BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball team begins an eight-game road trip, its longest of the season, on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. when the Fighting Tigers visit cross-town rival Southern at Lee-Hines Field, LSU’s first visit to the Jaguars’ den in eight years.
The game will be broadcast by the full LSU Sports Network (WDGL-98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.lsusports.net. The game will also be televised live across many cable outlets in Louisiana and throughout the gulf south by Cox Sports Television (cable channel 38 in Baton Rouge).
Admission to the game is free, and gates will open at 5 p.m. Early arrival is encouraged due to an expected large crowd and limited parking on the Southern campus.
LSU (13-7-1) is 7-1-1 in its last nine games, and went 2-0-1 in its first Southeastern Conference series of the season against Florida. The Tigers (No. 15 Collegiate Baseball, No. 16 Baseball America, No. 22 ESPN/USA Today) defeated the Gators 9-0 and 3-2 in the series’ first two games before the teams played to an 8-8 tie in the finale on Sunday that was called after nine innings due to Florida’s travel itinerary.
The Tigers have been hot at the plate, banging out 41 hits and scoring 20 runs in the series against Florida. Leading the way for LSU’s offense is junior third baseman Ivan Naccarata, who enters Tuesday’s game on an 18-game hitting streak, batting .394 during the streak with 14 runs scored and 16 RBI to give him the team season lead in batting average (.372) and RBI (17).
Even hotter than Naccarata in recent weeks has been junior shortstop Aaron Hill, who is batting .457 with 10 runs scored and eight RBI during a nine-game hitting streak, raising his average from a season low .268 to .361, and Hill leads the Tigers in on-base percentage (.495), runs scored (17) and doubles (6).
LSU coach Smoke Laval has named junior right-hander Nate Bumstead (1-1, 6.06) as the Tigers’ starting pitcher against Southern. Bumstead started two games early in the season, defeating Northwestern St. and losing to Kansas. He has since appeared in four games out of the LSU bullpen.
Southern (17-4) enters the contest as one of the nation’s hottest teams, having won 15 of its last 16 games. Grambling broke the Jaguars’ 13-game winning streak on Saturday in the second game of a doubleheader, but Southern recovered to sweep Grambling in a doubleheader on Sunday to improve to 11-1 and assume firm control of the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s West Division.
The Jaguars are led by the talents of two-time All-America second baseman Rickie Weeks, picked by many publications as the pre-season national Player of the Year. Weeks enters Tuesday’s game as the Jaguars’ leader in the triple crown categories, batting .478 with seven home runs and 34 RBI.
Southern is hitting .341 as team, and Weeks is joined by designated hitter Andrew Toussaint (.409) and third baseman Antoin Gray (.400) above the .400 mark.
Jaguars coach Roger Cador, in his 19th year at the helm of his alma mater, will start senior right-hander Antwayna Beasley (1-1, 6.75) on the mound, but like Laval and LSU, will likely use several pitchers in the contest.
LSU has won 37 of the 38 meetings in the series, including both games last year at Alex Box Stadium — 13-2 in the regular season on April 16, and 5-4 on May 31 in the opening round of the NCAA Baton Rouge regional. Southern’s only win over LSU was an 11-6 decision on March 6, 2001.
The Tigers are 3-0 at Lee-Hines Field, but this will be LSU’s first game on the Southern campus since a 14-9 victory there in 1995. LSU also won games at Lee-Hines in 1991 and 1993.
LSU returns to Southeastern Conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Georgia beginning on Friday.
GAME TIME CHANGE: The start time for Saturday’s LSU-Georgia game in Athens has been moved back from 2 p.m. Eastern to 4 p.m. Eastern (3 p.m. Central). The move was made since Georgia is hosting the first round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament on Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum.
The series is slated to get underway at 7 p.m. Eastern (6 p.m. Central) on Friday and concludes at 1 p.m. Eastern (Noon Central) on Sunday.