Baseball Readies for ‘Purple-Gold World Series’

BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball team enters its final phase of fall practice this weekend with an open practice Saturday and the start of the “Purple-Gold World Series” on Sunday.

Saturday’s workout begins at noon in Alex Box Stadium. Fans tailgating prior to the LSU-Auburn football game are invited to enter the stadium and get a glimpse of the 2008 Tigers in action.

The Purple-Gold World Series ? a three-game intrasquad series that concludes the five-week fall practice session ? begins at 3 p.m. Sunday in Alex Box Stadium. Game 2 is set for 3 p.m. Monday and Game 3 starts at 3 p.m. Tuesday. The games are seven-inning contests, and they are open to the public.

“We’ve had a very productive fall, and we’ve learned a lot about our team,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “The Purple-Gold World Series is a great way for the players to end practice in a competitive environment. They’ve worked very hard in beginning the process of building our team for this season.”

LSU assistant coach Cliff Godwin will manage the Purple team, and the Gold team will be skippered by volunteer coach Javi Sanchez.

Senior right-handed pitcher Jared Bradford is scheduled to start Game 1 for the Gold, while the Purple is expected to counter with freshman right-hander Austin Ross.

Below are the rosters for the three-game series:

PURPLE TEAM
Coach: Cliff Godwin

Position Players
Matt Clark, INF
Blake Dean, OF
Rene Escobar, INF
Micah Gibbs, C
Chris McGhee, INF
Michael Hollander, INF
Sean Ochinko, C
Nicholas Pontiff, OF
Ryan Schimpf, OF