The last time LSU and Florida met, the Tigers blasted the Gators in a decisive Game 3 to win the College World Series last June.

The stakes won’t be nearly as high when they meet in another 3-game series Friday-Sunday in Baton Rouge, but the outcome will provide a useful gauge of where the 2 heavyweights stand after the 2nd weekend of SEC play.

Both teams are still a work in progress, which is normal for mid-March, but both also are ranked in the top 10 of major polls, which is also normal for them.

No. 8 Florida (12-7) opened conference play by winning 2 of 3 games at home against Texas A&M last weekend, then lost a nonconference game at home to Jacksonville on Tuesday.

No. 5 LSU (18-4) lost 2 out of 3 at Mississippi State, but bounced back to beat visiting Louisiana Tech 11-1 in a game shortened to 8 innings because of the mercy rule Tuesday night.

The fact that the Tigers lost the series against the Bulldogs wasn’t as eye-opening as the manner in which they lost. They dropped the opener 10-4, won the 2nd game 9-8, then lost the finale 15-5 in a game shortened to 8 innings because of the mercy rule.

“Scoring 18 runs over the course of a weekend or averaging 6 runs is not enough win all 3 games in this league,” coach Jay Johnson said, “but it’s enough to win 2 out of 3 if the other elements are in order.”

But the other elements weren’t in order. The Tigers committed 2 errors in each game and allowed a total of 4 unearned runs. But it was the 29 earned runs and the 41 hits that were most concerning.

“Winning and losing starts and ends on the mound,” Johnson said.

But Johnson added that the pitching problems featured “a lot of things that are correctable.”

Johnson already has used 19 pitchers this season. “I don’t ever remember doing that before,” he said.

The pitching was expected to be a bigger strength this season that it was last season.

The rotation against the Bulldogs featured right-hander Luke Holman (4 2/3 innings), left-hander Gage Jump (3 2/3 innings) and right-hander Thatcher Hurd (5.0 innings).

“The pitching roster for the weekend is very fluid right now,” Johnson said. “I have good optimism that we’ll pitch better this weekend.”

Johnson is used to concern about the pitching being exaggerated by outsiders. The pitching struggled late in the SEC season last year as LSU dropped 2 of its last 3 conference series, then went 1-2 in the SEC tournament.

But the pitching was mostly dominant in the post-season. Even after Florida evened the championship series with a 24-4 throttling of the Tigers, LSU grabbed the title with an 18-4 rout.

Of course this team doesn’t have Paul Skenes to rely on as a stopper.

The Tigers can take solace in the fact that their overall ERA (3.74) is much better than the Gators’ SEC-worst ERA (5.78). Florida does have the reigning SEC pitcher of the week in right-handed closer Brandon Neely and outstanding Sunday starter Jac Caglianone, but the front end of the weekend rotation has struggled mightily.

There was some external chatter about whether the Gators would shuffle their weekend rotation, but coach Kevin O’Sullivan is sticking with Friday starter Cade Fisher (2-1, 7.94 ERA) and Saturday starter Liam Peterson, a hard-throwing freshman who is 1-2 with a 7.50 ERA. Peterson, whose fastball can touch the mid-to-upper 90s, already has allowed 7 home runs in just 18 innings this season.

Neely had a save and a win in the Gators’ victories against the Aggies. Caglianone got a no-decision despite allowing just 4 hits and 2 runs (1 earned) and with 5 walks and 7 strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. In his past 3 starts, Caglianone has allowed 1 earned run on 7 hits with 11 walks and 27 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings.

O’Sullivan said Caglianone’s fastball got better as Sunday’s game went along, reaching the upper 90s “when he needed to.”

“You could see the development on where he’s at,” O’Sullivan said, “and we get performances like that from him every Sunday, it puts us in a good situation.”

Caglianone, of course, does more than pitch. He’s arguably the best 2-way player in college baseball. He’s batting .414 with 9 home runs.

Just as Johnson tried to find positives in the series loss to State, O’Sullivan tried to find positives in the mid-week loss.

“There were certainly some bright moments in the game,” O’Sullivan said, singling out freshman Luke McNeillie’s 2 1/3 hitless innings of relief. “What you try to do is keep everyone’s pitch count down to keep them fresh for the weekend. When you have games like this everybody just has got to do their part. Certainly, Luke obviously did that.”

But the set-up for the weekend didn’t go completely according to plan.

Ryan Slater, who needed just 11 pitches to throw a scoreless 2/3 of an inning in relief of Caglianone on Sunday, was scheduled to throw 2 innings as the starter against Jacksonville, but only lasted 1 inning after giving up 2 earned runs and throwing 27 pitches. He was scheduled for 30.