BATON ROUGE — The curtain rises on the 2003 LSU baseball season this weekend when the Fighting Tigers host Louisiana rival Northwestern State in a three-game series beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Alex Box Stadium.
The series continues at 2 p.m. Saturday and concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday. The LSU Sports Network will broadcast all three games, with the games on Friday and Sunday available on the full network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge). Saturday’s game will be available in Baton Rouge only (WJNH-107.3 FM) due to the broadcast of the LSU-Auburn men’s basketball game.
Audio broadcasts of all games and live statistics will be available at www.lsusports.net.
Friday’s season opener will include a special tribute to the late Wally Pontiff, a three-year starter from 2000-2002 who died in his sleep last July 24 from a heart abnormality. Pontiff was the 2000 Southeastern Conference tournament MVP, a 2001 first team All-SEC selection and a 2002 second team All-SEC choice.
LSU enters the season in the top 10 of all three major polls. The Tigers are ranked 6th by Collegiate Baseball, 7th by ESPN/USA Today Sports Weekly, and 9th by Baseball America.
Southeastern Conference coaches tabbed the Tigers as the preseason favorite to win the conference championship for the third consecutive year. LSU is looking to win its first SEC championship since 1997 and a return to the College World Series for the first time since its 2000 national championship.
The Tigers finished 2002 at 44-22 and ranked 11th in all three polls. LSU reached an NCAA super regional for the fourth consecutive year, but was swept in two games by Rice.
The Tigers’ starting rotation for the weekend features three experienced right-handed hurlers. Senior Jake Tompkins (7-1, 2.68), a second team All-SEC selection in 2002, will start the opener, with junior Brian Wilson (10-5, 3.54) going on Saturday and senior Bo Pettit (9-7, 3.35) slated to take the mound on Sunday.
Junior Aaron Hill (.329-9-47), who moves from shortstop to third base to fill the void left by Pontiff’s passing, leads LSU at the plate. Hill is a second team preseason All-American and played for the United States national team that won the silver medal at last summer’s World University Games.
Other returning position starters for LSU include center fielder J.C. Holt, who was a freshman All-American at second base last year, right fielder Jon Zeringue, and first baseman Blake Gill. All three are sophomores.
Northwestern State won the Southland Conference championship in 2002 with a 43-17 record under first-year coach Mitch Gaspard, a former LSU infielder. Two former Demon coaches are now leading Southeastern Conference programs, Jim Wells at Alabama (a former LSU graduate assistant under Skip Bertman) and Dave Van Horn at Arkansas (who led Nebraska to the College World Series the past two seasons).
The Demons’ opening night pitcher is senior left-hander Casey Johnson (11-1, 2.70), who was an honorable mention All-Southland Conference selection. Senior right-hander Michael Perkins, who was 3-5 with a 5.89 ERA at Creighton last year, starts on Saturday, while junior left-hander Phillip Martinez, a junior college transfer, gets the nod on Sunday.
The Demons lost seven position starters from last year’s team. The two returning position starters are senior catcher Anatole Vincent (.361-11-60) and outfielder Steven Adams (.316-0-7).
LSU and Northwestern St. last met in a home-and-home series in 2001. The Tigers won 9-7 in Baton Rouge, but the Demons exacted revenge with a 10-8 victory the following night in Natchitoches. The Tigers visit Brown-Stroud Field on April 9.
LSU plays its first road game on Tuesday at 7 p.m. when the Tigers visit Centenary at Fair Grounds Field in Shreveport. The Tigers return home February 14-16 for a three-game series with Kansas.