BATON ROUGE — With the start of Southeastern Conference play on tap for Friday, the LSU Fighting Tigers look to begin the 30-game league schedule on a four-game winning streak as LSU (13-5) hosts Louisiana-Lafayette (11-6) Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. in Alex Box Stadium.
The game will also be televised on a tape-delay basis in Baton Rouge only on WGMB-Fox 44 starting at 9 p.m.
LSU comes into the game ranked eighth by Collegiate Baseball for the third consecutive week and ninth by Baseball America, a drop of three spots in that poll. The ESPN/Baseball Weekly coaches’ poll was to be released later on Monday.
The Tigers are coming off of a three-game sweep of Louisiana-Monroe this past weekend at home, and are 5-2 on their current 11-game homestand. LSU won the games with UL-Monroe by scores of 4-3, 7-1 and 8-7. LSU also took two of three from Long Beach State and lost to Tulane on the current homestand.
The Tigers will start junior right-hander Jake Tompkins (2-0, 3.80) on the mound. Tompkins has been effective in all three starts this year, and his last appearance came on March 3 against Long Beach St., when he struck out a career high eight in eight innings of work.
The Tigers’ hottest hitter of late has been junior third baseman Wally Pontiff. The LSU captain enters Tuesday’s game on a 10-game hitting streak, batting .553 (21-for-38) during the streak to leave his season average at a team-high .413.
The Cajuns, meanwhile, are looking to break a three-game losing streak after being swept by Houston at Moore Field this past weekend. The Cougars also defeated LSU in two out of three in a February series at Cougar Field.
UL-Lafayette coach Tony Robichaux has not officially named a starter for the game, but it will be either senior left-hander Justin Gabriel (2-1, 2.70) or sophomore left-hander Corey Coles (1-0, 1.12). Gabriel is one of only two Cajuns who were part of the 2000 College World Series team that finished tied for third at Omaha. The other remaining player is left-handed pitcher Andy Gros.
Coles is also the Cajuns’ leading hitter, batting .422 on the year with two home runs and 12 RBI. Junior outfielder Bryan Sneed is hitting .327 and leads the Cajuns with 15 RBI.
LSU leads the all-time series with UL-Lafayette, 41-18, and have won five of the last six meetings. The teams played only once last year, with the
Tigers taking a 12-7 decision at Zephyr Field in suburban New Orleans. The two teams will play again one week from Tuesday in Lafayette.
Robichaux is 3-9 as the Cajuns’ coach against LSU, but was 6-5 vs. the Tigers in seven seasons as coach at McNeese St. in Lake Charles. Smoke Laval was 4-8 against the Cajuns in his seven seasons as coach at UL-Monroe.
Former Tiger coach and current athletic director Skip Bertman was 17-10 vs. the Cajuns in his 18-year tenure that concluded in 2001.
The Tigers open conference play on Friday at 6:30 p.m. when they host Vanderbilt in a three-game series. The second game will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, with the finale at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.