The Southeastern Conference schedule never seems to let up for No. 12 LSU.
Four days after the Tigers completed their sweep of then-No. 3 Arkansas, LSU (23-6, 6-3 SEC) has a date with the nation’s top-ranked team. Starting tonight at 6:30 p.m., No. 1 Florida (24-5, 6-3 SEC) will host LSU for a three-game set.
“Every game in the SEC is a grind,” said senior shortstop Austin Nola. “We’re going to have to continue to take steps forward because that’s the biggest thing for us. We can’t take steps back.”
While LSU is flying high after its big weekend against the Razorbacks, the Gators’ season has turned in the opposite direction. Florida lost two out of three games to then-No. 16 Ole Miss and dropped a mid-week game to in-state rival North Florida.
But Nola knows the past has no bearing on either team’s present.
“Whenever they play us, they try and bring their ‘A’ game, and it’s the same for us,” Nola said. “They had a rough couple games, but they have it all. They’re going to come out swinging.”
Though LSU has its eyes focused on this weekend, the Tigers can’t escape the fact that they haven’t beaten Florida in a regular-season game since 2009. After LSU won 16 of its first 17 games in 2011, the Tigers dropped all three to Florida, losing the series opener after surrendering three runs in the ninth inning.
“They left a bad taste in our mouths the past two years,” said senior third baseman Tyler Hanover. “So we’d like to leave a bad taste in their mouth.”
For LSU to do that, they will need to overcome a hurdle they’ve recently failed to surpass – winning on the road.
Since 2009, LSU has won 9 of its 33 SEC road games, losing two at Auburn to open conference play this season.
“We have to go on the road and win,” Nola said. “We have to get that mentality as a team that we have to start doing a lot better than in the past. This is a good place to start.”
LSU will likely be without freshman pitcher Aaron Nola, who was removed from Sunday’s game with soreness in his throwing shoulder, and LSU coach Paul Mainieri has little hope he will appear in relief.
“I wish we had a full deck,” Mainieri said. “But that’s part of the game, and you have to recover from it. You have to give the opportunity to someone else and they have to go out there and get the job done.”
Sophomore pitcher Kurt McCune will start in Aaron Nola’s place, but his absence will likely affect a pitching staff facing a team that leads the SEC with 41 home runs – 11 more than the next-closest team.
Regardless of the rankings or the history, Mainieri said he’s never faced an opponent he’d consider intimidating.
“I don’t want to sound pompous, but we’re LSU,” Mainieri said. “We’re not afraid of anything. We have a saying that we respect all of our opponents, but we’re in awe of none of them. When we stand on that field in Florida, we’re going to go toe-to-toe with them.”
 
____
Contact Hunter Paniagua at [email protected]