BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball squad — ranked No. 2 in the nation by Baseball America magazine — plays its annual Alumni Game at 4 p.m. Saturday in Alex Box Stadium.
The exhibition contest matches the 2005 Tigers against a team of former players that are currently active in professional baseball.
Tickets to the Alumni Game will be on sale beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Alex Box Stadium ticket office.
The squad of former Tigers has yet to post a victory in the Alumni Game series, which began in 2000. LSU has won all five of the games, including an 8-2 victory last year.
LSU athletics director Skip Bertman, who directed the Tigers to five national championships during his 18-season coaching career (1984-2001), is expected to serve as the Alumni team’s coach.
“It’s always fun to see the former players on Alumni weekend,” said LSU coach Smoke Laval, “and the game is a great opportunity to give some of our new players experience in a competitive atmosphere. It should help to prepare us for the start of the season next weekend.”
LSU opens the regular season at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11 versus Nicholls State in Alex Box Stadium.
Laval will send senior right-hander Brandon Nall to the mound Saturday as the Tigers’ starting pitcher. Nall, a product of Wallace State (Ala.) Community College, has missed almost two full seasons while recuperating from shoulder surgery. He hasn’t pitched for the Tigers since March 2, 2003 at Long Beach State, and he will make his first Alex Box Stadium appearance since Feb. 22, 2003 versus Houston.
Also expected to pitch Saturday are four newcomers to the Tigers’ staff — right-handers Chris Cahill, Chase Dardar, Eric English and Edgar Ramirez.
The Alumni team is expected to include five players with Major League Baseball experience — infielder Russ Johnson, outfielder Brad Hawpe and pitchers Brian Tallet, Eddie Yarnall and Trey Hodges.
Other former players scheduled to compete for the Alumni team include recent LSU stars like catcher Brad Cresse, infielders Aaron Hill, Mike Fontenot and Ryan Theriot and outfielders Jon Zeringue and J.C. Holt.