LSU aims to sweep Auburn in Saturday SEC baseball showdown: Game time, TV schedule, live stream

Friday Recap

Leading the charge on Friday was LSU’s 5-3 victory over Auburn. The Bayou Bengals improved to 17-9 in SEC play with the victory and continue to creep closer to Mississippi State at the top of the West division. Entering Saturday, the Tigers are now just 0.5 game back of the Bulldogs, who have a 17-8 conference record to show for this season. With LSU rolling (They’re winners of four of their last five and seven of their last nine) the pressure is starting to ramp up on the Bulldogs who now face a new challenge in the West after dealing with Auburn, Arkansas and Texas A&M the past few weeks.

Speaking of Auburn, the loss on Friday puts the Tigers in a bind. They’ve lost each of their last six games dating back to May 6 and have only won two games since April 25. Granted, those wins game against the aforementioned Mississippi State Bulldogs, but their chances of winning the West have almost completely dwindled. Their record of 14-12 in the SEC puts them four games back in the loss column with... four SEC games remaining. Suffice it to say, they’ve made it harder on themselves now.

Other highlights from Friday’s action included a 12-5 romp for Texas A&M over Ole Miss. The Aggies offense erupted as they scored in every single inning but two (the 2nd and 4th) and had three innings in which they scored two or more runs. Freshman Braden Shewmake hit two homers in the contest and Logan Foster went deep, too. Runs were driven in by seven different Aggie batters, with three of them coming off the bat of Shewmake and two coming from Cole Bedford.

The pressure may be ramping up on Mississippi State, but they’re certainly handling it well. They didn’t falter against lowly Georgia as they defeated the Bulldogs 9-3. The ninth-ranked team in the country held UGA scoreless until the final inning and had already tacked on eight of their runs before adding the final tally in the top half. Star first baseman Brent Rooker went deep yet again, as did Elijah MacNamee, as the home-run hitting duo contributed five of the nine runs scored in the contest.

Eighth-ranked Kentucky kept it rolling with a 15-5 win over Tennessee. The victory keeps the Wildcats in contention for the SEC East title as they move to 16-9, one game behind the 17-8 mark that Florida currently has. UK put on a power display as four home runs were hit in the game by four different players. Troy Squires, Zach Reks, Riley Mahan and Evan White all went deep and, perhaps interestingly, also all hit doubles in the game as well.

With Kentucky on their tail, Florida kept the distance between them the same after winning 2-1 over Alabama. JJ Schwarz homered early on, and with the score tied 1-1 in the ninth, Nelson Maldonado had the game-winning hit - a sacrifice fly that scored Dalton Guthrie. ‘Bama put the tying run aboard in the ninth, but Michael Byrne slammed the door on any comeback attempt to cap off the win.

Finally, Arkansas defeated Vanderbilt 4-3 while South Carolina won by the same score over Mizzou. The Hogs are 15-9 in conference play after the W and still one game behind State in the loss column but will obviously need some help if they want to make a push towards the top of the standings.