All good things must come to an end, the saying goes. The good thing in this case is a lengthy homestand. When the No. 7 LSU baseball team (16-3) takes on Louisiana-Lafayette (11-9) tonight at 6:30, it will mark the final game in a 20-game stretch at Alex Box Stadium. LSU has yet to play on the road this season. “This is our last game of this long homestand, so it’s a little sad,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I enjoy playing in this ball park.”The ball park has treated the Tigers well — especially in midweek contests, as LSU has yet to lose a game not played during the weekend. But ULL has an opportunity to change that. The Tigers and the Ragin’ Cajuns split two games last season with ULL coming into Baton Rouge last season and leaving with a 10-9 victory.”This is a big game for us,” Mainieri said. “Last year they came in here and whipped us, and we know they have a great team. If you look at their statistics, you’re a little surprised the record is what it is. Their record should be a little better.”Mainieri praised the Ragin’     Cajuns’ hitting and pitching but said ULL had fallen victim to some close losses.”My guess is that ULL has a solid team in every aspect,” he said. “It’s going to be a good challenge for us.”LSU junior catcher Micah Gibbs said the game will be challenging, but it is important for LSU to win with a weekend series on the road coming up. “You don’t want to go on the road having lost your last game,” he said. “That would kind of spoil the plane ride up there and the practice the day before. It would be a lot better to have a three game win streak headed into it.”The team’s batting could help LSU prolong its streak. Mainieri said the team as a whole had been slumping in days past, but the bats came alive last weekend.LSU used a seventh-inning rally Saturday to spark a win and from that point on has 18 hits as a team. Mainieri said hitting is an aspect of the game that is transient, but he hopes it is around for his team more often than not. “In what we do, there’s the three aspects of the game — pitching, defense and offense,” Mainieri said. “You like to see that your pitching and defense are very consistent because that gives you a chance to win, but you can’t win unless you score runs eventually.”On the other hand, pitching could help the Tigers just as much against the Ragin’ Cajuns. Mainieri said tonight is going to be “one of those kind of games” in which he uses multiple pitchers in preparation for the weekend’s series. Freshman Michael Reed is getting the start, but senior Paul Bertuccini, juniors Daniel Bradshaw and Mitch Mormann and sophomore Matty Ott are all expected to see the mound. “It’s a little bit different,” Bradshaw said. “With a long relief appearance, I’ve seen up to five innings. But with tomorrow, with us heading into [Southeastern Conference] play, [Mainieri] wants to get all the guys who are hopefully going to pitch out of the bullpen this weekend an inning or two of work.”ULL is expected to start junior pitcher Michael Cook. Cook (1-1) has pitched 12 2/3 innings this season and has 15 strikeouts and five walks with a 2.84 ERA. —-Contact Johanathan Brooks at [email protected].