BATON ROUGE — Fresh off of a victory over in-state rival Tulane in front of an NCAA record crowd at the Louisiana Superdome on Wednesday, LSU gets back to the business of the Southeastern Conference race beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m. when the Fighting Tigers (21-13, 5-6) welcome SEC East Division leader Georgia (18-11, 8-4) to Alex Box Stadium.
The series continues with game two on Saturday at 2 p.m., with the finale scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday. All three games can be heard on the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge, WWL-870 AM in New Orleans), and on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
All three games will also be televised on a tape-delay basis in Baton Rouge only. The games on Friday and Saturday will be shown by WGMB-Fox 44 starting at 9 p.m. each night, with Sunday’s game televised by Cox Cable Channel 4 starting at 7 p.m.
LSU’s 9-5 win over Tulane was witnessed by a record throng of 27,673, breaking the old attendance record of 24,859 set for a 1999 College World Series session that featured Miami, Alabama, Rice and Oklahoma State. The previous NCAA record for a regular season date was 21,043 that saw Texas and TCU split a doubleheader at The Ballpark in Arlington (Texas).
The Tigers flashed some power in the win over the Green Wave, belting a season high four home runs, including three in the fifth inning alone, the first time that LSU has hit three home runs in an inning since the 1998 College World Series against Mississippi State. Prior to Wednesday’s game, LSU had hit three home runs in a game just once, and that was on March 2 against Long Beach State.
LSU’s hottest hitter continues to be sophomore shortstop Aaron Hill. The Visalia, Calif., native hit a two-run home run against Tulane to give him four homers in his last six outings. In the Tigers’ last 10 games, Hill is batting .535 (23-for-43) with four home runs, 19 RBI and a 1.023 slugging percentage. He has been the catalyst for an LSU offense that has collected at least 10 hits in its last eight outings.
The Tigers also got a strong pitching performance from junior right-hander Bo Pettit against the Green Wave, as the Houston native gave up just one run in five shutout innings, retiring the first 12 batters he faced.
Pettit (4-5, 3.73) is scheduled to start on Sunday for the Tigers, with sophomore left-hander Lane Mestepey (6-2, 3.51) getting the call on Friday and sophomore Brian Wilson (4-2, 4.01) scheduled to hurl on Saturday.
Georgia, the 2001 SEC champions and a participant in last year’s College World Series, is just one game behind Alabama (29-5, 9-3) for the overall SEC lead. The Bulldogs are under the leadership of 34-year old rookie coach David Perno, a former Bulldog player and assistant coach.
The Bulldogs are coming off of a tough midweek series against Clemson, as Georgia split a pair of games with the nation’s top-ranked team. The Bulldogs won Tuesday at Athens, 5-4, but dropped a 6-5 decision to the Tigers of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Wednesday at Clemson.
The Bulldogs are hitting .321 as a team, with six regulars batting .300 or better, led by freshman second baseman Marshall Szabo (.429-3-11) and junior outfielder Chaz Lytle (.410-1-17).
On the mound, Georgia is scheduled to start freshman left-hander Mickey Westphal (3-0, 6.29) on Friday, followed by junior right-hander Brandon Moorhead (2-0, 3.66) on Saturday and freshman left-hander Jeff Fellows (1-0, 4.40) on Sunday.
LSU holds a commanding 40-12-1 all-time edge in the series, but Georgia has won two of three in each of the last two seasons, including last year’s series in Athens in which all three games took 11 innings to decide (Georgia 8-7, LSU 5-3 and Georgia 4-3). Prior to 2000, Georgia had won only one series (1987) from LSU in 14 years, and at one point in the 1990s, LSU had won 18 of 19 meetings. The Tigers hold a commanding 20-5 meeting in games played in Baton Rouge, including three-game sweeps in 1990, 1995, 1996 and 1998.
GAME TIME CHANGE: The Tigers’ April 27 game against Arkansas originally scheduled to start at 2 p.m. will now start at 4 p.m.
The change was made to allow fans to attend the LSU Spring Football game that begins at 1 p.m. that afternoon at Tiger Stadium, and then attend the baseball game across the street at Alex Box Stadium.