BATON ROUGE — The LSU Fighting Tigers continue a seven-game homestand Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. in Alex Box Stadium when coach Smoke Laval faces the team he coached from 1994 through 2000, the Louisiana-Monroe Indians.
The game will be broadcast over the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge), and live audio and statistics can be accessed on LSU’s official website, www.lsusports.net.
Laval led Louisiana-Monroe to a 241-159 mark in his seven seasons as the Indian skipper, guiding ULM to the NCAA regionals in 1995, 1999 and 2000, all at Alex Box Stadium. Laval, who was an assistant coach at LSU under Skip Bertman from 1984-1993, is 48-25 as the Tigers’ mentor.
LSU (4-3) is coming off of a three-game sweep at the hands of Kansas last weekend, the first time the Tigers have been swept at home since Houston took three games in February of 2000. The last time LSU was swept in any series was by Arkansas at Fayetteville in May of 2001.
The losses have dropped the Tigers out of the top 10 in all three major polls. LSU begins this week at No. 12 in the Collegiate Baseball poll, No. 14 in Baseball America and No. 17 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll.
The Tigers’ starting pitcher will be the same as it was for LSU’s last mid-week game, freshman right-hander Justin Meier. Meier was impressive in his Tiger debut last Tuesday at Centenary, giving up just two hits in five shutout innings as he and three relievers combined on a six-hit shutout in LSU’s 15-0 victory in Shreveport.
LSU’s leading hitters entering the series are sophomore outfielder Ryan Patterson (.438-1-5) and junior third baseman Aaron Hill (.429-1-7), both of whom went 4-for-8 in the series against Kansas.
Louisiana-Monroe (5-1) is coming off a 2-1 series victory at home over New Orleans, sweeping a Sunday doubleheader 8-4 and 3-1 after dropping the series opener on Friday, 6-1. This will be UL-Monroe’s first road game of 2003.
ULM coach Brad Holland will send junior left-hander Ryan Schwabe (1-0, 1.80) to the hill to face the Tigers. Schwabe, a native of Carroll, Iowa, went five innings and gave up one run on five hits in his only outing of the season in a 10-1 victory over Grambling last Tuesday. Schwabe is part of a Indian pitching staff that has yielded only a .185 opponents’ batting average and has an ERA of 1.38 entering Tuesday’s game.
The Indians are hitting .322 as a team and are led by senior catcher Joey Wolfe, who brings a .400 batting average to Baton Rouge. ULM has hit just one home run in its first six games.
LSU has won the last five meetings in the series to extend its all-time lead to 32-8. The Tigers won four games last year over the Indians, sweeping a three-game series in Baton Rouge in March (4-3, 7-1 and 8-7), then defeating ULM 10-3 in Monroe in March. The Indians’ last victory in the series came in 2001, 7-6 in 11 innings at Baton Rouge.
LSU is also 3-0 in NCAA regional play against ULM, defeating the Indians 11-4 in 1999 and twice in 2000, 21-0 and 5-3.
The Tigers continue the homestand on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in the opener of a three-game weekend set with the Houston Cougars. Houston (No. 20 Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, No. 21 ESPN/USA Today) won two of three over LSU last year at Houston.