HOOVER, Ala. – The Alabama baseball team will look to win their second SEC series of the season as No. 3 LSU comes to Hoover for three games starting Thursday night at 7 p.m. CST. The Crimson Tide is coming off of a 7-2 win against UAB on Tuesday to improve their overall record to 15-12.

“I feel at some point, this group can come together and be a pretty good baseball team,” Tide head coach Mitch Gaspard said. “It hasn’t happened yet, but (Tuesday) night was real encouraging with the pitching staff and the way we threw it.”

Alabama is 4-5 in SEC play, dropping back to back series to No. 2 Texas A&M and No. 6 Florida. Now LSU, who was ranked No. 1 last week before dropping 2 of 3 against Kentucky, come to Hoover to try and have their own bounce back series.

The Tigers are 24-5 overall and 5-4 in conference play. They are coming off an 8-6 win on Tuesday against Louisiana, who took two of three from Alabama earlier this season. LSU coach Paul Mainieri said that the Alabama players play with a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

“We know what we’re going to get from Alabama,” said Mainieri. “These are going to be three hard-fought, tight games and we know we’ll have to play well.”

Alabama will need to continue to get damage done with their bats in order to beat LSU. The Tide has scored six or more runs in five of their nine conference games and are anchored by junior Mikey White and sophomore Casey Hughston.

Hughston has been swinging at hot bat all season, as his average sits at .392 with a slugging percentage of .647. White has heated up for conference play and is now hitting .367 with 9 doubles and 5 triples. Each player has a .458 on-base percentage.

The issue for the Crimson Tide this weekend may come from the pitching mound. The Alabama pitching staff is ranked among the worst in the SEC since the start of conference  play. The pitchers have allowed the highest opponent batting average (.302 ), the second most walks (50) and has the fourth highest ERA (5.24).

“We’ll play clean if we can throw strikes,” Gaspard said. “That’s where it all starts, right there on the mound. If we can get that part of the puzzle figured out where we can clean up our pitching staff, I think this team is very capable of playing really good baseball.”

#3 LSU Tigers (24-5, 5-4 SEC) at Alabama Crimson Tide (15-12, 4-5 SEC)

DATES/TIMES
Thursday, April 2 – 7 p.m. CT (SEC Network + and WatchESPN)

LSU – So. LHP Jared Poche’ (5-1, 3.48 ERA, 41.1 IP, 13 BB, 26 SO)
UA – Sr. LHP Taylor Guilbeau (2-2, 3.07 ERA, 41.0 IP, 23 BB, 44 SO)

Friday, April 3 – 3 p.m. CT (SEC Network + and WatchESPN)

LSU – Fr. RHP Alex Lange (5-0, 1.20 ERA, 45.0 IP, 15 BB, 58 SO)
UA – Jr. RHP Will Carter (1-3, 5.91 ERA, 35.0 IP, 21 BB, 18 SO)

Saturday, April 4 – 2 p.m. CT (SEC Network + and WatchESPN)

LSU – Fr. RHP Jake Godfrey (5-0, 3.21 ERA, 33.2 IP, 19 BB, 20 SO)
UA – So. RHP Geoffrey Bramblett (4-1, 3.67 ERA, 41.2 IP, 14 BB, 24 SO)

STADIUM
Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Ala.

RANKINGS
LSU – No. 3 by Baseball America; No. 4 by USA Today; No. 5 by Collegiate Baseball; No. 5 by D1 Baseball
UA – unranked

SERIES RECORD
Alabama leads LSU, 194-163-3. Last season, the teams split a pair of games in Baton Rouge, and Game 3 of the series was rained out. LSU has won 5 of the last 7 SEC tournaments played at the Hoover Met.