BATON ROUGE — LSU and South Carolina, the Southeastern Conference’s two winningest baseball programs since the year 2000, renew their rivalry this weekend with a key three-game series at Alex Box Stadium.
The series gets underway on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and will be followed by games at 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
Saturday’s game will be televised by SEC-TV on Fox Sports Net Southwest, Fox Sports Net South and Sunshine Network and can be seen on cable channel 37 in Baton Rouge, while Sunday’s game will be available in Louisiana on the Louisiana Sports Network (cable channel 10 in Baton Rouge) and in other SEC markets on Comcast Sports Southeast.
All three games of the series will be broadcast by the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge), with live audio and live statistics available on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
LSU (19-9-1, 7-1-1 SEC) has won all three of its conference series in 2003 and have won seven consecutive SEC weekend series dating back to April of 2002, when the Gamecocks (19-10, 4-5) won two of three from the Tigers in Columbia, South Carolina’s first ever series win over LSU.
The Tigers (No. 10 Collegiate Baseball, No. 12 Baseball America, No. 16 ESPN/USA Today) have won their last three games, including a 6-2 victory over Nicholls St. on Wednesday night, and are 13-3-1 since starting the season 6-6.
LSU is hitting .345 in SEC games, and have outscored its foes 71-43 in those contests. The Tigers belted seven home runs in last weekend’s series at Alabama, including four in Sunday’s 11-10 victory. Jon Zeringue hit a home run in each of the three games with the Crimson Tide, and along with Ryan Patterson, leads the team in home runs with six.
The Tigers’ leading hitter heading into the weekend is junior third baseman Ivan Naccarata, who is 7-for-12 in his last three games to raise his season average to .348, while the Canadian also leads LSU with 24 RBI. Aaron Hill (.333), Bruce Sprowl (.324) and Patterson (.319) are also above .300, while Clay Harris’ .397 average would lead the team, but he does not have the required 2.5 at bats per game to qualify for the batting championship.
LSU’s pitching corps has lost two more arms to injuries this week. Junior closer Brandon Nall was lost for the year after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, while junior right-hander Brian Wilson has a sore arm, and will be re-evaluated after resting for the next two weekends.
With Wilson out of the LSU rotation, true freshman right-hander Justin Meier (3-0, 1.50) steps into Wilson’s Friday night slot. The Tigers’ other two starters will remain the same, with senior right-hander Bo Pettit (5-0, 2.97) going on Saturday and junior right-hander Nate Bumstead (3-1, 5.46) slated to start on Sunday.
South Carolina (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 Collegiate Baseball) won its second SEC championship in three years in 2002 and finished as national runner-up to Texas at the College World Series. The Gamecocks opened 1-5 in the SEC this year after losing two at home to Arkansas and getting swept at Tennessee, but Carolina rallied to sweep Vanderbilt last weekend.
The Gamecocks will send to the mound a pair of experienced left-handers in the first two games, senior Steven Bondurant (3-1, 3.56) on Friday and junior David Marchbanks (5-2, 2.18) on Saturday. South Carolina coach Ray Tanner was not certain on a starter for Sunday’s series finale.
South Carolina lost five position starters from last year’s 57-18 team, but one of those who is back, senior third baseman Brian Buscher, leads the Gamecocks in hitting with a .395 average, followed by senior outfielder Jon Coutlangus at .356.
LSU leads the all-time series with South Carolina, 17-8-1, but the Gamecocks won four of six meetings in 2002. In addition to winning the regular season series in April at Columbia, the Gamecocks also won two of three meetings at the SEC Tournament in Birmingham.
LSU holds a 6-2-1 all-time edge in meetings in Baton Rouge, as this marks the Gamecocks’ first visit to Baton Rouge since 2000.
South Carolina has won 181 games since the start of the 2000 season, second only to Florida State (188) in all of Division I baseball, while LSU has won 159 games in that same span.
LSU visits Northwestern State on Wednesday in Natchitoches before hosting SEC West rival Ole Miss next weekend in a three-game series.