The LSU baseball team hopes to cure its weekend struggles with a three-game set this weekend against the University of Houston at Alex Box Stadium, beginning today at 6:30 p.m.
Twelfth-ranked LSU (5-3) hopes to avenge last weekend’s sweep at the hands of Kansas, as well as last year’s series at Houston, in which the Tigers lost two-of-three games.
The No. 20 Cougars (2-5) come into the series losers of three of their last four games, with its most recent loss Tuesday night coming against Rice, 3-0.
“They’re in a little bit of a funk,” said LSU head coach Smoke Laval. “Of course, they’ve played some very tough teams. They’ll be ready. When anybody comes into The Box, their juices start flowing.”
One of the struggles for LSU over the past weekend was its pitching. Uncharacteristically, starters Jake Tompkins (0-0, 3.55), Brian Wilson (1-1, 6.75) and Nate Bumstead and the rest of the Tigers’ pitching staff gave up 24 runs against Kansas, 21 of which were earned.
Houston is hitting just .222 this season and has scored only 18 runs in seven games.
The LSU rotation will get a boost from the return of senior hurler Bo Pettit. Pettit, who has been suffering from the flu, went 9-7 with a 3.35 ERA last season.
He will take over for Bumstead in the Sunday slot of the rotation.
“We didn’t pitch real well [against Kansas], but that would be to say ‘if Holt, Hill and Gill don’t hit for us, we’re in trouble,'” Laval said. “Well, if Tompkins and Wilson, with [reliever Billy] Sadler in there, pitch like they did against Kansas, we’re in trouble. I don’t think that will happen. It was one of those things.”
Closer Brandon Nall said the offense gave the Tigers’ pitching staff many chances to hold off Kansas.
“I feel like last weekend we got an ample amount of runs to win all of those games,” Nall said. “We’re really mad about it. I can guarantee you that you’ll see a better pitching performance from the staff against Houston.”
Meanwhile, pitching remains a strength for Houston. Brad Sullivan (0-2, 4.61), an All-American last season, and Danny Zell (2-0, 0.64) lead the Cougars.
Zell takes the hill on Friday with Sullivan going Sunday and Garrett Mock (0-2, 4.66) sandwiched in between.
“I know they have a few gun slingers,” Laval said. “Sullivan and Zell can pitch with anybody in the country.”
Outfielder Quinn Stewart said Tuesday’s 9-4 win against the University of Louisiana-Monroe was a good momentum boost.
“[Tuesday night] helped out a lot, in getting a win,” Stewart said. “We know that we have a tough weekend, but [we want to] send a message to them that it’s tough to win here. We’re just going to go out there and do our best and hopefully we can sweep them.”
Despite the fact LSU is facing a ranked opponent in this weekend’s non-conference series, Laval said he focuses more on SEC weekends. He also said he was somewhat encouraged with last weekend’s performance.
“Don’t get me wrong now, I want to win every game, but last year when we beat Birmingham Southern three games and played poorly, [we were] terrible,” Laval said. “We didn’t play poorly against Kansas.”