Preview: LSU @ Alabama – Thu 7p | Fri 3p | Sat 2p (*TIME CHANGE*)

ETA: Due to impending weather, Friday's game has been moved to a 3:00pm start time.





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#5 LSU Fighting Tigers (24-5, 5-4) vs. Alabama Crimson Tide (15-12, 4-5) at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, AL.

The Fighting Tigers head on the road to Hoover Met, home of the SEC Tournament, for a series with Alabama. The Tide are playing their home games there in 2015 while Sewell-Thomas Stadium is under renovation. LSU (24-5, 5-4) looks to bounce back from a tough home series loss to Kentucky, which was followed up by an 8-6 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday night in the Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic in Metairie. Alabama (15-12, 4-5) is coming off back to back series losses against 2 of the top 5 teams in the country. LSU trails the all-time series with Bama 163-194-3 in the 100+ year history of the programs. Last season the two teams played to a series split at Alex Box with a rainout in game 3.





Alabama Crimson Tide
Record: 15-12
Conference: 4-5, t3rd SEC west
Non-Conf: 11-7
Home: 8-4
Away: 5-6
Neutral: 2-2


Team Overview:
Mitch Gaspard is in his 6th year as Alabama head coach coming off back-to-back regional appearances and the 4th of his tenure. Last season was the first time under Gaspard that the Tide finished above .500 in league play at 15-14. This 2015 team returned 6 of the 9 position starters, but starts an entirely new weekend rotation. Bama’s team ERA of 4.20 is ranked 134th in the country while their .282 batting average ranks 96th.





Starting Pitching:
Thursday night will be a southpaw showdown between Senior Taylor Guilbeau and Sophomore Jared Poché. Guilbeau, a native of Slaughter, Louisiana, has started every series opener this season and will be making his 56th appearance as an Alabama pitcher. He is a 6’4 lefty who generates a lot of movement with his fastball and makes a living with deception; however, sometimes control can be an issue for Guilbeau with 102 walks in 164 career innings.

Friday night, Alabama will send out JUCO transfer Will Carter. Starting his career at East Tennessee State, Carter underwent Tommy John surgery in 2013, before transferring to Walters State CC, where he worked into the latter half of the 2014 season. Carter has been the game two guy for Alabama all season, but has struggled every outing since getting his only win on opening weekend. He is a power righty that can top out about 95mph with his fastball. Left-handed hitters are batting .436 against Carter this season.

Geoffrey Bramblett will get the start for Bama on Saturday afternoon. He’s a 6’2 sophomore that will get the opportunity to throw in his hometown of Hoover, AL. He has a career 3.54 era in 24 appearances for the Tide and will be making his 13th start. Bramblett is a low 90’s guy and mixes in a changeup and curve. Expect LSU to go with a heavy left handed lineup on Saturday. Leftys hit .328 against Bramblett and he holds rightys to a .213 average.



Relief Pitching:
Bama’s bullpen has been has logged 95.1 innings already this season and recorded a 4.53 era. The pen has been responsible for 7 of the team’s 15 wins and just 4 losses. The top reliever is Ray Castillo, who has appeared in 12 games and picked up 3 saves on the year. Castillo is a junior, who recorded 12 saves and was a Freshman All-American back in 2013. Left-handed hitters are batting just .094 against Castillo, so you can expect him to come into key situations this weekend against the LSU lineup and even eat up multiple innings when called upon. Thomas Burrows actually leads the team with 4 saves this season, and he was also the main closer last year when Castillo struggled a bit. Despite being a southpaw, left-handed batters are hitting .500 against Burrows.




Alabama Offense:
Alabama lost its top 3 hitters from a year ago, but returned the other 6 starters. Casey Hughston is this year’s team leader batting .392 on the season with a tremendous 1.105 OPS. Mikey White is tied with Andrew Stevenson for the SEC lead with 5 triples. The Alabama offense has grounded into the fewest double plays in the league, and also hit the fewest home runs. Five every day starters have a batting average over .310. They hit .282 as a team and .304 with runners in scoring position.

On the bases, Alabama will provide a big test for Scivicque and the Tigers. The Tide has been the most efficient team in the SEC in stealing bases at an 84% success rate. Casey Hughston and Georgia Salem have each stolen 10 bases on the season, while Chandler Avant has not been caught in 7 attempts.




Defense:
Alabama fields an adequate .972 as a team, landing in the middle of the SEC and 70th in the country. Kyle Overstreet and Mikey White combine for just 6 errors on the year. As a team they have turned 30 double plays, which ranks 2nd in the SEC and 7th in the nation. Catcher Will Haynie has allowed 6 passed balls this year while catching an impressive 41% of attempting base stealers.






Helpful Links
Alabama Stats
Alabama Roster
Alabama Schedule (via Warren Nolan)
Live Stats via LSUsports.net
WatchESPN for Online Viewing (login required)
FAQ: How to watch LSU Baseball games this season
2014 Series Preview