Don’t touch the foul line when entering a game. Wear your hat backwards for a late-inning rally. Draw crossed lines in the dirt before each at bat.These are just a few superstitions some LSU baseball players adhere to.LSU coach Paul Mainieri — who ironically says he’s reluctant to talk about superstitions because he believes it negates their power — admits baseball players are more superstitious than other athletes. He added that superstitions are more routine than anything else.”I tell people all the time, ‘Look, I’m not a superstitions guy, but why take the chance?'” Mainieri said. “If something works, do it again. You never know what could happen.”For most of the players on the team, the superstitions are just a way to keep their nerves calm and loosen up. For others, it’s routine to get them in the right mindset for a game.LSU sophomore pitcher Anthony Ranaudo jumps over the foul line before coming out to pitch each inning.Ranaudo said he doesn’t know when the superstition started for him, but he said he probably saw a major leaguer do it and wanted to emulate him.”I try to come out of the dugout and sprint to the line just to get my legs loose after sitting on the bench for so long,” Ranaudo said. “I jump over the line just because it’s a superstition, and it’s a thing I’ve been doing ever since little league.”Ranaudo’s superstitious routines start far before he hops over the foul line. It begins the day before a game when he clean shaves his face and his arms.”It’s all about aerodynamics,” he jokingly said. “It helps me throw faster.”On Friday, Ranaudo goes to classes, eats lunch at 2 p.m., takes a 10-minute nap at 2:50 p.m. and wakes up at 3 p.m. to take a shower. Then he does a pregame workout before getting a grilled chicken sandwich at 5 p.m. from a local deli. He ends the routine at 6:30 p.m. when he starts warming up in the bullpen.LSU psychology professor Emily Elliott said these kind of superstitious routines are a type of selective bias.”People tend to notice events that conform to their existing ideas and disregard evidence that does not match,” Elliott said. “This is one reason why stereotypes are hard to dislodge and may contribute to this kind of behavior.”For LSU junior left fielder Blake Dean, his batting routine is what needs voodoo work.The Crestview, Fla., native started the season on a slump after changing his walk-up music to “Rockstar” by R. Kelly featuring Ludacris and Kid Rock from Lil Wayne’s “Fireman.” He changed it back a few weeks into the season.”I was just trying to mix it up and get things going,” Dean said.During the Tigers’ run to Omaha last season, senior pitcher Nolan Cain licked Dean’s bat before the game to give him some extra good luck. But the junior slugger struggled at the beginning of the season, so the ritual ended.Now freshman southpaw Chris Matulis brings the magic to Dean’s bat.”He was struggling for a bit, so I was joking around and started to kiss and bless his bat,” Matulis said. “All of the sudden, he started hitting the ball so we just kept doing it. It’s just something that we were messing around a little bit, and it worked.”But one thing that has stayed consistent for Dean throughout his career at LSU has been the cross he draws with the head of his bat before each at bat.”I’ve done that since high school,” Dean said. “It’s something I do that relaxes me, and it gives me protection like a shield when I draw that cross in the ground.”The team has even gotten a mascot as its good luck charm.Senior pitcher Louis Coleman and a few other Tigers found a small turtle wandering around the field March 28 before their game against Ole Miss. LSU made a comeback in the game and won, 6-5, so the team decided to keep it around. They appropriately named it Thomas after former LSU assistant coach Turtle Thomas.Thomas — now head coach at Florida International — said he got the nickname when he was in ninth grade and someone told him he looked like a turtle.”I was 6-foot-2 and about 150 pounds with a long, skinny neck,” Thomas said. “The school I caught for had green catchers gear, so that the chest protector looked like a turtle shell.”The Tigers keep the turtle in the team’s training room in Alex Box Stadium and are 10-3 at home since Thomas has joined the team as a mascot.”We’ve won a couple of games with him, so why not keep him around?” Coleman said.—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]