The LSU baseball team will begin its second three-game world series in six months today.But the winner of this one is guaranteed to be an LSU team, as the Tigers will compete in their Purple and Gold World Series to cap off their fall practice schedule.The games will serve as the last team functions until the Tigers reconvene in January for winter practice before the start of the 2010 season Feb. 19 against Centenary.  “This will give them one more chance to show what they can do,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “It’s the last audition of fall practice.”Each roster will be composed of 16 players – eight position players and eight pitchers. No pitcher will throw more than 72 pitches or four innings, whichever comes first. All eight pitchers will be called upon at some point in time during the series.LSU assistant coach Javi Sanchez will coach the Gold team, and volunteer assistant coach Will Davis will coach the Purple team.The squads will play all three games, despite the outcome of the first two games, and all the games will begin at 3 p.m. The starting pitchers for the games will be faces Tiger fans may be looking at as starters come the spring. Junior Ben Alsup (Gold) will face freshman Mike Reed (Purple) in game one, and junior Daniel Bradshaw (Gold) will go up against junior Austin Ross (Purple) in the second game.The “rubber match” will put sophomore Chris Matulis (Gold) against junior Anthony Ranaudo (Purple).Mainieri and associate head coach David Grewe will act as “commissioners” overseeing the action of the games.The teams will see a couple of noticeable absences, as a few Tigers have gone down to the injury bug the team avoided last season.Mainieri said junior outfielder Leon Landry is out of the game after having surgery on his big toe, while sophomore infielder Tyler Hanover is out with a strained groin muscle.Sophomore pitcher Spencer Matthews will also be out with a sore arm.The good news for LSU is senior slugger Blake Dean returned to swinging a bat last week for the first time since his shoulder surgery in late June and will be in the lineup as an outfielder, although he will not be allowed to throw. Freshman catcher Wes Luquette will also not be allowed to throw.”We will just gauge what would have been normal advancement of base runners whenever a ball is hit to them,” Mainieri said.But these injuries have allowed other players to shine.Mainieri said sophomore outfielder Trey Watkins, a junior college transfer from LSU-Eunice and former standout player at Destrehan High School, has played well this fall.Mainieri also said redshirt freshman Wet Delatte is playing well and may have won the starting job at third base with Hanover shifting over to second — his more traditional position — after playing most of last season at third.At the end of the game, fans may get to witness something that happened at the end of the Tigers’ run to their national championship in June — a dog pile.”I hope we have one,” Mainieri said. “There have been dog piles in the past.”
 
 
 
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