NATCHITOCHES, La. — Armed with its highest ranking in two months, the LSU baseball team takes to the road on Wednesday night for a 6:30 p.m. contest with Northwestern State at Brown-Stroud Field.
Fans attending the game are encouraged to arrive early, as an overflow crowd is anticipated. The Fighting Tigers’ last visit to Natchitoches in 2001 drew a record crowd of 4,214 to the Demons’ park, which has a listed capacity of 1,000.
The game will be broadcast on the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge), and live audio and live statistics from the game will be available on the Internet at www.lsusports.net. The game will also be televised throughout Louisiana on the Jumbo Sports Network (cable channel 10 in Baton Rouge) and will be available in other SEC markets on Comcast Sports Southeast.
LSU (21-10-1, 9-2-1 Southeastern Conference) comes in having won five of its last six outings, and took two of three from South Carolina at home last weekend in a key Southeastern Conference series, leaving the Tigers just percentage points behind Mississippi State for the overall conference lead.
The Tigers, who have not lost an SEC series since last April, are up to No. 8 in this week’s Collegiate Baseball poll, No. 11 in Baseball America and No. 13 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll. The rankings are the highest for LSU since February 10, when its sweep of Northwestern St. left the Tigers in the top 10 of all three polls.
LSU’s leading hitter in the South Carolina series was junior shortstop Aaron Hill, who batted .500 and drove in six runs. In the second game of the series, Hill went 5-for-5, tying a school record for hits in a game, and hit for the cycle, becoming the first player to achieve the rare feat since Mike Koerner did it in 1997 against Virginia Commonwealth. Hill added a three-run triple in the series finale to help LSU build an 8-1 lead through two innings.
The Tigers are tied for the SEC lead in home runs with Alabama at 40, with Ryan Patterson and Jon Zeringue sharing the team lead with seven each. Patterson is batting .321 on the season, leaving him as one of five LSU batters at .321 or higher on the year, led by sophomore first baseman Clay Harris, who is hitting .405 but does not have the necessary number of at-bats to qualify for the batting championship.
For the second consecutive week, the Tigers will give a relief pitcher a starting opportunity, as junior right-hander Billy Sadler (1-1, 3.63) will take the mound. Sadler is expected to be one of several arms to see action on Wednesday, including last week’s midweek starter, redshirt freshman left-hander Jason Determann (1-0, 1.65), who struck out seven in four innings against Nicholls St.
The Demons (21-13, 6-6 Southland Conference) were scheduled to play host to LSU’s SEC West division rival, Alabama, on Tuesday night. Prior to that contest, Northwestern St. officials will retire the jersey number 17 of Crimson Tide coach Jim Wells, who was the Demons’ head coach from 1990 through 1994, guiding Northwestern St. to NCAA regional berths in 1991 and 1994.
After being swept by LSU to open the season, the Demons went on a 10-game winning streak, but have since leveled off, having suffered a three-game sweep this past weekend at Southland Conference rival Lamar.
Northwestern St. coach Mitch Gaspard will likely start freshman left-hander Cory Keener (4-1, 3.76) against LSU. The Demons’ top pitcher, senior left-hander Casey Johnson, threw six scoreless innings in the season opener in Baton Rouge on February 7, and was scheduled to start on Tuesday vs. Alabama.
The Demon batting lineup features only two players with averages of .300 or better, led by junior outfielder Josh Boop (.348) and freshman outfielder Michael Palermo (.344), a teammate of Determann’s at Baton Rouge’s Catholic High.
LSU’s sweep of the earlier series extended its lead in the all-time series with Northwestern St. to 44-11. However, the Demons won the last game contested in Natchitoches, 10-8 in 2001.
Gaspard is a former LSU infielder who was part of coach Skip Bertman‘s first two Tiger teams in 1984 and 1985, and also served as an assistant to Wells at both Northwestern St. and Alabama.
LSU returns home this weekend for a three-game series with SEC West rival Ole Miss. First pitch is set for Friday night at 7 p.m., not 6:30 p.m. as originally listed. The time change was made to allow fans to attend the LSU spring football game in Tiger Stadium at 5 p.m. on Friday. The games on Saturday and Sunday remain at 2 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.
The following Louisiana television stations are scheduled to carry the LSU-Northwestern State baseball game LIVE on Wednesday. Air time is 6:30 p.m. CDT on the Jumbo Sports Network:
BATON ROUGE
WBBR WB 21 (Cable Ch. 10)
NEW ORLEANS
WNOL WB 38
LAFAYETTE
KLAF-TV
LAKE CHARLES
Cox Cable Ch. 8
MORGAN CITY
KWBJ-TV
ALEXANDRIA
KCLA-TV
SHREVEPORT
KPXJ-TV
MONROE
Time Warner Cable