The grind that was the regular season is now over as the No. 8 LSU baseball team will try and bolster its postseason resume in the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Playing at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium has been friendly for LSU (39-17, 19-11 SEC). Since Hoover has hosted the tournament dating back to 1998, the Tigers have won six conference championships.

“Our team loves coming to the SEC tournament,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said on the SEC coaches teleconference. “In my opinion it’s one of the great sporting events in all of college athletics. Certainly in college baseball.”

LSU will take on Tennessee on Tuesday, who the Tigers swept nine days ago on May 15. Mainieri will give the ball to LSU freshman pitcher Jake Latz, who will make only his second start of the season.

Latz (0-1) has been battling injuries for the past year, but his last two appearances have given Mainieri hope that he can perform at the level that he is capable of. In his two relief appearances against Northwestern St. and Florida, Latz threw four strikeouts and allowed one hit in two innings of work.

“This is something we’ve been grooming him for almost two years,” Mainieri said. “We had a little bit of a setback in his first appearance against McNeese State…But we hope those are all behind him now.”

While Mainieri said Latz doesn’t have a pitch count, he said he’ll “play things by the ear” to determine how long he stays in the game.

The possibility of facing No. 4 Florida again in the second round of the tournament, was a part of the decision to start Latz. Mainieri said he wanted sophomore pitcher Alex Lange to be at “100 percent” if they had to play the Gators.

A good run in the tournament could possibly place LSU in a good position to wrap up a national seed in the NCAA tournament.

“If we can make a good showing here I hope we would get strong consideration,” Mainieri said. “I like the way our team is developing and I think we have a chance to make a run in the NCAA tournament.”