BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball squad will begin its fall practice period at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 1, in Alex Box Stadium, first-year coach Paul Mainieri said Tuesday.
Mainieri said the Tigers were originally scheduled to hold their first workout this Saturday; however, he felt the players needed more time to prepare for the month-long series of team drills and intrasquad scrimmages.
“We thought it was in the best interest of our team to delay the start of practice by one week to allow our players more time to work with the coaches on an individual basis,” Mainieri said. “This will also insure that our conditioning levels are where they need to be when we start on October 1.”
All fall practice sessions are conducted in Alex Box Stadium, and they are open to the public.
LSU features five starters from its 2006 lineup, including outfielders Steven Waguespack and Jarred Bogany, and infielders Jordan Mayer, J.T. Wise and Michael Hollander.
The Tigers also return seven pitchers who took the mound last season, including weekend starters Clay Dirks and Louis Coleman.
The veterans are complimented by a 19-man signing class featuring several high school and junior college all-stars.
LSU will open the 2007 season on Friday, Feb. 9 when the Tigers play host to Saint Mary’s (Calif.) in Alex Box Stadium.