LEXINGTON ? The Kentucky baseball team looks to continue its momentum from last weekend?s series victory when it travels to No. 9 LSU for a three-game series at Alex Box Stadium beginning Friday at 7:30 p.m.
The series continues Saturday at 3 p.m. before wrapping up at 1 p.m. Sunday. Friday night?s game can be heard on WRXA 1580-AM in the Lexington area while the weekend?s final two games will be broadcast on WLXO 96.1-FM. All three games can be heard online at the official home for Kentucky athletics, www.UKathletics.com.
Kentucky sends junior right-hander Kalen Gibson (4-2, 5.71) to the hill Friday night to square off with LSU lefty Lane Mestepay (5-6, 4.92). Neither Gibson nor Mestepay have registered a win since late March.
Saturday?s game features each team?s leader in wins as the Wildcats? Aaron Tennyson (5-1, 4.32) meets Clay Dirks (9-1, 2.92). The series wraps up with Andrew Albers (4-4, 4.43), who has two quality starts in his last two outings, going against Greg Smith (7-2, 2.28). All four pitchers starting on Saturday and Sunday are left handed.
Kentucky is coming off its first Southeastern Conference series victory of the year as it took two-of-three from No. 15 Arkansas a week ago. Albers threw the first complete game of his career to clinch the series on Sunday. The series win came after three straight weeks in which the Wildcats had split games one and two of the weekend before dropping game three by one run.
Reigning SEC Player of the Week John Shelby led the way for Kentucky against the Razorbacks by hitting .500 with three home runs, six RBIs and five runs scored. He had the game-winning RBI in both victories.
Meanwhile, LSU, which has been ranked as high as No. 1 this season, has recently found its groove. The Tigers have won three straight series and are 7-2 in their last nine league games. A week ago they took two-of-three from Vanderbilt at Nashville.
Last year, Kentucky took game one of the series before dropping the final two. Craig Snipp, who earned a win in relief on Saturday against Arkansas, went 5 1/3 innings to pick up the victory. Aaron Tennyson hurled the final 3 2/3 innings to earn the save.
LSU leads the all-time series 31-14 and has won every series but one since the league expanded to 12 teams in 1992. Kentucky has never won a series in Baton Rouge.
