KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — LSU looks to carry the momentum from a red-hot April into the first weekend of May when the Fighting Tigers visit Tennessee for an important three-game Southeastern Conference series this weekend at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The series gets underway at 6 p.m. CDT on Friday, followed by games at 3 p.m. Saturday and 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 be televised live, although only two of three will be available in Louisiana. Friday’s contest will be broadcast by Comcast Sports Southeast, which is not carried by cable providers in the Bayou State. Saturday’s game will be televised throughout the south on Fox Sports Net as the SEC-TV Game of the Week and can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest in Louisiana (Cable Ch. 37 in Baton Rouge, Cable Ch. 42
in New Orleans). Sunday’s game is part of the Jumbo Sports Network package in Louisiana (WGMB-Fox 44 in Baton Rouge, WNOL-WB 38 in New Orleans) and can also be viewed on Comcast Sports Southeast in other SEC markets.
LSU (31-15, 12-8 SEC) enters the weekend on a five-game winning streak, including Tuesday’s 13-0 whitewash of New Orleans at Zephyr Field in the Tigers’ final non-conference game of the season. The Tigers shut out SEC West rival Arkansas twice last weekend and now have shut out three of their last four opponents for the first time since posting three shutouts in a four-game series at Mississippi State in 1975.
The Tigers were 14-3 in the month of April, outscoring their opponents 147-62, posting a .338 batting average and a 2.70 ERA. The 14-3 record in April is the best for LSU in a full month (not counting a 6-0 mark in June of 2000) since going 17-3 in March of 1997.
LSU junior third baseman Wally Pontiff continues to lead the Tigers in batting average (.380-5 HR-34 RBI), and he is sixth on the LSU career batting average list at .355. He is just one hit away from moving into the top 10 in career hits, as Pontiff has 233 entering the weekend.
The Tigers’ other top hitters include sophomore shortstop Aaron Hill (.379-6-37), senior right fielder Sean Barker (.373-3-44) and sophomore second baseman J.C. Holt (.344-3-18). Barker and Holt were the Tigers’ top hitters in April, batting .433 and .432, respectively.
LSU coach Smoke Laval will not change his pitching rotation, and with good reason, as both sophomore left-hander Lane Mestepey and junior right-hander Brian Wilson posted shutouts against Arkansas last weekend, with Mestepey spinning a four-hitter on Friday and Wilson twirling a three-hitter on Saturday to earn SEC Pitcher of the Week honors.
Mestepey (9-2, 2.99) and Wilson (6-3, 2.72) will start on Friday and Saturday, and will be joined by junior right-hander Bo Pettit (5-6, 3.94) on Sunday. Pettit also was named SEC Pitcher of the Week earlier this year after defeating Tulane and Georgia in a five-day stretch.
Another key weapon for the Tigers on the mound is junior closer Jake Tompkins (4-0, 2.77), who struck out a career high 10 in 4 2/3 innings on Tuesday at UNO.
Tennessee (23-23, 8-13) has struggled with injuries just one year after finishing third in the College World Series. The Vols enter the weekend one game behind Auburn for the eighth and final spot in the SEC Tournament with series against SEC East leader South Carolina and in-state rival Vanderbilt to follow this weekend’s set.
UT, which lost 5-4 Tennessee Smokies, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Double-A affiliate, on Wednesday in an exhibition game in Sevierville, took two of three from Ole Miss last weekend in Oxford after the Rebels had won 11 of 13 in league play.
Vols coach Rod Delmonico, who won his 500th career game earlier this season and is UT’s all-time winningest coach, is scheduled to start sophomore left-hander Ben Riley (4-2, 5.06) on Friday and junior left-hander Jeffrey Terrell (4-6, 4.28) on Saturday, but was undecided on a starter for Sunday at press time.
The Vols lost one of their top pitchers last week in sophomore right-hander Patrick Hicklen to a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, while junior right-hander Brandon Crowe underwent Tommy John surgery last summer and is being granted a medical redshirt for this season.
UT lost several top players from last year’s CWS team to graduation and the draft, including 2001 SEC Player of the Year Chris Burke, a consensus All-American who was the first round draft pick of the Houston Astros. Catcher Javi Herrera was lost last month after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Still, the Vols were able to take two of three last week from Ole Miss in Oxford, and feature six players in their lineup hitting .315 or better, topped by junior shortstop Walter Sevilla (.339-1-30) and a pair of holdovers from the last series against LSU in 1999, senior right fielder Brandon Hopkins (.315-2-29) and senior catcher Hal Bibee Jr. (.319-3-27).
UT won two of three in Knoxville in 1999 when the teams last met, as the Tigers and Vols did not play in 2000 and 2001 due to the SEC’s schedule format. The Tigers at one point won 12 consecutive games in the 1990s and hold a 31-9 all-time edge in the series, although UT won three of four series in the ’90s at Knoxville.
With no midweek games remaining, LSU will not return to action again until Friday, May 10 when the Tigers face Florida in the opener of a three-game SEC series in Gainesville.