Baseball Preview: LSU vs Georgia – Fri 6 | Sat 1 | Sun 12 (All: Online Only)

#2 LSU Fighting Tigers (32-6, 10-5) vs. Georgia Bulldogs (20-18, 6-9) at Foley Field in Athens, GA.



The Fighting Tigers head east for a series with the Georgia Bulldogs at Foley Field. LSU (32-6, 10-5) is coming off a weekend series win over Auburn and a clean midweek victory over Lamar on Wednesday. The Tigers have won 9 of their last 10 and 5 of 6 SEC games following the series loss to Kentucky. The Dawgs on the other hand have won just 2 of their last 10 including a loss to Kennesaw State on Wednesday night, the final of a scheduled 6 game road trip. LSU leads the all-time series 62-22-3 (.730) over Georgia. The Tigers took 2 games last year in Alex Box Stadium, and the Sunday game played to a 2-2 tie.








Georgia Bulldogs
Record: 20-18
Conference: 6-9, t4th SEC East
Non-Conf: 14-9
Home: 13-10
Away: 7-8


Team Overview:
Scott Strickland is in his 2nd year of rebuilding this Georgia program that hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2011. UGA had a great start to their season by beating Florida State 2 of 3, but has experienced many ebbs and flows throughout this year by sweeping and getting swept a few times. Overall, they are a below average SEC team ranking 10th in the league in batting average and 12th in team ERA.



Friday night the Tigers will face off against Sean McLaughlin. Back in 2013, McLaughlin was named to the Freshman All-SEC team. The 5’11 junior is a two-way player, but was limited on the mound as a sophomore due to an arm injury after just 3 starts, moving primarily to the DH role. Following shoulder surgery last summer, he is back in the rotation and will be making his 24th start with a career 4.33 era as a Bulldog. His best outing of the season was at Tennessee where he got the win allowing 2 runs over 7.2 innings of work, the most of any UGA pitcher this season. McLaughlin is a power righty sitting in the mid-90’s with his heater. Alex Lange will be making his debut in the Friday night role for LSU after missing the start last weekend with arm soreness.



A solid lefty-lefty matchup presents itself on Saturday afternoon in Athens. Ryan Lawlor will get the start against Jared Poché. Lawlor is a typical crafty lefty that won’t overpower you at the plate but keeps hitters off balance. He features a fastball in the mid-to-upper 80’s as well as a solid curve and an average changeup. Lawlor is 2nd in the SEC in strikeouts per 9 innings; he has sat down 62 batters in just 48 and 2/3rds IP. The key to getting to Lawlor is to put pressure on him by getting guys on base. Opponents are hitting just .149 when Lawlor goes from the windup, but that number more than doubles to a .304 average when there are runners on.



Jared Walsh will likely get the start for UGA on Sunday facing off against LSU’s Austin Bain. Walsh will be playing in his 140th (maybe 141st and 142nd) game this weekend as a Georgia Bulldog. He is a two-way senior making the 15th pitching start of his college career. Walsh is another soft throwing lefty occasionally getting up to 89mph with his fastball. He is mostly a fastball pitcher but has different speeds and movements with the pitch. He does have offspeed pitches, mostly using a changeup. Walsh has appeared in 31 games on the mound and sports a career 3.35 ERA.



Relief Pitching:
Jared Cheek is the main man out of the Bulldog pen. He leads the team for the 2nd year in a row with 19 appearances already and has recorded 5 saves so far. Taylor Hicks leads the team with a 0.98 ERA in 18.1 innings and a 1.09 WHIP. Bo Tucker is a key southpaw out of the pen and he has struck out 27 hitters in 24.2 ip. David Sosebee threw 3.2 scoreless last season against LSU in the game that went 13 innings and resulted in a tie. Sosebee has held right handed hitters to just a .111 batting average this season.




Georgia Offense:
Stephen Wrenn is the guy that makes this offense tick at the plate and on the bases. The starting centerfielder has reached safely in all 38 games this season and has 16 multi-hit games. He leads the team with a .327 average and 20 stolen bases. Daniel Nichols enters the weekend as the hottest hitter on the team hitting safely in 6 straight games. Nichols is batting .478 with a 1.354 OPS over that span. Zack Bowers is the biggest power threat, leading the team with 6 home runs and a .529 slg%. UGA has hit 29 HRs as a team, ranking 6th in the SEC. I threw Trey Logan in there with the start at 2nd base. He has only started a couple games there, but I think they will give him the go-ahead this weekend. Mike Bell has started 36 games at 2nd this season, so it is likely you’ll see him start this weekend too.

On the bases, Georgia ranks 5th in the league with 52 stolen bases on the season. Wrenn is 2nd in the SEC with 20 stolen bases, behind only Bregman’s 23. He has the most in SEC games with 9 swipes. Nick King is the other guy to watch out for. He has stolen 14 out of 15 bases this year.




Defense:
Georgia is fielding .970 as a team, which ranks in the top 75 nationally but in the bottom half of the SEC. The three main middle infielders have combined for just 15 errors on the year, and the team’s 28 double plays ties for 10th in the league. Georgia has allowed the 3rd fewest stolen bases in the SEC this year. Two catchers have split time with Brandon Stephens being the main man. Runners have been caught in 6 of the 18 attempts this year against Stephens. Zack Bowers has caught 3 of 12 runners attempting to seal. The catchers, however, have allowed the most passed balls in the SEC.





Helpful Links
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FAQ: How to watch LSU Baseball games this season
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