BATON ROUGE — It will be strength against strength this weekend at Alex Box Stadium as the strong pitching staff of the LSU Fighting Tigers test their arms against the potent bats of the Florida Gators as the 30-game Southeastern Conference schedule gets underway this weekend with a three-game series between the nationally ranked clubs at Alex Box Stadium.
The first pitch of the series is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, followed by games at 2 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Sunday’s game has been moved up by 30 minutes from the traditional 1 p.m. start time to accommodate Florida’s travel itinerary.
The radio broadcast schedule is largely dependent upon the advancement of the men’s basketball team in the SEC Tournament at the Superdome in New Orleans. Friday’s game will be on the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge), but the broadcast status of the final two games of the series is unclear at press time. All three games will be carried on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
Sunday’s contest is the first of five Sunday afternoon games scheduled to be televised live across Louisiana on the newly formed Louisiana Sports Network. The game will be carried live in Baton Rouge on cable channel 10.
Florida (15-3) represents the fourth opponent the Tigers (11-7) have faced that has been ranked in at least one of the major polls at the time of the game. The Gators enter the weekend ranked 16th by both Collegiate Baseball and ESPN/USA Today, but are not ranked by Baseball America.
LSU (No. 16 Baseball America, No. 18 Collegiate Baseball) saw its five-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday night when the Tigers lost a 4-0 lead and lost to Tulane, 5-4 in 11 innings, in front of a crowd of 10,870 at Zephyr Field in Metairie.
Coach Smoke Laval will likely use the same pitching rotation the Tigers featured in their three-game sweep of Winthrop last weekend, going with junior right-hander Brian Wilson (3-2, 4.18) on Friday, senior right-hander Bo Pettit (2-0, 1.29) on Saturday and senior right-hander Jake Tompkins (0-2, 4.80) on Sunday.
Junior infielder Ivan Naccarata leads LSU with a .354 batting average, and he has hit safely in his last 15 games, batting .393 (22-for-56) with 12 runs scored and 11 RBI during that streak. The Tigers’ other top hitters are junior shortstop Aaron Hill (.311) and sophomore outfielder Bruce Sprowl (.310).
Florida (15-3) comes in on a three-game winning streak, including a victory over then-No. 1 Florida State on Sunday in Gainesville. The Gators are in their second season under coach Pat McMahon, who led Mississippi St. to four NCAA regional berths and a trip to the College World Series in four seasons at Starkville.
The Gators have the SEC’s top offensive club, batting a league high .356 and scoring 208 runs in 18 games, an average of 11.6 per contest. Florida has hit double figures 10 times this season and has scored 20 or more runs twice.
Three Florida players are batting over .400, led by junior outfielder Ben Harrison, who is the Gators’ leader in batting average (.432), home runs (5) and RBI (29). Harrison is only one of two returning position starters from last year’s 46-19 Florida club, along with senior catcher Brian Rose. The Gators’ other .400 hitters are junior shortstop Brett Dowdy (.408) and sophomore second baseman Jonathan Tucker (.405).
The Gators lost all three weekend starting pitchers from 2002, and McMahon has been forced to reconstruct his rotation, which will feature sophomore right-hander Connor Falkenbach (2-0, 4.67) on Friday and sophomore right-hander Justin Hoyman (3-0, 3.33) on Saturday. McMahon was uncertain of a starter for Sunday’s game at press time.
LSU holds a 43-24 series edge over Florida, and the Tigers have won 19 of the 25 games played at Alex Box Stadium. LSU won two of three games last year in Gainesville in May, taking the opener 5-4 in 10 innings, dropping the second game 6-3, and then taking the rubber game, 8-5.
Florida has won only once in its last 11 games in Baton Rouge, and was swept on two of its past three visits to the bayou, in 1997 and 2001. The series began in 1971 under the old SEC divisional format, when the conference counted only games played within a team’s division.
LSU holds an 8-7 edge over Florida in postseason play, including a 4-0 record in the College World Series, winning two meetings each in 1991 and 1996. McMahon is 9-10 all-time against LSU, including an 8-8 mark at Mississippi St., while Laval, an assistant at Florida in 1981 and 1982, is 2-1 against the Gators.
The Florida series is LSU’s last home game until April 2 when the Tigers return home to host Nicholls St. LSU begins an eight-game road trip at cross-town rival on Tuesday before visiting Georgia in an SEC series next weekend.