BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball team plays its first of two straight games at Zephyr Field in Metairie Tuesday night when the Tigers face Louisiana-Lafayette at 7 p.m. LSU will also play at Zephyr Field at 7 p.m. Wednesday night when the Tigers face Tulane.
LSU (24-9-1 overall, 10-4 SEC) has won 11 of its last 14 games and is ranked No. 2 this week by Baseball America magazine and by Collegiate Baseball magazine. The Tigers are No. 3 this week in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN poll.
All LSU baseball games can be heard on the LSU Sports Network (98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The Tigers won two of three SEC games at No. 7 South Carolina last weekend to move into a tie with Ole Miss for first place in the league standings.
ULL enters Tuesday’s game with a 21-16 mark, and the Cajuns are 6-6 in Sun Belt Conference play after dropping two of three games last weekend at Arkansas State.
Senior left-hander Tim Nugent (2-1, 3.27 ERA) will start Tuesday’s game for LSU. Nugent, who will be making his fifth start of the year, has worked 33 innings , recording 36 strikeouts and 17 walks.
The Cajuns will counter with sophomore left-hander Andy Gros (2-3, 4.71 ERA). In 42 innings this season, Gros has allowed 48 hits while recording 39 strikeouts and 10 walks.
The Tigers enter Tuesday’s game with a .321 team batting average, which is second-best in the SEC. Second baseman Mike Fontenot leads LSU with a .400 (38-for-95) average, and he has 10 doubles, six homers and 27 RBI.
Shortstop Ryan Theriot, who was named SEC Player of the Week Monday, is hitting .368 (49-for-133) with six doubles, two triples, one homer and 20 RBI.
Theriot enters Tuesday’s game riding a seven-game hit streak, during which he has recorded 18 hits in 28 at-bats (.643).
LSU leads ULL, 40-18, in the all-time series between the schools, which began in 1912. LSU head coach Skip Bertman is 16-10 against the Cajuns during his 18-year career, including an 8-2 victory over ULL last season in Baton Rouge. LSU has won six of the last eight meetings between the schools.
Both LSU and ULL qualified for the 2000 College World Series, with the Tigers winning the NCAA title and the Cajuns finishing in a tie for third place with Florida State.