BATON ROUGE – No. 8 LSU (31-15, 12-9 SEC) plays host to Kentucky (23-20, 5-15) this weekend in a three-game Southeastern Conference series at Alex Box Stadium.

The games can be heard statewide on the LSU Sports Network (WDGL 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge). The radio broadcast and live stats are also available on the LSU Athletics web site, www.LSUsports.net.

LSU is tied with Ole Miss for second place in the SEC West, one game behind Alabama (13-8). Kentucky is in sixth place in the SEC East, 8.5 games behind league-leading Florida (14-7).

LSU won its third straight SEC series last weekend, capturing two of three games at Vanderbilt, and the Tigers have won seven of their last eight conference games.

Kentucky posted a 2-1 SEC series victory over Arkansas last weekend, marking the Wildcats’ first league series win in 12 attempts.

LSU outfielder Ryan Patterson, recently named the top senior player in the country by Baseball America magazine, leads LSU with a .401 average, 19 doubles and 17 homers. Patterson is hitting .379 in SEC games with seven doubles, nine homers and 18 RBI.

Patterson leads the SEC in homers (17), doubles (19), total bases (147) and slugging percentage (.813).

Kentucky was led to its series win over Arkansas by second baseman John Shelby, who was named SEC Player of the Week on Monday. Shelby notched game-winning RBIs in both of Kentucky’s weekend wins over the Razorbacks. In four games last week, he batted .400 with three home runs, six RBIs and five runs scored while also stealing two bases. He did not commit an error in 25 chances and turned three double plays.

In last Saturday’s 11-8 UK victory over Arkansas, Shelby belted a career-high three home runs en route to setting new career highs for total bases with 13 and RBIs with five. He also tied a career mark with four runs scored in his 4-for-4 performance.

LSU leads the overall series with Kentucky, 31-14, and the Tigers have a 16-5 mark against the Wildcats over the past 10 seasons. LSU has won six straight SEC series against Kentucky; the Wildcats’ last series victory over the Tigers came in 1994 in Lexington.

Last season, Kentucky captured Game 1 over LSU in Lexington, 10-3, but the Tigers rebounded to win the series with 11-8 and 15-4 victories.