By Hunt Palmer
The last two national champions of college baseball fire up a three-game set Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU toppled Tennessee twice in Omaha in 2023 en route to the school’s seventh national title. Tennessee beat the Tigers in the SEC Tournament final last June and went on to claim the first national championship in program history a month later.
Jay Johnson and Tony Vitello have built winners in Baton Rouge and Knoxville. No one has won more baseball games over the last four seasons than Tennessee. Vitello’s Vols are 195-51 over that span, a .793 clip. LSU has a 171-70 record under Johnson.
Over that span, the teams have played 10 times, splitting a pair of regular season series. Tennessee has won both matchups in Hoover, and the Tigers won both games in Omaha.
This year both teams are positioned well at 12-6 in league play with RPIs at No. 11 (Tennessee) and No. 12 (LSU). Those resumes would get a huge boost from a series win this weekend, and with five SEC teams in the RPI’s top five currently, those boosts would be welcomed.
Tennessee has dropped two of its last three series in league play. LSU has dropped its last two games.
Alex Box Stadium will be at its best the next three days. It should be quite a show.
POWER PLAY
Under Vitello, Tennessee has been a power team on offense. The Vols love the long ball. This season only Georgia has hit more home runs than Tennessee among SEC teams.
Kade Anderson, LSU’s Friday night starter, has had issues with the home run. He’s allowed 12 in four SEC starts including four last week against Alabama.
When you throw a ton of strikes, sometimes you catch too much plate. He’s only walked seven hitters in his last 41.2 innings. He’s just got to execute every pitch against a lineup this good.
Tennessee already has five hitters with double digit home runs. Three more have eight.
LSU is ninth in the SEC in home runs. Slugger Jared Jones only has two in SEC play with 18 games in the rearview mirror.
When LSU hits two or more home runs, the Tigers are 17-2 (.894). When the Tigers do not homer, they’re 8-4 (.667)
LOCKDOWN LEFTIES
Two of the best left-handed pitchers in the nation get the ball tonight at The Box.
Anderson and Liam Doyle are both projected first round picks this summer, and both have been dominant at times this year.
Doyle features a vanishing fastball in the high 90s, and Anderson has shown command of four pitches this season in his first atop the rotation.
The Volunteer ace has struck out a league-best 104 in 58 innings. Anderson is third in the SEC with 91, one short of Oklahoma ace Kyson Witherspoon who he outdueled three weeks ago in Norman.
LSU has already won games this year against Witherspoon, Texas’s Jared Spencer, Mississippi State’s Pico Kohn and Alabama’s Riley Quick. Those are some of the top arms in America. Friday’s test will be the toughest yet.
Doyle has struck out double-digit hitters in five outings this year and has only allowed seven hits in his 21.1 innings of work.
LSU is 9-1 when Anderson starts. Tennessee is 9-1 when Doyle starts.
SPRING SLUMP
LSU’s offense hasn’t been good enough the last four weeks. In eight of the last 11 conference games, LSU has scored four runs or less. They’ve won four of those games, so that’s a positive. But it’s hard to beat really good teams 3-2. It’s nearly impossible to beat Tennessee 3-2.
The Vols have only been beaten by an opponent scoring four runs or less one time this year. Kentucky did it last weekend.
Johnson said this week that he moved Jones to third base Tuesday to try to “chase runs” by getting Jake Brown, Ethan Frey and Josh Pearson in the lineup. That didn’t work as Jones made two errors, and the Tigers only scored three runs against Northwestern State.
If LSU is going to compete this weekend and win the series, the bats need to break out.
One candidate for that breakout is Steven Milam. He’s hitting .200 in SEC play, and that needs to change starting Friday. Milam is too good a player to be held down all season.
Some of the unproven SEC hitters entering the season like Derek Curiel (.333), Daniel Dickinson (.338) and Luis Hernandez (.271, 4 HR) have done a great job against league pitching. Milam needs to carry his weight.
SERIES SCHEDULE
Friday: 6:30pm ESPN+
Saturday: 7:00 ESPNU
Sunday: 2:00pm SEC Network
