The LSU baseball team is in a drought and coach Smoke Laval knows it.
“Maybe we won’t get out of it,” said Laval, whose Tigers have lost seven of their last 12 games. “I don’t know. I think we will. I like this club.”
The Tigers, fresh off being swept by South Carolina over the weekend, face the Northwestern State Demons tonight in Alex Box Stadium at 6:30 p.m.
Northwestern State comes in to Baton Rouge with a five-game winning streak. The Demons swept McNeese over the weekend, outscoring the Cowboys 31-7 in three games.
Laval said LSU will start junior right-hander Brandon Nall (2-1, 4.11 ERA) but will use several other pitchers similar to Wednesday’s 8-2 win over Rice.
“I’m going to try to go again like I did against Rice,” Laval said. “Meier will try to get in 50 or 60 pitches. Eric English [will pitch] for sure, and Edgar Ramirez for sure.”
Nall threw a career high 8 and 1/3 innings in Tuesday’s win against Nicholls State.
Another player who may see time against Northwestern State is redshirt freshman infielder Chris Jackson. He was one of the bright spots for the Tigers in Sunday’s loss to South Carolina. He had two hits and an RBI in his first career start.
“I was grateful for the opportunity to play, and I just wanted to go out there and do what I could,” said Jackson, who is a kicker on the Tigers’ football team. “I contributed a little bit, but the outcome didn’t come out the way we wanted it to.”
Jackson is splitting time between the infield and the backfield. In two seasons as kicker he has connected on 16 of 25 field goal attempts and made 36 of 43 extra points. Last fall against Arkansas he kicked a career-long 53-yard field goal — one of three kicks he made on the day.
He also served as the Tigers’ punter last season and averaged 40.0 yards a kick.
In his first season on the diamond, Jackson is hitting .429 in 14 at bats but has had trouble juggling both baseball and spring football practice.
“I was going to start him [on Saturday], but he couldn’t get here on time,” Laval said. “I couldn’t take him to Alabama because of the football scrimmage, but that’s fine. I just wanted to get him a little bit of action in there, maybe get a little spark. And he got two hits.”
Laval said Jackson is more of a true freshman for the Tigers because he has spent so much time in football. That experience should help Jackson if he should get in a hitting slump similar to what other LSU freshman have experienced this season.
“It’s going to happen with Chris too,” Laval said. “He kicked two or three field goals, was on top of the world, and then when they’re expecting him to make it he misses a couple. And then it’s bring in the next guy. The good thing is he already had that in football.”
Laval said Jackson could develop into a solid prospect with some more playing time.
“He’s got to go away and play in the summer, but he can’t because of football,” Laval said. “And he shouldn’t. He’s a prospect in the NFL too.”
For right now Jackson is content to play whenever he can.
“If I do [play] that’s great,” Jackson said. “If not, if my role is on the bench cheering the team on, that’s great too.”