BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball team faces its final non-conference opponent of the 2003 regular season on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. when the Fighting Tigers welcome the Loyola Wolfpack of New Orleans to Alex Box Stadium.
The game was not originally part of LSU’s schedule, but was added as a make-up game for the Tigers’ March 18 contest at Southern that was rained out in the middle of the fifth inning with LSU holding a 3-2 lead, three outs away from becoming an official contest.
General admission tickets for the LSU-Loyola game are available from the LSU ticket office on the first floor of the LSU Athletic Administration building, with prices $3 for adults and $1 for children 3 to 12 years of age.
The game has also been designated as “Fan Appreciation Night,” with the first 2,000 fans receiving free 2003 LSU team pictures, and in addition, there will be special prizes given away throughout the game.
The game will be broadcast by the LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge), with live audio and live statistics available at www.lsusports.net.
LSU (32-16-1) is coming off a 2-1 series loss this past weekend at Mississippi State, the Tigers’ second Southeastern Conference series loss in its last three weekends. The Tigers lost the first two games of the series to the Bulldogs 4-2 and 5-0 before rallying for a 6-1 win the finale on Sunday.
The Tigers are 16-7-1 in the SEC, one and a half games of Auburn in the West division and overall standings, with Auburn coming to Baton Rouge for a key three-game series this weekend.
LSU (No. 8 Collegiate Baseball, No. 10 Baseball America, No. 16 ESPN/USA Today) will start senior right-hander Jake Tompkins (1-5, 5.05) on the mound. Tompkins struggled in his last outing last Tuesday against Tulane at the Superdome in New Orleans, giving up six runs (five earned) on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings as the Green Wave rolled to a 9-5 victory.
Loyola (18-32) is an NAIA school competing in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference. The Wolfpack were eliminated in the GCAC tournament in two games and are 1-4 vs. Division I competition this season, including an 8-0 win at Southern on April 22 in the second game of a doubleheader, breaking the Jaguars’ 23-game winning streak and handing Southern its first shutout loss in 108 games.
The pitcher who fired the four-hit shutout at the Jaguars, senior right-hander Alan Bouterie (4-1, 4.78) will get the start for the Wolfpack, in their first season under coach Gregg Mucerino.
Tuesday’s game marks the fourth meeting between LSU and Loyola since the Wolfpack reinstated its baseball program in 1992 after a 19-year hiatus. The Tigers have won all three meetings in that time, including a 9-5 triumph in 1998 in the teams’ last meeting.
The Tigers hold a 31-23 all-time edge in the series, as the teams met every season from 1953 through 1972, the last year of Loyola’s program prior to its discontinuation. LSU has a 19-8 edge in games played in Baton Rouge.
The LSU-Auburn series gets underway on Friday at 6:30 p.m., followed by games at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Cox Sports Television will televise Friday’s game, with Sunday’s game televised by Louisiana Sports Network in the bayou state and on Comcast Sports Southeast in other SEC markets.