LSU Travels To Vanderbilt For SEC Opening Series

The third-ranked LSU Tigers is on the road on Friday evening, when they travel to Nashville, Tennessee to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores in the opening game of a  three-game, weekend, non-conference series.

The conference series, which will mark the first for each team, will feature two top ten teams.

The Tigers, who defeated Nicholls St., 5-3, and Southern, 8-0, in non-conference play this week, has won seven-straight, will come in at 16-2.

The Commodores, who defeated Eastern Illinois, 11-2, on Tuesday night, is currently riding a nine-game win streak, and is 16-2 on the season.

LSU is currently hitting a .312 as a team, along with eight home runs, 117 runs batted in, and 18 stolen bases. The Tigers are led, offensively, by Andrew Stevenson and Kade Scivicque, who are both hitting a .435, and Alex Bregman, who is hitting a .419, and who leads the team with 14 RBI's.

Purdue is currently hitting a .289 as a team, along with four home runs, 95 runs batted in, and 25 stolen bases. The Commodores are paced by Bryan Reynolds and Zander Wiel, who are hitting a .358 and a .333, respectively.

Pitching-wise, the Tigers bring in a 1.63 team earned run average into the series, with right-hander Aaron Nola, who will start on Friday night, leading the way, with a 4-0 record, and an ERA. of 0.00. Jared Poche (3-0, 1.00) and Kyle Bouman (3-0, 1.46) are the two other likely weekend starters.

The Commodores, who currently have an overall 1.33., have a terrific pitching staff in their own right, with three starters with an ERA. of 1.50, or less, in Jared Miller (0.36), Tyler Beede (1.08), and Tyler Ferguson (1.50).

Game times are 6:30 pm on Friday night, 2:15 pm on Saturday afternoon, and 1 o'clock on Sunday afternoon.