Alex Box Stadium will be the setting for a playoff atmosphere this weekend when No. 17 Auburn comes to Baton Rouge for a three-game series with No. 8 LSU.
LSU (33-16-1, 16-7-1 Southeastern Conference) holds a 1.5 game advantage on Auburn (34-14, 15-9 SEC) in the SEC standings. This marks the first time since 1997 the top two teams in the SEC will face off in May.
“This is a big series,” said LSU first baseman Clay Harris. “It’s going to be intense. We’re going to try to go out there and handle business, and depending on how things go around the league, we could win [the SEC] this weekend.”
Mississippi State is two games back of LSU and in third place in the SEC standings. The Bulldogs have a three-game series in Athens, Ga., against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Should the Tigers sweep Auburn this weekend and Mississippi State lose two to Georgia, LSU would clinch the SEC regular season title.
“We just have to take this game-by-game,” said LSU shortstop Aaron Hill. “We have to worry about Friday night first. We can’t be thinking, ‘If we do this, or if they do that.’ We have to come out ready to play.”
Hill currently leads the Tigers with a .366 batting average and is hitting .404 in SEC games. He also leads the league with a .481 on base percentage.
After leading the Tigers in hitting for much of the season, Harris has fallen into a slump and dropped his batting average from .392 just two weeks ago to .357 heading into this weekend.
“That’s baseball,” Harris said. “I’ve just got to get back my concentration by simplifying things.”
Harris said if he had to hit a down cycle, he is glad it has been the past two weeks and not the next two weeks.
“Hopefully I can get out of it when the team needs me down the stretch,” Harris said.
Harris will attempt to recapture his swing against sophomore lefty Arnold Hughey (5-4, 4.03 ERA), Friday night’s starter, and junior right-hander Colby Paxton (6-1, 3.39) who will start Saturday’s contest.
Auburn coach Steve Renfro has not named a Sunday starter yet but will choose between Cory Dueitt (6-2, 2.56) and Eric Brandon (2-3, 5.98).
The Auburn pitchers will have a tough time on their hands as LSU leads the league with a .330 team batting average in SEC games.
Although State’s pitching staff gave the Tigers fits last weekend, they say this weekend they are more prepared.
“We are really pumped up for this weekend,” said LSU second baseman Blake Gill. “Hitting is contagious. We’ve really taken some good swings these last two practices, and we swung the bats real well Tuesday night [against Loyola]. We just need to get our confidence back and carry it into this weekend.”
LSU will start its usual SEC starting pitchers this weekend. Freshman Justin Meier (5-2, 2.77) will start Friday, Bo Pettit (7-2, 4.94) will start Saturday, and Nate Bumstead (8-1, 3.55) will close it out on Sunday.
Bumstead has not lost a game since the second game of the Sunday double header with Kansas on Feb. 16.
Auburn is led at the plate by Tug Hulett who is second in the conference with a .378 batting average. The sophomore second baseman was a former standout at Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport.
The Tigers close out the SEC schedule next week by travelling to Fayetteville, Ark., to take on the Razorbacks of Arkansas. The Hogs stand at 13-11 — a four-way tie for fourth — in the SEC and are 3.5 games back of the Tigers.
These next six games, along with the SEC Tournament, will play a large role in the location of the regional and super regional tournaments.
“Every game we have will have a huge impact on super regionals,” Gill said. “We had almost this same record last year, and we didn’t get [to host] a super regional. Winning the SEC regular season and the SEC Tournament is a big factor.”
Both Gill and Hill agreed that right now the Tigers are concentrating on a SEC championship and not super regionals.
“Every game is important for [super regionals],” Hill said. “But we’re concentrating on an SEC Title right now. We’re just going to go out and play the best we can these next two weeks and in the tournament and just see what happens.”