BATON ROUGE, La. – No. 8 LSU (23-11, 7-5 SEC) opens at three-game SEC series at 6:30 p.m. CT Thursday against Ole Miss (21-12, 6-6 SEC) in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
Game 2 of the series is set for 7 p.m. CT Friday, and first pitch for Game 3 is scheduled for 2 p.m. CT Saturday.
The games will be carried on the LSU Sports Radio Network (WDGL 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge), and the radio broadcast may be heard at www.LSUsports.net/live,
The games may be viewed online in SEC Network +, accessible at WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app.
LSU has won four of its past five games, including a 3-2 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday night and a 2-1 SEC series victory at Arkansas last weekend. The Tigers are 7-5 in SEC play, one game behind Western Division leaders Arkansas, Auburn and Mississippi State. Ole Miss is fifth in the SEC West with a 6-6 mark after posting a three-game sweep of Alabama last weekend.
The Tigers enter Thursday’s game batting .296 as a team with 30 homers and 35 steals in 53 attempts. The LSU pitching staff has a 3.57 ERA with 317 strikeouts in 302.2 innings. LSU ranks No. 3 in the SEC in batting average and No. 8 in ERA.
Ole Miss is No. 13 in the league with a .246 team batting average, but the Rebels are No. 1 in the SEC with a 2.72 staff ERA.
Ole Miss is led by coach Mike Bianco, a former LSU catcher (1988-89) who is in his 17th season at the helm of the Rebels’ program.
“Ole Miss is playing with a lot of confidence, they swept Alabama last weekend and got a big win over Southern Miss earlier this week,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “It’s certainly a lock that this is going to be a great, very intense series. It’s really good ball clubs going at each other. Ole Miss has outstanding starting pitching and veterans out of their bullpen that they can count on, and they’ve been swinging the bats well in recent games. We’ve always had tremendous ball games with Ole Miss, and it’s a series we look forward to every year.”
The Tigers will employ their customary starting pitching rotation of junior right-hander Alex Lange, senior left-hander Jared Poche’ and freshman right-hander Eric Walker, who was named the SEC Pitcher of the Week on Monday.
Walker, a product of Arlington, Texas, fired a shutout on Sunday at Arkansas, defeating the Razorbacks, 2-0, for his first career complete game in just his eighth collegiate start. Walker blanked Arkansas by limiting the Razorbacks to just four hits with two walks and four strikeouts and allowing just one player to advance beyond second base.
Walker threw a career-high 119 pitches and extended his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 16. The shutout against Arkansas was the first recorded by an LSU pitcher since May 30, 2015, when Alex Lange blanked UNC Wilmington in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional.
LSU junior rightfielder Greg Deichmann leads the Tigers with 10 homers and 37 RBI, and senior second baseman Cole Freeman has a team-high .350 batting average to go along with 10 steals in 15 attempts.
Senior infielder Colby Bortles leads Ole Miss in home runs (4) and RBI (20), while junior infielder Tate Blackman and junior infielder/outfielder Will Golsan have each produced 16 RBI.
Ole Miss Rebels (21-12, 6-6 SEC) at #8 LSU Fighting Tigers (23-11, 7-5 SEC)
DATES/TIMES
Thursday, April 13 – 6:30 p.m. CT
Friday, April 14 – 7 p.m. CT
Saturday, April 15 – 2 p.m. CT
STADIUM
Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field (10,326) in Baton Rouge, La.
RANKINGS
LSU –No. 8 USA Today; No. 9 Baseball America; No. 10 Collegiate Baseball
UM – unranked
RADIO
LSU Sports Radio Network; in Baton Rouge on WDGL 98.1 FM
Radio broadcast and live stats for all LSU baseball games are available at www.LSUsports.net
ONLINE
SEC Network +, accessible at WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app
SERIES RECORD
LSU leads Ole Miss, 173-149, in a series that began in 1906. LSU has captured 13 of the last 18 regular-season series with Ole Miss, though the Rebels posted a 2-1 series victory last season in Oxford. LSU had won five straight series (2011-15) over the Rebels prior to last season’s Ole Miss series victory. LSU has won 18 consecutive regular-season series in Baton Rouge over Ole Miss. The Rebels’ last series victory over the Tigers in Alex Box Stadium came in 1982, when Ole Miss won two of three to close the season.
PITCHING MATCHUPS
Game 1
LSU – Jr. RHP Alex Lange (3-4, 3.77 ERA, 45.1 IP, 16 BB, 62 SO)
UM – So. RHP James McArthur (2-1, 1.85 ERA, 34.0 IP, 12 BB, 36 SO)
Game 2
LSU – Sr. LHP Jared Poche’ (6-1, 2.32 ERA, 50.1 IP, 12 BB, 33 SO)
UM – Jr. LHP David Parkinson (4-2, 2.85 ERA, 47.1 IP, 12 BB, 48 SO)
Game 3
LSU – Fr. RHP Eric Walker (4-0, 2.45 ERA, 47.2 IP, 12 BB, 47 SO)
UM – Fr. LHP Ryan Rolison (4-1, 1.99 ERA, 31.2 IP, 9 BB, 36 SO)