BATON ROUGE, La. — No. 10 Tennessee baseball takes on No. 1 LSU in Baton Rouge, La. starting on Thursday night for a big SEC matchup.
The Vols are on a five-game winning streak after getting swept by Missouri to start SEC play. The University of Tennessee is 20-6 overall and 3-3 in the SEC after sweeping Texas A&M to get back to .5 in conference play. LSU is 22-3 Overall and 4-2 in conference play, which leads the SEC West division.
Tennessee's greatest strength has been its pitching. The team has a combined earned run average of 2.62, which ranks third in the nation. The Vols rank tied seventh in the nation in home runs with 51.
The Tigers have a potent offense, which ranks second in runs per game (11.1) and second in the nation in batting average (.339). Outfielder Dylan Crews lead the nation in batting average (.542). They are also sixth best in the nation in team ERA (3.13) and pitcher Paul Skenes is second in the nation in ERA (.72).
The Vols will have their normal weekend pitching lineup out there even though the weekend starts on Thursday instead of Friday. Ace Chase Dollander will take the mound first on Thursday for the Vols.
LSU is known as one of the more raucous environments for a couple of sports including baseball. The Vols say they are prepared for it.
"You know when we are on the road we are in a hostile environment," Dollander said. "Not many people like us. The fans and stuff will be on us pretty well, but you just have to tune that out and focus on what you can focus on. There's a lot of build-up to this series, I would say. It's going to be a lot of fun. We are excited to play. Those guys are good and we are good too so it's going to be a real good weekend."
Game time on Thursday is set for 8 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on ESPNU
