BATON ROUGE — Skip Bertman‘s sixth-ranked baseball team hopes to make a good first impression when the Tigers tangle with the Arizona State Sun Devils for the first time in school history, starting Friday night in Alex Box Stadium at 7 p.m.
The Friday (7 p.m.), Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.) games are sold out, however, LSU student tickets will be available starting two hours before the games. Any student tickets that are not distributed will be sold to the public.
Brian Tallet, a junior lefty, will pitch the opener for the Tigers, while Will Waldrip will take the mound Friday for the Sun Devils. Waldrip, the third left-handed pitcher to start against the Tigers this season, is 3-0 in seven appearances including one start, a 10-1 victory over Duke last Sunday when he pitched six scoreless innings. He has a 2.77 ERA with 12 strikeouts and two bases on balls.
LSU will face another lefty Sunday in Jon Switzer. Switzer is also 3-0 on the season and is coming off a seven-inning, two-hit performance in the series opener with Duke last weekend.
LSU (4-0 overall) has dismantled its first two opponents (Virginia and Southeastern La.) with tremendous early-season pitching performances by Brian Tallet (1-0, CG, 3 H, 2 BB, 7 K, 0.00 ERA), Bo Pettit (1-0, 6.0 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 6 K, 0.00 ERA) Billy Brian (1-0, 5.0 IP, 1 R, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 K, 1.80 ERA) and Hunter Gomez (1-0, 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 8 K, 0.00 ERA).
The Tigers have also generated 45 runs while batting .321 as a team, stealing 6-of-7 bases and hitting six home runs. Senior catcher Brad Cresse is coming off a five-RBI performance in Tuesday night’s 11-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana. He went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and a sacrifice fly.
The 17th-ranked Sun Devils (by Baseball American) are coming off a three-game sweep of Duke, when Arizona State outscored the Blue Devils 29-2 while only allowing 13 hits and not recording an error. This past Wednesday, the ASU Alumni handed the current Arizona State team a 10-6 loss.
As a team, Arizona State is batting .347 with 19 home runs and 22-of-27 stolen base attempts. The Sun Devils have a team ERA of 3.43, striking out 128 while walking only 49.
Arizona State has amassed an 11-2 record against some of the nation’s best teams, including Florida State, Florida Atlantic, BYU and Duke. The Sun Devils’ only losses came at hand of No. 1 Florida State (11-10 in 10 innings, and 9-7).
The Sun Devils’ coached by Pat Murphy, who, at 39, became the youngest coach to reach 500 wins. In six seasons at Arizona State, he has a record of 188-108, with a career NCAA Division I record of 506-224-1 in 12 seasons.