-3 in the second game before triumphing 9-5 in the rubber match. Barker hit .538 to lead LSU in hitting in the series, while senior center fielder David Raymer batted .438 with a key home run in Sunday’s contest.
LSU holds a 69-58 all-time series edge, and are 5-2 vs. Auburn in SEC Tournament meetings, although Auburn won 6-2 in 1999 at Birmingham in the teams’ last post-season meeting.
Wednesday’s games in bracket one of the SEC Tournament have Georgia facing Florida at 10 a.m. and Mississippi State battling local favorite Alabama at approximately 1 p.m.
LSU will find out its NCAA Tournament fate when pairings for the 16 four-team regionals, regional sites and national seeds are announced on Monday at 11:30 a.m. in a live announcement on ESPN2.