After a noteworthy series win against then-No. 6 Vanderbilt, the No. 9 LSU baseball team will take on McNeese State at 6:30 p.m tonight at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (21-10, 10-6 Southeastern Conference) enter the matchup with a renewed sense of confidence after consecutive SEC series wins, including the first series win against the Commodores (25-7, 7-5 SEC) since LSU coach Paul Mainieri took over.
“I think just seeing more pitchers throughout the SEC has helped,” said junior shortstop Kramer Robertson. “The young guys are not overwhelmed by the mid-90s fastball any more. They have confidence they can hit it. I think you saw that this weekend.”
The Cowboys (18-11, 10-5 Southland Conference) enter on a similar trajectory. McNeese State has won its last four games, including a series sweep against the University of New Orleans during the weekend.
Despite McNeese State’s weaker schedule, LSU plans to play the Cowboys as tough as it played Vanderbilt.
“The biggest thing for us is sticking with an approach and actually executing it offensively,” sophomore first baseman Greg Deichmann said. “The past few weekends, we have really taken the approach we wanted and executed it really well.”
The Tigers feel comfortable playing McNeese State because they had previously prepared for the in-state opponent.
LSU was scheduled to play the Cowboys on March 9, but the game was postponed to Tuesday due to inclement weather. Similarly, the two schools were scheduled to meet in their football season openers, but that game was cancelled due to thunderstorms.
This time, however, the Tigers are confident they will be able to play their game versus McNeese.
“We are going to hope the weather clears,” Mainieri said. “The forecast I have is that [the rain] is going to get out of here by noon and be good for [tonight].”
Against the Commodores, LSU was successful offensively. The Tigers were 36-for-106 at bat and managed to score 23 runs off those hits.
LSU hopes to bring that same spark into its matchup against McNeese State, as the Cowboys have been especially tough against ranked foes. McNeese State boasts wins over both top-25 teams it has played this season.
Against Vanderbilt and last week’s midweek matchup against Southern, LSU’s starting pitchers came out strong. In the three wins last week, LSU’s starters allowed just two runs, seven hits and struck out 19 batters.
Starting redshirt freshman pitcher Jake Latz hopes to bring the same success to the Tigers’ matchup with the Cowboys.
Latz has been recovering from an offseason elbow surgery and the McNeese State game will be his first in an LSU uniform.
“It is a big build-up of what I have been looking for, for two years now,” Latz said. “Once the first pitch is out there and I get used to the crowd, it will just be baseball and pitching again.”
The Tigers’ meeting with McNeese State is the first of five games they are playing this week. LSU plays another in-state foe, Grambling State, on Wednesday and will travel to play Missouri on Friday for a three-game series.
Despite the heavy schedule, the Tigers hope that momentum can carry them through.
“You always want to get back out on the field the next day,” Deichmann said. “Off days are nice, but when you are feeling it, you want to be on the field.”