BATON ROUGE — The LSU Fighting Tigers, fresh off a three-game sweep of Birmingham-Southern to open the 2002 season, continue their seven-game homestand by welcoming Southeastern Louisiana to Alex Box Stadium for a 6:30 p.m. contest on Tuesday.
LSU moved up to No. 5 in the Baseball America poll released Monday afternoon. The polls from Collegiate Baseball and ESPN/USA Today Baseball Weekly were to be released later on Monday. LSU was No. 5 in Collegiate Baseball and No. 6 according to ESPN in last week’s surveys.
The Lions of the Southland Conference will be playing their second game in four days in Baton Rouge. SLU defeated Southern 14-9 on Saturday in the Lions’ season opener, as four different players had at least two hits, with second baseman Chris Rusnak going 3-for-5.
LSU will be starting junior right-hander Chad Vaught against SLU. Vaught, a native of Ferriday, has pitched only one inning in his LSU career, and that came last year at Louisiana-Monroe. The Lions will counter with senior left-hander Chris O’Brien, a native of Baton Rouge who prepped at Central High. O’Brien was 5-5 with 5.78 ERA in 15 games last year and posted five complete games.
LSU will be shooting for its 17th consecutive win over their rivals from Hammond, as the Tigers lead the all-time series, 46-15. LSU won last year’s only meeting at Baton Rouge, 7-4, and SLU hasn’t beaten the Tigers since a 15-2 victory on April 23, 1991.
This is the first of two meetings between the schools this year. LSU will travel to Hammond to play the Lions at Alumni Field on March 26.
LSU coach Smoke Laval was 10-4 against SLU during his career at UL-Monroe, as the Indians are also members of the Southland.
The Tigers play host to Mercer of the Atlantic Sun Conference in a three-game series beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m.