After a rough weekend series in College Station, Texas, the No. 19 LSU baseball team hopes to get back on track against its oldest rival, Tulane, at 6:30 tonight in Alex Box Stadium.
“Tulane against LSU is always a lot of fun,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I am excited about the game. It is a big game, obviously, for us and I am sure they feel it is a big game for them, as well. It is our only home game we will have in an eight game stretch, so hopefully we’ll come out and play well.”
The Tigers (16-7, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) defeated the Green Wave (17-7) twice last season and have won nine of the last ten games against their neighboring rival.
LSU has played Tulane 309 times, which is more than any other non-conference opponent.
Although LSU has dominated Tulane in recent years, the Green Wave have improved this season. Tulane is receiving votes in the D1Baseball.com poll, the USA Today Coaches poll and the National College Baseball Writers of America poll.
The Green Wave enter the game on a hot streak after winning their last five games.
“They are playing great,” Mainieri said. “I think they have won six in a row. They are playing with a lot of confidence. It is going to be a tremendous challenge for us.”
While the Tigers are focused on Tulane, LSU hopes to hit better in clutch situations regardless of its opponent.
In the Tigers’ 2-1 series loss against No. 1 Texas A&M , the Aggies (22-3, 4-2 SEC) had just one more hit than the LSU. The Tigers, however, only hit 3-for-29 with runners in scoring position.
“I don’t think we got two consecutive hits all weekend,” LSU sophomore third baseman Greg Deichmann said. “It is kind of frustrating when you cannot put those big innings together that we are trying to put together. It gets frustrating at times, but we are going to keep plugging on and getting better every game as we play.”
Tulane will provide an especially potent pitching staff to face the Tigers. The Green Wave lead the nation with six shutout games thus far this season.
The Green Wave, though unranked, have compiled similar statistics to the Tigers thus far. LSU has a .297 batting average, and Tulane is hitting .290. LSU allows an earned run average of 3.70, while the Green Wave gives up a slightly higher ERA of 3.80 .
Both teams average 6.9 runs per game and have seven losses on the season.
LSU freshman pitcher Cole McKay, who is getting the second start in his career, said that he is excited to get his first home start against a team that matches up so similarly.
“There is always that factor of, I would not say nervousness, but of excitement,” McKay said. “I’m excited to get on the mound. … Playing with a home crowd should help a lot.”
While the Tigers struggled with their clutch hitting against the Aggies, LSU excelled at it in their 8-5 win against UL-Lafayette a week ago.
LSU hit 6-12 with runners in scoring position against the Ragin’ Cajuns (15-9, 6-3 Sun Belt).
LSU has won 16-straight games against Louisiana opponents since losing to Nicholls State last season.
The Tigers will have to hit more like they did against UL-Lafayette than they did against A&M if they want to beat Tulane, Mainieri said.
“You don’t win by getting hits, you win by getting runs,” Mainieri said. “That is what we need to do, we need to get more runs. It is like an offense being strong between the 20’s, but not punching it in. It doesn’t do you any good running up a bunch of yards if you cannot score points. It doesn’t do you any good getting a bunch of hits, if you cannot score runs.”