SEC rivals facing off
Southeastern Conference powers Florida and LSU kick off the College World Series on Monday,
On May 20, Florida and LSU tied for the Southeastern Conference regular-season title at 21-9 — two games ahead of anyone else. Even though Florida took two of three at home from LSU in late March, there was no tiebreaker, coin flip or playoff.
They did not play the next week in the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., that LSU won. They both reached the College World Series but have not met yet here either. That happens now. No. 3 seed Florida (50-19) and No. 4 seed LSU (52-18) will finally settle the SEC championship — and the national championship while they’re at it — in a best-ofthree series beginning Monday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) at TD Ameritrade Park.
“Just like an SEC weekend, just more at stake. Something ’s got to give,” LSU shortstop Kramer Robertson said.
“SEC showdown. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Florida righthander Brady Singer (8-5, 3.18 ERA), who will start Monday’s game. “Both teams have great players, great pitchers, play really good defense. So both teams are here for a reason.”
LSU is starting seldom-used senior right-hander Russell Reynolds (1-1, 8.59 ERA) because regular starter Eric Walker (8-2, 3.48 ERA) was lost for the season with an arm injury last week and to rest top starters Jared Poche (12-3, 3.33 ERA) and Alex Lange (10-5, 2.97 ERA). Reynolds has not started a game since 2015.
“There will be some sort of combination of guys Monday,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said.
Poche, a senior left-hander who has the school career record of 39 wins, will start Tuesday after starting and winning against Florida State on Wednesday.
Lange, a junior right-hander and first-round pick of the Chicago Cubs two weeks ago, will not start unless a Game 3 is played because he started and beat No. 1 seed Oregon State on Friday.
Sophomore right-hander Caleb Gilbert (7-1, 2.16 ERA) would have been the starter for Monday’s opener, but he had to replace Walker on Saturday. Gilbert started and defeated Oregon State to get to the championship series.
Florida might not get to throw its ace, junior right-hander Alex Faedo (9-2, 2.26 ERA), a firstround pick of the Detroit Tigers, against Lange if there is a Game 3 because Faedo just beat TCU 3-0 on Saturday. Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan will start freshman right-handed reliever Tyler Dyson (3-0, 3.55 ERA), who has started once this season, or sophomore right-hander Michael Byrne (4-5, 1.74 ERA) on Tuesday. He is unsure about Wednesday.
“It would be nice to play Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so we’d have Faedo on four days’ rest,” O’Sullivan said.
“There’s no rain in the forecast,” said Mainieri, seated at the same podium with O’Sullivan at the news conference, snickering.
Regardless of who pitches and when, the SEC will win its 12th national championship.
“There’s a 100% chance that an SEC team is going to win it, so that’s good,” Poche said.
“It’s ironic,” Robertson said, “because we had to beat an SEC team in the super regional (Mississippi State) and now in the national championship series. So it had to be this way.”
LSU has six national titles — five under former coach Skip Bertman from 1991 to 2000 and one under Mainieri in 2009. Florida has not won one but is in the final round for the third time, having lost to Texas in 2005 and to the SEC’s South Carolina in 2011. This will be the third allSEC College World Series final. LSU won the first one in 1997, 13-6 against Alabama, when the championship was a one-game affair.
“We were hoping like crazy we could play Florida in the finals of the SEC tournament,” Mainieri said. “Didn’t quite work out that way. Probably the only person that’s happier than you and I, Kevin, to be here is Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC. He’s anxious to get up here and get behind home plate so as not to show any favoritism.”
Sankey will be partisan, though.
“I’m pulling for no rain,” he said in a text message Sunday. “Same thing I do in Hoover. Great for the teams and the league. Having two SEC teams compete in the championship round of the College World Series is the perfect way to end the athletic year.”