In 2011, Aaron Nola was capping off his stellar career at Catholic High School. More than 1,000 miles away, Jake Fraley was emerging as Delaware’s best high school baseball player at Caravel Academy in his sophomore campaign.
That same year, Dave Serrano took his No. 6 Cal State Fullerton team into Alex Box Stadium for arguably the most premier out-of-conference series in LSU coach Paul Mainieri’s tenure. 
The Tigers swept Cal State Fullerton, as they did to Tennessee later that season. Since that 2011 season, LSU and Tennessee haven’t met on the diamond.
Until tonight.
Serrano returns to Alex Box Stadium as the third-year                                   Tennessee head coach, as Fraley and the Tiger offense start to find their stride behind Nola, the junior ace, who will get things started tonight at 7 p.m. in Alex Box Stadium. 
“Last time we played them, I don’t think any of the [Tennessee] players were on the team, that I remember,” Mainieri said. “I haven’t seen a lot of orange on a baseball field in a long time. I’m looking forward to it.”
Fraley sparked a 14-hit outburst in a 6-0 win against Tulane on Tuesday night that Mainieri deemed the club’s best offensive performance of the season.
The freshman outfielder, who drove in three runs on a career high three hits against the Green Wave, got high praise from Mainieri, who told reporters they are seeing the evolution of the next great LSU baseball player.
“Obviously, I was really excited and happy to hear that,” Fraley said. “I try to just keep it in the back of my mind. You have so much going on with the game itself, you try to keep it simple and keep that out of my head as much as possible.”
Part of that offensive progress stemmed from Mainieri tinkering with the batting order. He left sophomore outfielder Andrew Stevenson leading off, put Fraley in the three-hole and stuck senior outfielder Sean McMullen in the clean-up spot.
Mainieri said Stevenson will stay in the leadoff spot for tonight’s game, but he was unsure how he’d shuffle the order against Tennesse southpaw Andy Cox on Saturday.
Wherever he’s placed, McMullen said his approach stays the same.
“I feel completely indifferent of where coach puts me in the lineup,” McMullen said. “I noticed last game. … Every one of my at-bats except one were RBI situations. I love that. If hitting four-hole means more RBI situations, I’m excited to be there.”
Who faces that lineup could change repeatedly this weekend. Serrano plans to hodgepodge all three games on the mound without a definitive set of innings for his starters and numerous relievers he plans to use.
While it could be a challenge to continuously adjust to new pitchers instead of settling into a groove against a starter, it doesn’t worry Mainieri or the LSU hitters.
“I don’t really know much about their pitchers,” McMullen said. “But this is the SEC. I’m not going to look too much into the pitcher. I’m going to stick to my approach and try to hit the ball hard.”