BATON ROUGE — It will be a night of special ceremonies Tuesday at Alex Box Stadium as LSU (24-13) hosts cross-town rival Southern (31-4), the leaders of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, at 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday’s game is Baton Rouge Area Law Enforcement night, as officers from law enforcement agencies in the Baton Rouge area will be honored prior to the game on the field, as they will join the teams along the foul lines during the national anthem.
A second ceremony will take place prior to the game honoring baseball great Lou Brock, who will receive a special presentation from Baton Rouge Mayor-President Bobby Simpson. Brock was a baseball and track star at Southern in the 1950s before going on to a Hall of Fame baseball career with the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals from 1962-79.
Brock is a member of the 3,000-hit club, and retired as baseball’s career leader in stolen bases with 938, a record that was broken by Rickey Henderson in 1991.
The game will be the Tigers’ final non-conference home game of 2002, as LSU’s remaining home games are three-game weekend sets against Arkansas (April 26-28) and Alabama (May 17-19).
LSU comes in as one of the hottest teams in college baseball, having won five consecutive games and eight of its last 10. The Tigers swept Georgia in a three-game series this past weekend (8-2, 14-4, 13-4) to move into a tie for third place in the Southeastern Conference’s West Division with an 8-6 league mark.
LSU has collected at least 10 hits in its last 11 games, batting .345 during that stretch with 19 home runs. Leading the way for the Tigers offensively are sophomore shortstop Aaron Hill (.385-5-27), senior right fielder Sean Barker (.385-3-36) and junior third baseman Wally Pontiff (.379-5-27).
The Tigers will start freshman right-hander Clay Harris (1-0, 6.15) on the mound against Southern. True freshman Harris has made three previous starts this season as a pitcher, with his last coming on March 26 at Southeastern Louisiana. Also expected to see time on the hill for LSU are junior right-hander Jake Tompkins (2-0, 2.86) and freshman left-hander Jason Vargas (1-1, 4.24).
Southern has won 24 of its last 25 games, with the only loss in that stretch coming on April 6 to Texas Southern. The Jaguars are on top of the SWAC with a 20-2 conference mark, including a four-game sweep of Arkansas-Pine Bluff this past weekend.
The Jaguars are led at the plate by sensational sophomore Rickie Weeks, who is batting .513 with 10 triples, 10 home runs, 59 RBI and a slugging percentage of .992. Weeks, a 2001 Freshman All-America in the outfield, has moved to shortstop and second base this season. Other top hitters for Southern include junior third baseman Antoin Gray (.449-11-41) and sophomore shortstop Fernando Puebla (.377-3-39).
Southern coach Roger Cador, who is three wins short of his 500th career victory at his alma mater, will start junior left-hander Dave Mouton (3-0, 5.40) on the hill. Mouton is a native of the Baton Rouge suburb of Denham Springs and is allowing opponents to hit just .178 against him.
LSU has won 36 of the 37 meetings in this series, but Southern broke through for its first win over the Tigers last year with an 11-6 triumph. The Tigers recovered seven days later to take a 13-6 win over the Jaguars, with both games taking place at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU resumes SEC play this Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern when it visits SEC East leader South Carolina to begin a three-game series.