Riding a five-game winning streak and scoring double-digit runs in each of its past four games, No. 6 LSU is hoping to keep its bats hot when the Tigers and the Tulane Green Wave meet for the third time this season today at 7 p.m. in the Louisiana Superdome.
It is the second time an LSU-Tulane game has been played at the Superdome. Last year LSU won the contest 9-5 before an NCAA record 27,673 fans.
The two teams have split the prior two meetings this year with the Green Wave (32-13) winning the first contest in extra innings and the Tigers (30-13-1) responding with a 8-0 win just two weeks ago at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU will send right-hander Jake Tompkins (1-4, 4.50 ERA) to the mound. Tompkins and relievers Jason Determann and Billy Sadler handcuffed Tulane, allowing just two hits in the teams’ previous matchup.
Tompkins shares the closing duties with Sadler in weekend SEC series.
“There’s always a part of me that wants to start, too,” Tompkins said. “I get that chance every once in a while, so I have to take hold of it and see how I can do.”
This is the first of back-to-back midweek games for the Tigers. LSU will face The University of New Orleans at home Wednesday night. The Tigers will then head to Starkville, Miss., and face Mississippi State in a three-game set beginning Friday night.
“It’s going to be a long week for our pitching,” first baseman Clay Harris said. “For our hitting, we have to stay focused throughout the whole week. We haven’t played two midweek games, so it’s going to be tough for us.”
The tight schedule will serve as preparation for NCAA Tournament play when, in some cases, teams will play two games in one day.
“It’s almost kind of like that, to get ready for a tournament situation, regional-type situation where there’s really no lull time,” head coach Smoke Laval said. “One day and back at it again. No down time, [we need to] keep the focus.”
There is also an incentive to playing on the turf of the Superdome, according to Laval. He said it will be good preparation for the Tigers regular season-ending series on the road at Arkansas, where the surface is artificial turf.
He said the Dome is a hitters’ ballpark, and if a ball is hit just three to four feet on either side of an infielder, it will get by the diamond and into the outfield.
“I don’t want to make a habit of it, but there’s only one way you can get ready to play on turf,” Laval said. “You can’t really prepare for [playing off turf].”
Laval said coming into the matchup this year in the Superdome, the two teams are in different situations as opposed to last year.
“Last year we were both trying to find ourselves [coming off the super regional matchup],” Laval said. “It should be fun. It should be exciting to go down there and see all of those people supporting baseball in this state. It’s a unique opportunity not many people get.”