OMAHA, Neb. — The first elimination game of the 2003 College World Series takes place on Sunday at 2 p.m. as Southeastern Conference rivals LSU and South Carolina square off for the first time in NCAA Tournament play at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Under NCAA tournament procedures, the Gamecocks (44-21) will be the home team for Game 5. The winner of the LSU-South Carolina game advances to another elimination game on Tuesday at 1 p.m. against the loser of Sunday night’s 6:30 p.m. contest between Stanford (47-15) and Cal St. Fullerton (49-14).
LSU (45-21-1), the No. 2 national seed in the NCAA field of 64, will be out to avoid its first “two-and-BBQ” performance in the CWS since 1994, the only time the Fighting Tigers were 0-2 in Omaha. That year, the Bayou Bengals lost to Florida St. in the opening round and then took a 20-6 loss to Cal St. Fullerton in an elimination game.
The Titans, the No. 7 national seed, dropped LSU into the loser’s bracket of bracket one with an 8-2 victory on Friday night, while South Carolina lost 8-0 to Stanford in Friday’s first game.
The Tigers were uncertain of a starting pitcher at press time, but it will be one of two right-handers, either senior Bo Pettit (9-2, 5.42) or freshman Justin Meier (8-3, 2.83). Pettit has been battling a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand throughout the year, and the blister broke last week in the super regional against Baylor.
If the blister does not break in pre-game warm-ups on Sunday, Pettit will take the mound against the Gamecocks, but if the blister breaks, Meier will get the call.
Meier made his first start in SEC play earlier this season against South Carolina, pitching a complete game in a 5-1 victory on April 4. Meier gave up 10 hits but limited the Gamecocks to 5-for-16 with runners in scoring position and benefited from a pair of LSU double plays.
Pettit is 0-4 lifetime against South Carolina, including an 8-5 loss on April 5. Pettit dropped a pair of decisions to the Gamecocks last year, including a 5-4 contest in the SEC Tournament.
The Tigers’ lone bright spot on Friday came from sophomore designated hitter Ryan Patterson, whose second inning home run made him only the second LSU player to hit a home run in his first plate appearance at the CWS. The other was Jeff Leaumont, who went deep against Southern California in 1998.
LSU was 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position against Fullerton and 0-for-10 with two out, as the Tigers three through six hitters were 1-for-15.
The Gamecocks are in the same position they were in at the 2002 CWS, as Carolina was blanked 11-0 by Georgia Tech in the opening game last year, but rallied to win four consecutive games before losing to Texas in the national championship game.
South Carolina will start senior left-hander Steven Bondurant (7-3, 3.90) on Sunday. Bondurant was the losing pitcher to Meier in the opener of the regular season series, giving up five runs (four earned) on seven hits in seven-plus innings.
The Gamecocks’ leading hitter in the LSU series was senior second baseman Kevin Melillo, who was 5-for-12 (.417) in the earlier series.
The Tigers won the rubber match of the April series in Baton Rouge, 12-4, after the teams split the first two games. LSU leads the all-time series with South Carolina, 19-9-1, and have won seven of the eight regular season series, with the Gamecocks’ lone series win coming in 2002 at Columbia.
LSU is a perfect 6-0 all-time against SEC opponents in the CWS, going 4-0 against Florida (2-0 in both 1991 and 1996) and winning in the 1997 national championship game vs. Alabama and in 1998 vs. Mississippi St. The Tigers also defeated Arkansas in 1987, but the Razorbacks were in the Southwest Conference at the time.
In bracket two games on Saturday, Rice defeated CWS newcomer Southwest Missouri St, 4-2, while Texas crushed Miami of Florida in the nightcap, 13-2, in front of a CWS record crowd of 26,327.
Monday’s games will have Miami taking on Southwest Missouri St. in an elimination game at 1 p.m., with Texas and Rice facing off in a Lone Star State battle at 6 p.m.