When LSU coach Paul Mainieri stares across the diamond into the visitor’s dugout this weekend, he’ll be seeing his share of familiar faces.
The Tigers’ weekend schedule is unorthodox — Virginia Tech, Toledo and Texas Southern will all travel to Baton Rouge to participate in a round-robin-style tournament.
It’s set up because Mainieri only wanted to play Pete Hughes, the former Virginia Tech head coach, one time in 2014. Meanwhile, current Toledo skipper Cory Mee was an assistant under Mainieri for five years at Notre Dame, and Mainieri didn’t want to play the Rockets more than once.
In the end, they were all invited down to Alex Box Stadium.
“I like to do this at least once a year, where you play different opponents on the weekends in a Regional format,” Mainieri said. “I think it’s good for our players to not only play different teams, but to also have to play games without getting to take batting practices before games. It just kind of prepares them for inevitabilities down the line.”
Virginia Tech is no stranger to big games — the Hokies hosted the NCAA Blacksburg Regional last season.
Mainieri was also impressed with Toledo when the squad arrived in Baton Rouge to take batting practice.
“The [Virginia Tech] pitcher we’re facing beat Florida State during the regular season, then pitched eight shutout innings in the ACC Tournament against them,” Mainieri said. “Toledo was peppering the stands out there in [batting practice], and they’ve got some physical looking guys.”
He said anything can happen in baseball, and he expects his team to perform well in the three-game event.
Junior starter Aaron Nola is slated to pitch Friday, while junior southpaw Kyle Bouman and freshman Jared Poche’ will follow up Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Also, juniors Tyler Moore and Kade Scivicque and sophomore Chris Chinea will all see time behind the plate this weekend.
The Tigers’ offense will look to build off three consecutive games where they scored six or more runs, including a 7-3 victory at Southeastern on                  Wednesday night.
Junior second baseman Conner Hale was moved to the cleanup role in the lineup from the No. 9 hole, and he proceeded to collect three hits and an RBI.
Mainieri compared the junior college transfer to former LSU outfielder Raph Rhymes.
“I’m not trying to do too much,” Hale said. “I’m just trying to keep my same approach that I’ve had for the whole season so far. I like to drive the ball to the right side or up the middle.”
Another junior, outfielder Jared Foster, found success against SLU after he entered the game batting .077, picking up two RBI singles.
Foster said he was being overly aggressive at the plate over his first three games, and he switched up his approach against the Lions.
“I’m just swinging on the pitches I like,” Foster said. “I’m not trying to do too much and hit a homer here or there. Just don’t let the pitcher get you out, and that’s what I was doing. I’m definitely getting into my zone right now.”
“I think it’s good for our players to not only play different teams, but to also have to play games without getting to take batting practices before games. It just kind of prepares them for inevitability down the line.”