BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball team begins a four-game road trip at 6:30 p.m. Thursday when the Tigers face Louisiana-Monroe at Indian Field. The road swing continues this weekend when the Tigers take on Alabama in a three-game SEC series in Tuscaloosa. Game 1 starts at 7 p.m. Friday, Game 2 begins at 4 p.m. Saturday, and the Game 3 first pitch is 1 p.m. Sunday.
All four games can be heard on the LSU Sports Network (98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
Game 1 of the LSU-Alabama series will be televised live Friday by College Sports Southeast (Cable Ch. 18 in Baton Rouge). CSSE will show Game 2 of the series on a tape-delayed basis at 10 p.m. Saturday. Sunday’s game will be televised live by both CSSE and the Guaranty Sports Network (Cable Ch. 6 in Baton Rouge).
LSU (31-13-1 overall, 14-7 SEC) is ranked No. 3 this week by Collegiate Baseball and No. 5 by Baseball America. The Tigers are in a three-way tie with Ole Miss and Mississippi State for first place in the SEC standings.
Louisiana-Monroe is 29-15 overall after dropping a 9-3 decision at Ole Miss Tuesday. ULM faces Ole Miss again Wednesday night before returning to Monroe for Thursday’s game with LSU.
ULM’s game at Ole Miss Tuesday night began a brutal stretch for the Indians in which they will play nine game in nine days. ULM plays host to Northwestern State Friday, Saturday and Sunday in a Southland Conference series, and the Indians entertain Louisiana-Lafayette next Monday.
The stretch concludes with road games at Louisiana Tech and Arkansas-Little Rock next Tuesday and Wednesday.
ULM is in second place in the Southland Conference with a 14-7 mark, one game behind Northwestern State (15-6).
Thursday’s LSU-ULM game marks the teams’ second meeting this season. The Indians defeated the Tigers, 7-6 (11 innings), on Feb. 14 in Baton Rouge. LSU is 7-5 this season against in-state foes, including a 7-4 victory Tuesday over Southeastern Louisiana in Alex Box Stadium.
Senior left-hander Tim Nugent (5-1, 3.04 ERA) will start Thursday’ss game for LSU. In 50.1 innings this season, Nugent has recorded 46 strikeouts and 31 walks, and opponents are hitting just .241 against him.
In his previous start, Nugent defeated Vanderbilt last Sunday, limiting the Commodores to one earned run on five hits in five innings with four walks and three strikeouts.
LSU’s .320 team batting average is No. 1 in this week’s SEC statistics. First baseman Bryan Moore (.379, 6 HR, 42 RBI), second baseman Mike Fontenot (.372, 8 HR, 31 RBI) and shortstop Ryan Theriot (.361, 1 HR, 30 RBI) are the club’s top three hitters. Theriot saw his team-best 17-game hitting streak end in Tuesday’s win over Southeastern Louisiana.
LSU leads Louisiana-Monroe, 27-8, in the all-time series between the schools. The Tigers have lost their last two games at Indian Field, as ULM posted a 6-2 victory in 1997 and a 6-5 win in 1999.