BATON ROUGE — LSU and Tulane add another chapter to their long and storied baseball rivalry when the Green Wave visits Alex Box Stadium on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. to face the Fighting Tigers, leaders of the Southeastern Conference.
This is the second of three meetings this season between the titans of Louisiana college baseball, and the 273rd overall. The Green Wave won the first meeting on March 11 at Zephyr Field, 5-4 in 11 innings, and the Tigers will trek to New Orleans to face Tulane at the Louisiana Superdome on April 29. Last year’s game at the Superdome drew an NCAA record crowd of 27,673.
The game will be televised in Louisiana by Cox Sports Television (cable channel 38 in Baton Rouge, cable channel 37 in New Orleans) as part of LSU’s package with the regional network. The contest will also be broadcast by the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge), with live audio and live statistics from the game available on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
LSU (24-11-1, 11-3-1 SEC) took over first place in the conference by winning two of three games this past weekend from Ole Miss, the Tigers’ ninth consecutive series victory in the SEC, one shy of LSU’s school and league mark of 10 done in 1985 and 1986. The Tigers also won their 12th consecutive series in Baton Rouge over the Rebels dating back to Ole Miss’ last series win in 1982.
The Tigers have cracked the top 10 in their second major baseball poll this week, coming in 10th in the Baseball America poll, LSU’s highest ranking in that poll since standing at No. 8 on Feb. 10. LSU is also up one spot in the Collegiate Baseball poll to No. 7, the highest ranking in that survey since the Tigers were No. 6 in the February 10 survey. The third major baseball poll, the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, was released late Monday afternoon with LSU ranked 12th.
LSU scored 27 runs and pounded out 33 hits in the final two games of the Ole Miss series, with junior shortstop Aaron Hill leading the way. Hill batted .538 (7-for-13) and scored six runs in the series, and combined with a 3-for-3, 3 RBI effort last Wednesday at Northwestern State, Hill earned SEC Player of the Week honors, the first Tiger to be honored this season by the conference office.
For the year, Hill is batting .385 and leads the SEC in walks (29) and on-base percentage (.512). In SEC games, Hill is batting .466 with nine doubles, 15 RBI, a .575 on-base percentage and a .741 slugging percentage.
Another Tiger contributing greatly to the offensive outburst is sophomore first baseman Clay Harris. Harris is tied for the team lead with eight home runs, and on Sunday, he went 3-for-4 with two home runs and a season high six RBI to help win the series finale with Ole Miss. Harris is hitting .398 on the year with a .784 slugging percentage, helping LSU go 18-5-1 since he was inserted into the starting lineup in early March.
On the mound, LSU will start senior right-hander Jake Tompkins (0-3, 4.89), who struggled early this season in six starts, but has since returned to the bullpen, where he has notched two saves. Tompkins, who earned second team All-SEC honors as a reliever in 2002, will likely pitch three or four innings to allow other pitchers to get needed work.
Tulane (26-11, 9-6 Conference USA) comes in on a four-game winning streak following its three-game sweep of defending C-USA champion Houston at home this past weekend. The Cougars and the Tigers split a two-game series in Baton Rouge in February.
As has been the case for the past two years, the most dangerous hitter in the Tulane lineup is junior first baseman Michael Aubrey, who comes into Tuesday’s game batting .469 with a team high 47 RBI and a .734 slugging percentage. Aubrey was a teammate of Hill’s on the 2002 U.S. national team that won the silver medal at the World University Games last August in Italy.
The Wave is batting .323 as a team, and feature two other dangerous veteran hitters in senior center fielder Jon Kaplan (.366) and junior shortstop Tony Giarratano (.354). Aubrey, Kaplan and Giarratano were all starters on Tulane’s 2001 College World Series team that defeated LSU in the super regional at Zephyr Field.
Tulane coach Rick Jones will start the same pitcher who started the first LSU-Tulane game this season, freshman right-hander Matt Goebel (3-3, 5.00). Goebel allowed three runs on five hits in five innings in taking no decision in that contest.
If the game is close, the Wave will likely turn to junior reliever Joey Charron (2-5, 3.44), who has six saves and also threw 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to earn the win in the first meeting. The southpaw also notched a save as a freshman in the 2001 super regional.
LSU holds a 153-116-3 lead in the series that dates back to May 13, 1893, a 10-8 LSU victory, but Tulane has won four of the last five regular season meetings. The Wave won 6-5 in last year’s regular season game in Baton Rouge, but the Tigers exacted revenge with a 4-2 win in the Baton Rouge regional that ended Tulane’s season.
Jones is 11-12 in his tenure at Tulane against LSU, and of those 23 games, seven have been decided by one run. LSU coach Smoke Laval is 3-4 lifetime vs. Tulane.
LSU returns to SEC play this weekend when it heads to Nashville for a three-game series with Vanderbilt. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. Friday, followed by games at 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.