BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball team plays its Southeastern Conference home-opening series this weekend as the sixth-ranked Tigers entertain the Florida Gators in Alex Box Stadium.
Game 1 is set for 7 p.m. Friday, Game 2 starts at 4 p.m. Saturday and Game 3 begins at Noon Sunday. All three games can be heard on the LSU Sports Radio Network (98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. Sunday’s game will be televised by the Guaranty Sports Network (Cable Channel 10 in Baton Rouge).
LSU (14-6-1, 1-2) opened SEC action last week, dropping two of three games to Georgia in Athens. Florida (11-10, 0-3) began conference play last weekend in Gainesville, where the Gators were swept in three games by Tennessee.
The Tigers began this week’s schedule Tuesday night with a 13-6 victory over Southern University in Alex Box Stadium. Shortstop Ryan Theriot was 3-for-3 at the plate with one double, one homer — his first of the season — and three RBI.
LSU, which pounded out 13 hits against the Jaguars, also also received home runs from left fielder Johnnie Thibodeaux and first baseman Bryan Moore. Sophomore right-hander Bo Pettit, making his first start since May 6, 2000, earned the victory, limiting SU to two runs on two hits in five innings with one walk and three strikeouts. Pettit made his first start after undergoing off-season shoulder surgery.
Florida won two straight games this week in Gainesville over Fordham by scores of 15-1 and 11-3 before traveling to Baton Rouge.
LSU head coach Skip Bertman said junior left-hander Shane Youman (3-0, 2.37 ERA) will start Friday’s game for LSU. Freshman left-hander Lane Mestepey (2-0, 4.50 ERA) will start on Saturday for the Tigers, and senior right-hander Jason Scobie (1-1, 5.86 ERA) will take the mound Sunday.
Florida will counter with sophomore right-hander Joey Simon (3-3, 5.92 ERA) on Friday and junior left-hander Jimmy Ramshaw (1-1, 11.17 ERA) on Saturday. Florida head coach Andy Lopez has yet to name Sunday’s starter.
LSU leads the all-time series with Florida, 37-23, as the teams first met in 1971. The Tigers defeated the Gators in three of the teams’ four meetings last season. LSU won two of three games in Gainesville during the regular season, and the Tigers posted a 9-6 win over the Gators in the SEC Tournament championship game.
LSU has won five of the last seven games versus UF, as the Tigers also won two of three against the Gators in the 1999 regular-season series in Baton Rouge. LSU has a 13-2 mark versus Florida in Alex Box Stadium since 1989, including three-game home sweeps of the Gators in ’89, ’91 and ’97.
Bertman has a 34-18 mark versus Florida during his 18-year tenure. That includes a 4-0 mark against the Gators in the College World Series, as LSU defeated UF twice in both the 1991 and 1996 CWS.