No. 3 Mississippi State baseball opens SEC play with 3-game series at No. 13 LSU

First pitch is slated for 6 p.m.

By Collin Wilmes@CollinWilmes Mar 19, 2021, 5:37pm EDT

BATON ROUGE, La. — The No. 3 Mississippi State baseball team opens Southeastern Conference play with a three-game series against No. 13 LSU beginning Friday at 6 p.m. CT at Alex Box Stadium.

The series continues Saturday at 6:30 p.m. before concluding Sunday at 2 p.m. Friday’s game will air on SEC Network, while the final two games will be streaming on SEC Network+.

The Bulldogs (14-3, 0-0 SEC) come into the series riding a seven-game winning streak, with the most recent game being a 10-2 win over Samford on Tuesday. Junior Luke Hancock homered twice in that game and accounted for three RBIs.

Hancock and senior Tanner Allen are both batting a team-best .308 over 17 games played. Hancock is tied with sophomore Kamren James, who is batting .286, with a team-high 18 RBIs.

The MSU pitching staff has a cumulative ERA of 2.24 and an opponent’s batting average of .176 over 153 innings pitched. The Bulldogs’ 13.4 strikeouts per nine innings rank second in the nation. Only junior right-handed pitcher Eric Cerantola, right-handed graduate student pitcher Spencer Price and graduate student righty Riley Self have thrown a pitch in an SEC regular-season game.

The Tigers (15-3, 0-0 SEC) have won six straight games, including a 10-7 victory over Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday night. LSU also posted a three-game sweep of UTSA last weekend.

Offensively, LSU is batting .289 as a team and averaging 8.6 runs per game. Freshman Dylan Crews leads the team with a .406 batting average and 25 runs scored, while sophomore Cade Doughty is batting .340 and has a team-high 25 RBIs and eight home runs. LSU’s 35 home runs on the season rank No. 1 in the nation.

The Tiger pitching staff owns a 4.02 ERA with a .232 batting average against and 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings. Junior right-hander Landon Marceaux, LSU’s projected Saturday starting pitcher, has not allowed an earned run in 23 innings pitched over four starts. He has 32 strikeouts and just three walks and is limiting opposing hitters to a .150 batting average.

MSU and LSU have played 402 times prior to this weekend’s series. The Bulldogs own a 214-187-1 all-time edge.

Friday, March 19 (6 p.m. CT)

Probable Starters:

MSU: LHP Christian MacLeod (1-1, 1.84 ERA)

LSU: RHP Jaden Hill (2-1, 4.24 ERA)

TV: SEC Network

Live Video: https://hailst.at/3cGzWp2

Live Audio: https://hailst.at/audio

Live Stats: http://hailst.at/StatBroadcast

Saturday, March 20 (6:30 p.m. CT)

Probable Starters:

MSU: RHP Will Bednar (0-0, 0.00 ERA)