When LSU and the University of Alabama collide on the baseball diamond this weekend, two battles will be taking place.
Both teams are part of a four way tie in the Southeastern Conference West Division and looking to clear out the clutter on top of the SEC standings. Both are 4-2 in the SEC, but the Tide holds a better overall record than LSU standing at 20-8 on the season.
Another competition is between two past assistant coaches to former LSU head coach Skip Bertman. Smoke Laval will be working on coaching his Tigers past former assistant and present Alabama coach Jim Wells.
Wells’ club has lost five straight series to LSU dating back to the 2000 season and holds a 20-28 overall record against the Tigers. Laval stands at 9-7 against Alabama as coach for both University of Louisiana at Monroe and LSU.
Both teams are coming off SEC series losses last weekend. Vanderbilt handed Alabama two losses before the Tide took the last game on Sunday. Alabama traveled to Southern Miss for a midweek game but fell short once again 7-4.
LSU broke a 12 series winning streak — including seven SEC wins — last weekend when they were defeated by Auburn at home. Auburn took two of three games. The weekend series was LSU’s last before hitting the road this weekend.
“It’s always tough on the road so we have to focus just that much more,” said senior left fielder Ryan Patterson. “It’s going to be one of those things going in there we’re going to be that much more focused losing two out of three last week at home.”
The Tigers bounced back in a mid-week game against the UNO Privateers with a 18-10 victory, where the Privateers changed pitchers five times.
“I wish they would have left the lefty in longer because we’re going to see a lot of that in Alabama,” Laval said after Tuesday night’s game.
Wells has only announced his Friday and Saturday starters.
Junior right-hander T.J. Large will match up with Tiger left-hander Lane Mestepey Friday night.
The only Alabama left-hander on this weekend’s rotation is Saturday’s senior starter Brent Carter. Carter (4-1, 2.64 ERA) will face sophomore left-hander Clay Dirks, who is the only remaining weekend starter undefeated. Dirks stands at 6-0 on the season with a 2.95 ERA.
Although Wells has not yet announced his starter for Sunday’s contest, Laval has called on junior left-hander Greg Smith to close out the series. Smith is 4-1 in games this season with an ERA of 2.93.
On the other side of the diamond, the Tiger offense is led by Patterson who is batting .440. Patterson has hit 10 home runs in his last 10 games including his first career grand slam Tuesday night. Patterson is looking to continue his 15-game hitting streak when the team travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala.
“I think we are excited to go there,” Patterson said. “They got a really good pitching staff so we’re really going to have to be on our A-game.”
Game one begins at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Game two, which begins at 6 p.m. on Saturday, can be seen on cable channel 13 as well as Sunday’s game at 2 p.m.