The No. 9 LSU baseball team travels to Southeastern Conference rival Missouri for a weekend series starting at 6 p.m tonight at Taylor Stadium in Columbia, Missouri.
LSU (22-11, 7-5 SEC) is hoping to build off of its weekend series triumph against then-No. 3 Vanderbilt and move beyond its midweek upset against McNeese State.
“That Tuesday night game was such an anomaly for the way things have been going,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “We have been swinging the bat so well, and we just had a night where we just did not show up.”
While LSU struggled in its loss against McNeese, Missouri (20-15, 4-8 SEC) also fell at home to its own in-state foe, Missouri State.
Missouri and LSU have far more in common than just their midweek struggles. Both got off to a rough SEC start, with LSU starting 2-4 and Missouri starting 0-6.
Since then, both teams have seemed to right their ships with each winning their last two SEC series.
“I think our guys are going to embrace the challenge,” Mainieri said. “I don’t have to tell them how underrated this Missouri team is. They have played the schedule from hell … It would be tough for anybody, it would be tough for a major league team.
Missouri’s change has been due in large to part to improved pitching.
Missouri pitcher Tanner Houck, who played on the USA Collegiate baseball national team in 2015 — team that Mainieri was an assistant on — was a freshman All-American last season, and his fastball sits in the mid-90s.
Missouri pitchers have been able to keep runners from getting on base, giving up only 97 walks this season.
While Missouri relies on its pitching, LSU’s hitting has become more potent.
LSU powered 36 hits over the weekend and exploded for 17 hits against Grambling on Wednesday.
“Everybody is hitting well right now,” said sophomore leftfielder Beau Jordan. “The reason we win games is because we got runs in.”
LSU has also managed to find stability in its starting pitching order for the weekend after mixing it up earlier in the season.
Mainieri said he will stick with junior southpaw Jared Poche’ on Friday and sophomore righty Alex Lange on Saturday for the foreseeable future. After some initial struggles, Lange and Poche’ held Vanderbilt to a combined two runs in Games 1 and 2.
“My job is to go out there and get guys out no matter when I am throwing,” Poche’ said. “It doesn’t matter if it is midweek or if I’m throwing Friday night.”
While LSU’s rotation will not be pitching in front of a crowd as friendly as the one against Vanderbilt, it will feel like home for Lange.
Lange, the only LSU baseball player from Missouri, expects to have a decent contingent of friends and family to be in the stands for the game.
“It’s going home,” Lange said. “[My teammates] have been giving me crap about it all week. ‘Oh, we are going to Missouri, Lange is excited!’ Yeah, I am excited. My family is going to be there, and a couple of buddies from high school, so it will be a good time.”