BATON ROUGE — Before the season, no one viewed this weekend’s series between LSU and South Carolina as one that would be so exciting. But after the Gamecocks won their first 22 games, Alex Box Stadium will be buzzing for the three-game series beginning tonight at 7 p.m. Listen here throughout the weekend or watch it if you’re an eTiger!
LSU (16-8, 3-2 SEC) has won five straight overall and three in a row in conference play. The Tigers’ final game against Vanderbilt last weekend was rained out and will not be made up. However, LSU has added a game against Southern University on April 5 at 7 p.m.
South Carolina (23-1, 5-1 SEC) went on a 22-game winnings streak to open the season, breaking LSU’s league record of 19 consecutive victories.
Times for the games this weekend are 7 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Sunday’s game was moved up 1/2 hour to allow South Carolina to catch a flight back to Columbia.
Brian Tallet (5-2, 1.95 ERA) will get the nod for the Tigers Friday, while junior righthander Kip Bouknight (7-0, 2.05) will start for the Gamecocks.
For Saturday, Trey Hodges (2-0, 4.58) will start for LSU against lefthander Peter Bauer (4-0, 1.50 ERA). Ben Saxon (2-0, 4.76) will start Sunday against a pitcher to be named later.
LSU leads the all-time series will South Carolina 11-2-1, however the teams haven’t met since the 1998 SEC Tournament when LSU came away with a 6-0 win.