BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball team returns to the friendly confines of Alex Box Stadium for the first time in 17 days on Wednesday night when the Fighting Tigers host the Nicholls St. Colonels at 6:30 p.m.
The game will be broadcast on the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge), and live audio and statistics from the game will be available on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
LSU (18-9-1, 7-1-1 Southeastern Conference) is coming off of a successful 5-2 road trip, culminating the trip by taking the final two games of its series at Alabama last weekend. The Tigers (No. 10 Collegiate Baseball, No. 12 Baseball America, No. 16 ESPN/USA Today) began the trip by sweep Georgia March 21-23 before losing at UNO, 5-4, last Tuesday and the first game of the Alabama series, 4-2.
Tigers coach Smoke Laval will start a left-handed pitcher for the first time in 2003, sending redshirt freshman Jason Determann (1-0, 2.19) to the mound. Determann, a Baton Rouge native, pitched a perfect eighth inning in Sunday’s game at Alabama and has made six relief appearances on the season.
Determann will be making his second career start. His only other career start came last February 20 at Centenary, when Determann threw three scoreless innings, only to be diagnosed with an injury to his left elbow that would require season ending Tommy John surgery.
LSU has shown its power stroke at the plate in recent games, belting out seven home runs in the Alabama series to bring its season total to 33. The Tigers have hit 15 home runs in nine SEC games, hitting at least one home run in eight of nine conference contests.
The Tigers’ leading power hitter has been sophomore right fielder Jon Zeringue, who hit a home run in each of the Tigers’ four games last week and has hit five in six games since returning to the starting lineup on March 22. Zeringue leads the Tigers with six home runs on the year, followed by sophomore first baseman Clay Harris and sophomore outfielder Ryan Patterson, who have five each.
Harris is hitting .432 in SEC games and .417 overall for the year, but he does not have the requisite 2.5 at-bats per game to qualify among the batting leaders. The Tigers’ leading hitter among qualifiers is junior shortstop Aaron Hill, whose .347 average makes him one of four Tigers with a season average over .322.
Nicholls St. (16-15, 2-7 Southland Conference) comes in off of a 6-5 victory over Texas-Arlington on Sunday, but the Colonels have lost five of their last six games and seven of their last 10. LSU represents the first ranked opponent Nicholls has faced this season.
Colonels coach B.D. Parker will start junior right-handed pitcher Mike Prejean (0-1, 9.18), who has started just twice and thrown 16 2/3 innings on the season.
The Colonels enter the game with a .323 team batting average, led by senior shortstop Chuck Hickman (.457) and junior outfielder Tony Ruiz (.392).
LSU has won the last nine meetings from Nicholls St. to take a 36-21 edge in the series, which began in 1968. The Tigers have won 14 consecutive meetings at Alex Box Stadium, including a 16-4 victory in the teams’ last meeting in 2001. Last year marked the first time since 1975 the teams did not play.
The Colonels’ last victory was a 3-2, 13-inning triumph at Thibodaux in 1994, and Nicholls St. holds 9-6 edge in games played at Ray E. Didier Field, named for the former Nicholls coach who led LSU to the 1961 SEC Championship.
Laval is 21-6 vs. Nicholls St. from his seven-year tenure as the coach at Louisiana-Monroe from 1994 through 2000.
LSU returns to SEC play on Friday at 6:30 p.m. when the Tigers open a three-game series with defending conference champion South Carolina (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 Collegiate Baseball). The series continues with games at 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.