LSU baseball enthusiasts probably didn’t have the Tigers’ upcoming weekend in Lexington, Ky., circled on their calendars before the season started.
But the Wildcats, coming off an 8-22 conference record in 2011 and picked to finish fourth in the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division in the SEC Preseason Coaches Poll, have surprised everyone this season.
“I never would’ve expected Kentucky to be a team to beat,” admitted sophomore pitcher Kevin Gausman. “It just goes to show you how good the SEC is.”
With both teams sporting identical 11-4 conference records, it’s a battle between No. 4 LSU (31-7) and No. 3 Kentucky (33-5) for SEC supremacy this weekend.
The matchup was set up by the Wildcats surging out of the starting gates, winning their first 22 contests – something LSU coach Paul Mainieri thinks has been paramount to Kentucky’s success.
“They got off to a great start. … When that happens, regardless of who they’re playing against, they develop a tremendous self-confidence in their team,” Mainieri said.
“They won a couple games in pretty exciting fashion, and it kind of built upon the momentum of it all.”
But LSU comes in riding its own budding wave of momentum. After securing a closer-than-expected 5-4 win against Lamar on Wednesday, the Tigers have won 14-of-15 games, and seven straight.
What makes LSU’s recent streak most impressive is that it included two of the arguably more difficult matchups on its slate this season in Arkansas and Florida.
Mainieri said the team has been brimming with confidence while playing some of its best ball of the year, prompting what he called “the age-old question.”
“Do you succeed because you have confidence, or does confidence breed success?” Mainieri pondered. “I believe that it’s both. I believe that you have to have confidence in yourself to have initial success, but the more success that you have, your confidence continues to grow until you believe that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to.”
Both teams come into the series with confidence, but they bring two contrasting styles to the ballpark.
While the Tigers have been getting it done with a stellar pitching staff that sports a minuscule 2.96 ERA, the Wildcats have mashed opposing pitching with the long ball – smashing a league-best 44 home runs.
Part of Kentucky’s big fly binge may correlate with the dimensions of its home field, Cliff Hagan Stadium. The fence is 20 feet closer to home in right field, and 25 feet closer in center field than Alex Box.
“You can’t overdo it in your mind,” Mainieri said. “You’ve just got to realize it’s the same for both teams and maybe one of our guys will pop one out and even things out.”
Short fences or not, the LSU pitching staff is focused on keeping the Wildcat bats at bay.
“We know that they’ve got some good hitters, but so do we,” Gausman said. “I think we’re going to bring down their batting average this weekend. That’s something we talked about as a staff. … We’ve got to quiet their bats.”
Gausman (6-1, 2.76) will get the task in the series opener today at 5:30 p.m., followed by the usual weekend rotation of sophomore Ryan Eades (5-1, 2.51) and freshman Aaron Nola (5-1, 3.15).
Kentucky will counter with the left-handed trio of junior Taylor Rogers (4-1, 5.07), junior Jerad Grundy (3-1, 4.60) and sophomore Corey Litrell (6-0, 1.95).
“We hit pretty well off left-handers this year,” said junior outfielder Raph Rhymes, who is hitting a sizzling .484 this year. “We’ll get a whole bunch of them this weekend, and I think we’re up to the challenge.”
 
 
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Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]