METAIRIE, La. — LSU looks to win its fifth consecutive game Tuesday night when the Fighting Tigers (30-15) visit the University of New Orleans (22-22) at 6:30 p.m. at Zephyr Field in Metairie.
The game will be broadcast live on the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
The Tigers are coming off a three-game weekend sweep of SEC West foe Arkansas, winning 3-0, 8-0 and 13-5 to improve to 12-8 in the league, good for third place in the division and fifth in the overall standings.
LSU has now won nine consecutive home games and is 13-3 in the month of April, a month that started with an 8-1 victory over UNO on April 2 at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers’ pitching did not allow Arkansas to score in the series until one out in the second inning, a span of 19 1/3 innings. Lane Mestepey and Brian Wilson became the first pitchers in LSU history to throw back-to-back nine inning complete game shutouts when they did so on Friday and Saturday.
LSU will start true freshman left-hander Jason Vargas (1-1, 3.79) against UNO. Vargas lasted pitched last Tuesday at Louisiana-Monroe, turning in two scoreless innings. As a reliever, Vargas is 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA in eight appearances, but as a starter, he has not lasted past the third inning in either of his two starts, going just 1 2/3 innings at Auburn on April 7 in his last start.
At the plate, the Tigers collected a season high 19 hits on Sunday as they scored 12 runs in the final four innings to overcome a 3-1 Arkansas lead. LSU junior third baseman Wally Pontiff continues to lead the team in batting average (.383-5 HR-32 RBI), followed closely by sophomore shortstop Aaron Hill (.374-6-35) and senior right fielder Sean Barker (.372-3-44).
UNO is coming off an 0-4 week that saw them be shutout by cross-town rival Tulane on Tuesday before getting swept by Western Kentucky over the weekend in Bowling Green to drop the Privateers to 8-10 in the Sun Belt and .500 overall for the year. The Privateers had an 8-0 lead on Sunday, only to give up 13 runs in the final four innings to WKU and lose, 13-12. UNO has lost six of their last eight contests and hasn’t won more than two in a row since a seven-game winning streak in March.
Privateers coach Randy Bush said that he would not decide on a starting pitcher until game time, as UNO used five pitchers in Sunday’s contest.
Leading the way for the Privateers on the hill are a pair of left-handers, senior Tom Lipari (4-5, 2.38) and junior Brandon Kling (4-3, 2.60), a Baton Rouge native who played at Catholic High.
The Privateers are hitting .285 as a team, and scored just three runs in their first three games last week until breaking loose on Sunday. Senior third baseman J.D. Huether continues to lead UNO in hitting (.360-4-39), along with freshman designated hitter Chris Adams (.356-2-21), a Baton Rouge native who played at Parkview Baptist.
LSU’s victory earlier this month extended its winning streak in the series to nine consecutive games, making it 39-29 in favor of the Tigers in the 26-year old series. UNO’s last victory over the Tigers was an 11-8 triumph on April 22, 1997 at Baton Rouge, part of a two-game season sweep for the Privateers. LSU has won all four meetings at Zephyr Field, outscoring the UNO 44-15 in the process.
Bush, an outfielder on the Minnesota Twins’ World Championship teams in 1987 and 1991, is 0-5 against LSU in his career, while LSU coach Smoke Laval is 4-6 against UNO (1-0 at LSU, 3-6 at Louisiana-Monroe). Laval’s Indians twice beat Bush’s Privateers in the 2000 NCAA Regional at Alex Box Stadium, which LSU eventually won en route to its fifth national championship.
The Tigers play their final nine games in the Southeastern Conference, beginning Friday at 7 p.m. EDT against Tennessee (23-23, 8-13 SEC) at Knoxville in the opener of a three-game set. LSU, who is 12-8 and third in the SEC West, travels to Florida May 10-12 before winding up the regular season May 17-19 against SEC leader Alabama.