The SEC Baseball Tournament began Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama, and third seeded LSU finally gets its opportunity to play Friday night as the top ranked Tigers take on Texas A&M, who has already won two games this week.
LSU is the gold standard when it comes to competing in the SEC Tournament as the Tigers have a league-best 94-50 (.653) all-time record. LSU has won a conference-high 12 tournament titles, and they are seeking to play in their 21st SEC Tournament Championship game on Sunday.
LSU has not played since Saturday, a 7-3 win over South Carolina.
Coach Jay Johnson believes the long break was good and he says his team plays well when they are fresh.
“The players have been great this week; we had good work at home and a good workout here (Hoover, Ala.) today. The mindset is good, and our players are eager to compete in a first-class event.”
LSU will send its Friday night starter, Kade Anderson, to the mound. Johnson has said they are in Hoover, Alabama to win the SEC Tournament and there are no plans to rest anyone. But he will not push Anderson beyond his limit.
Anderson entered conference tournament week second in the nation in strikeouts with 133. Anderson struck out 12 over six innings against the Aggies on May 3rd. He allowed just one run as the Tigers lost 3-1.
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The Aggies will send their Sunday starter to the hill on Friday night. Junior left-hander Myles Patton is 3-4, with a 5.10 ERA. Patton has excellent command, just 15 walks in 72.1 innings pitched and he’s struck out 79.
Patton gave up four runs on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts in six innings pitched against LSU in a game where the Aggies came from behind to beat the Tigers.
Texas A&M is 30-25 overall and went 11-19 in the SEC in the regular season. They probably have to win two more games in the SEC Tournament to give themselves a chance at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
They will have to do it without their best power hitter. Jace LaViolette broke his hand in Thursday’s 3-2 win over Auburn. That’s 18 home runs out of the lineup.
The Aggies offense has struggled this season. They rank last in the SEC with a team batting average of .261. A&M also has the worst fielding percentage in the SEC.
The Aggies poor defense was on display in the final game of the series against LSU as they struggled twice to execute a relay play from the outfield and gifted the Tigers two runs.
Friday night’s matchup pits a desperate Texas A&M team and a rested LSU squad. The winner gets the winner of the Arkansas-Ole Miss game that will be played on Friday afternoon.