It would be easy for the LSU baseball team to overlook its final two midweek games of the season with the stretch run of the Southeastern Conference schedule still to come.But for junior outfielder Blake Dean, tonight’s home matchup against Tulane at 6:30 p.m. is more than a usual midweek contest.It’s a chance for revenge after the Green Wave defeated the Tigers, 8-7, earlier this season in New Orleans.”We didn’t like the way we played down there the first time,” Dean said. “And you never like to lose midweek games to the teams in your state, so we want to play better against them.”A week after losing its first SEC series in a year, LSU responded with a 5-0 record last week, including a three-game sweep of Auburn.The Tigers’ new defensive alignment held up in its first SEC test as LSU committed just two errors against Auburn after committing five in one game the previous weekend against Tennessee.Junior Ryan Schimpf was one of the players moved in the shuffle, shifting from second base to the outfield.Schimpf said the changes can spark a similar run to what the team experienced last season after winning 23 games in a row, when then-freshman Micah Gibbs was inserted into the starting lineup at catcher.”It’s like everyone has a new start,” Schimpf said. “We can all relax and just play baseball and focus on the team and on winning.”The LSU bullpen also did its part in the sweep and allowed just two runs in six innings in the weekend, including 2/3 of an inning from sophomore Chad Jones, who made his pitching debut in Sunday’s game.Jones gave up a lead-off single to the first hitter he faced but struck out consecutive hitters with the bases loaded and no outs.LSU coach Paul Mainieri said Jones can be the left-handed relief pitcher the Tigers have lacked all season.”Once Chad started showing that he could throw strikes with his fastball, I felt really confident he could do the job,” Mainieri said. “If he can get to an advantage count, I know he can throw his slider, which is a wicked pitch to left-handed hitters.”Winning eluded LSU in its last game against Tulane — the Green Wave pounded 12 hits and eight runs off six LSU pitchers to seal the win.Playing at a high level against all competition has been something the Tigers have struggled with all season.LSU has lost midweek games to Louisiana-Lafayette, Tulane and Nicholls State this year, while also losing a weekend series to Tennessee, which ranks near the bottom of the SEC standings.”We’ve shown that we can play great baseball,” Mainieri said. “We just haven’t shown that we could do it for three and four days in a row yet like we were able to do last season.”Tulane enters the game playing its best baseball of the season. The Green Wave have won nine of their past 11 games, including a 12-inning, 12-11 win on Sunday against Memphis. Offense has been the root of the Tulane surge.The Green Wave has scored eight or more runs in four of their past five games, including 30 runs in their three games against Memphis.Senior first baseman Sam Honeck leads the Tulane offensive attack and is hitting .357 with 15 home runs and 63 RBI this season.Honeck showed his power in the first meeting against LSU and was 2-for-4 with a home run.Sophomore Ben Alsup will start for the Tigers and will try to cool the Tulane bats.–Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]