Diamond Dogs Open SEC Campaign At No. 10 LSU
Friday's 7 p.m. series-opener will be televised regionally by New Orleans-based Cox Sports Television. The Saturday MSU-LSU game will be televised regionally by Comcast Sports Southeast with game time set for 6 p.m. There is no live television for Sunday's 1 p.m. series finale.
The Bulldogs are expected to start either senior relief ace Caleb Reed (0-2, 1.15, 5 saves) or junior right-hander Chris Stratton (4-0, 2.57) in Friday's opener opposite LSU sophomore Kevin Gausman (4-0, 1.32). Junior lefty Nick Routt (1-1, 3.31) and junior Kendall Graveman (1-0, 2.82) are MSU's projected starters for Saturday and Sunday.
State has won eight of its last 11 games and has matched last season's 14-5 start, the best since the Bulldogs reeled off 18 straight to open the 2006 season.
With four regulars injured and out of the starting lineup, clutch hitting has eluded the Bulldogs in the first two games of their five-game road run to Louisiana. MSU out-hit Southeastern Louisiana 21-15 in the series. But in 4-3 and 5-1 losses to the Lions, State stranded 21 base-runners and managed but two hits in 24 at-bats with runners in scoring position. SELU turned a baseball rarity, a triple play, in Tuesday night's closely-contested 4-3 game, helping contribute to State's third one-run loss of the year.
Freshman outfielder Tyler Fullerton (.625), who shed his redshirt status and drew starts in both midweek games, has bolted to the top of the Bulldog hitting charts. His 5-for-8 showing in his first two games includes a 4-for-4, two-double plate performance Wednesday night. Redshirt freshman outfielder Demarcus Henderson (.405) extended his hitting streak to a team season-best 10 games while another Bulldog rookie, infielder Phillip Casey (.250), collected two of MSU's four RBI in his second and third career games played/started.
Subscription-based audio streaming of all three games this weekend will be available through HailStateTV at www.hailstate.com/hstvlive. Additionally, a video stream of the Friday and Sunday games will be also available to current HSTV subscribers (made possible by stream share from LSU). Saturday's game will not be available on video due to television (CSS-TV).
MSU opens the weekend having turned a league-best 26 double plays while Bulldog pitching has registered 176 strikeouts, just two off the league-leading pace for strikeouts by Kentucky.