#14 OLE MISS @ #3 LSU -- Rivalry Weekend, Regular Season Finale, Senior Day, etc

Thu, May 16 – 6:30 p.m. CT - televised by ESPNU
Fri, May 17 – 7:00 p.m. CT - televised by Cox Sports Television (CST)
Sat, May 18 – 12:00 p.m. CT - televised by the CBS Sports Network (CBSSN)

Randy Rosetta:
"There will be pomp and there will be circumstance this weekend, along with celebrations and a prominent renaming when LSU and Ole Miss get together at Alex Box Stadium to close out the 2013 regular season."

Thursday – recognition of former LSU infielder Michael Hollander, a 2013 LSU Law Center honors graduate

Friday – dedication and the official renaming of Skip Bertman Field and recognition of the 20th anniversary of the 1993 national championship team.

Saturday – Senior Day honoring the Tiger seniors (Mason Katz, Raph Rhymes, Chris Cotton, Joey Bourgeois, Brent Bonvillain, Alex Edward, Casey Yocom, Kevin Berry)

Mainieri:
“It’s going to be a special time and the weather should be great”

Katz:
“I think seeing everything we’re going to see this weekend will motivate us to get back to Omaha”




The final LSU Baseball game program of 2013 featuring seniors Katz & Rhumes

 

in addition to #14 Ole Miss at #3 LSU, there are several other rivalry series going on across the country this weekend that feature ranked teams:

#3/4/4/6/7 Oregon State v #6/6/6/10/11 Oregon -- Eugene, Ore.

#4/4/5/5/5 Cal State Fullerton -- #24/25/25 U.C. Irvine -- Fullerton, CA (the two are the only Orange County schools in Division I)

#8/9/10/11/11 UCLA v Southern Cal -- Los Angeles, CA (@USC)

#13/13/13/14/15 Arizona State v #40 Arizona -- Tempe, Ariz.

#33 Stanford v Cal -- Berkeley, CA



other Top 25 match-up this weekend include:

#2/2/2/3/4 North Carolina v #6/7/7/7/7 Virginia -- Chapel Hill, N.C.

#8/8/8/9/9 Florida State v #14/16/17/19/19 Clemson -- Tallahassee, FL (these two are secondary rivals behind Clem v SC and FSU v UF/Miami)

#12/12/14/14/15 South Carolina v #16/17/21/23/24 Mississippi State -- Starkville, MS

#10/10/10/11/12 Louisville v #16/21/23/23/23 Pittsburgh -- Louisville, Ky.

#18/19/21/22 Kansas State v #19/20/21/24/25 Oklahoma -- Manhattan, KS

 

i think the last two weeks they did it to get on ESPNU's Thurs night SEC game of the week

i believe this week, every SEC team starts on Thurs because the SECT starts on Tues or Wed

 

LSU v Ole Miss baseball rivalry is since 1906, 310 games have been played between the two teams (at 3 games a year, that would be 103 years). LSU leads the series 166-142


Ku Klux Klan rally on the Ole Miss campus

 

Probably so Senior Day could be the finale game and schedule it for Saturday to give fans the day off on Sunday to travel home. At least that would be my reason if I were in charge of making the schedule.

 

Rhymes:
"Once the postseason gets here, we want to be playing our best baseball, and this is our next chance to start doing that...(this is) The last SEC series at home, for seniors, that's motivation enough...They're coming in here with all three guys throwing well, so we know we're going to have to scratch and claw for runs"

Mainieri:
"This is an important series...We’re certainly looking forward to the series...they have a very talented team and a great coach, Mike Bianco, who played at LSU (and coached at LSU). We’ve had some tremendous games with them over the years and we always enjoy competing against them.”

Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco:
"We have to come down there and be ready to play with a sense of urgency," Bianco said earlier this week. "LSU is a great team and we have to be at our best...The plan is to come down here and play well."

 

motivation for Ole Miss: per Baseball America, they are squarely on the bubble to host a regional in Oxford

as for LSU, Baseball America declares that we are a "lock" to be one of the eight national seeds (and if you look at the records of the top 8 teams, you can see why)

Mainieri:
"It is nice to know that we have the SEC West title in our back pocket...I’d like to believe that we have a national seed wrapped up as well, although history tells us you can never trust those kinds of things."

Rhymes:
"Sometimes when you’re not under pressure, that’s when you play your best baseball...I’m looking forward to everybody playing loose. But we still want to win. It’s the game. It’s another opportunity to go out there and play well whether we need to or not."

Katz:
"It’s going to be a fun weekend...There is no pressure on us right now. You don’t get much time during a season to reflect on what you’ve done in a season because it flies by. This weekend we’ll be able to reflect on it a little bit before we start the push to get to Omaha."

 

LSU's pitching rotation this weekend (McCune replaces Nola, who is scheduled to start LSU’s opening game in the SEC Tournament Wednesday):

Game 1 -- Cody Glenn
Game 2 --- Kurt McCune
Game 3 -- Ryan Eades

Mainieri on Nola:
"I don’t think I would’ve given Nola a (rest) this weekend had the title still been on the line. It allows me to do some things that will give us the best possible chance for success in the postseason."

Mainieri on Glenn:
"Cody has pitched magnificent...Before he had really established himself, you don't know if they're an aberration or is he a guy you can really count on for consistency. But as each outing goes, you start to think the good outings are more the norm."

Mainieri on McCune:
"I'm not expecting Kurt to go out there and pitch 7 innings," Mainieri said. "I'd be happy if he gives us three good ones. If he's pitching really effectively, we may extend him."

McCune:
"I'm glad Coach Mainieri has enough confidence in me to send me back out there...I'm going to try to keep the ball down and throw a lot of strikes. I definitely feel like he wants me to be that fourth starter and wants me to go out and pitch as well as our weekend starters do."

 

LSU’s 21 SEC wins this season are the most by a Fighting Tiger squad since the 1998 team posted a 21-9 league record. The LSU record for SEC wins in a season is 22, set in 1986 and 1997.

LSU’s 46 regular-season wins is the most recorded in school history since the NCAA adopted a standardized 56-game regular-season schedule in 1992. The 46 wins exceeds the mark set by the legendary 1997 LSU club, which completed its regular season with a 45-11 record.

Mainieri:
"The regular-season win record is something that we take a lot of pride in...When you do something that hasn't been done in the very distinguished history of the LSU baseball program, that's pretty significant."