The No. 8 LSU baseball team finds itself in an unfamiliar position going into tonight’s matchup against Tulane in Alex Box Stadium.The Tigers (26-6, 8-4) lost their first Southeastern Conference series last weekend when they dropped back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday against Auburn at Plainsman Park.It was the first time  LSU lost a conference series since April 2009 and the first time the Tigers did not win on Sunday in 11 SEC road series.”We won all five series last year plus Tennessee this year, which we swept, which means we won on Sunday,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “In 2008, even in the two series that we lost at Florida and Ole Miss, we lost the first two games, but won on Sunday. This was the first time in a long time where we had to board transportation back to Baton Rouge without having won on Sunday.”LSU’s lack of timely hitting may be one of the reasons for the Tigers’ recent struggles.The Tigers left 20 runners on base in the losses, but senior first baseman Blake Dean said the team isn’t panicking because of their recent lack of success in that department.”We’ve just got to figure it out a little bit more,” he said. “Maybe lock in a little bit more or be a little more relaxed. I don’t know what the situation is or what the problem is with it, but something does need to occur. But like I said, there’s no panic or anything to that effect.”LSU has left 271 runners on base this season — ranking them No. 10 in the SEC in that category.”It’s just the way the game goes,” Dean said. “You can’t push, and you can’t press. People just have to relax and let it happen.”The Tigers won’t have a lot of time to relax as Tulane (21-12, 5-4) will be making the short trip to Baton Rouge for a midweek game.”Certainly, having lost two games in a row is a very distasteful feeling, and we want to get that taste out of our mouths as quickly as we can,” Mainieri said. The Green Wave are coming off a series loss to Rice in Conference USA action where they were outscored, 30-9, in their two losses.”We know there’s going to be a huge crowd here, and they’ve been a big rival for LSU for many years, and they have an excellent program,” Mainieri said. “I’m not going to have any trouble getting my kids’ attention that there’s a big game on Wednesday night.”Sophomore Joey Bourgeois will get the start on the mound for LSU tonight.Bourgeois (3-1) has started eight games on the season — most recently Sunday against Auburn.In that appearance, he went 2 2/3 innings, gave up two runs on three hits while striking out two and walking one.”He’s just going to throw one inning,” Mainieri said. “We’re going to chop it up with a bunch of pitchers. He only threw 50 pitches on Sunday.”Wednesday was Bourgeois’ scheduled bullpen day, but Mainieri said he would use him Wednesday night to get him re-acclimated to pitching at night since the current plan is to pitch him Saturday night against Alabama.”It’s been a while since he’s pitched in that environment under the lights and with a big crowd and so forth,” Mainieri said. “We said, ‘Let’s run him out there and start the game and go through a starter’s routine, pitch an inning in this environment and that would be good for his preparation.'”Freshman Alex Byo will be on the mound for the Green Wave.Byo (1-0) has five appearances with two starts and has amassed a 5.94 ERA in 16 2/3 innings of work.- – – -Contact Johanathan Brooks at [email protected]