Louisiana College baseball will travel to Baton Rouge today to take on nationally ranked powerhouse LSU at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. The addition of the game to both team's schedules comes after a rained out contest last week between LSU and San Diego. The Wildcats had an open date on Tuesday, and will fill the spot on the Tigers schedule. With the addition of the LSU game, the Wildcats will have played a total of six games in five days after going 4-1 in the Marler Ford Classic over the weekend at Billy Allgood Field.
RADIO
LSU Sports Radio Network free online stream at www.LSUsports.net/live
Live stats for all LSU baseball games are available at www.LSUsports.net/livestats
ONLINE
SEC Network +, accessible at WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app
#6 LSU | 12-4 (0-0) SEC
The Tigers won three of four games last week, including a three-game sweep of Wichita State over the weekend in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. LSU enters Tuesday's game batting .329 on the year with 15 homers and 20 steals in 27 attempts. Senior Cole Freeman leads the Tigers with a .482 batting average on the year, with five doubles, and nine RBI. He was named SEC Player of the Week after going 8-for-16 in four games last week, scoring seven runs with a .556 on-base percentage. Slugger Greg Deichmann leads the team with seven home runs and 23 runs batted in.
On the mound the Tigers will send freshman righty Zack Hess to start against the Wildcats. In three starts this season and 13.1 innings of work he has a 4.05 earned run average, having allowed six runs on 11 hits. He has walked eight batters this season and struck out 15. Hess has one win on the season, after going 5.0 innings against Hofstra allowing two hits and no runs with six strikeouts.
Louisiana College | 13-4 (4-2) ASC
The Wildcats are coming off a 4-1 weekend with five games in three days. LC continued their hot start at the plate with eight or more hits in all five games and 10 or more in three of the games. Ashton Martin and Garret Parker had great weekend's, getting six and eight hits each with Parker launching the first home run of his career on Sunday. Seth Steven and Kiefer Moore also hit long balls over the weekend and Sully Martin recorded his 100th career hit on Saturday against Belhaven. Ashton Martin leads the team in batting with a .455 average and 10 RBI. Seth Stevens leads the team in runs socres (18), hits (29), home runs (4) and RBI (24). The Wildcats currently rank second in the ASC in hitting, and in the top five in five offensive categories.
The Wildcats will send Jacob Buchanan to the mound to start against LSU. He last pitched in the Wildcats 11-3 loss to Belhaven, where he gave up seven runs , five of them earned, on seven hits in his third loss of the season. He has a 4.12 earned run average in five starts for the Wildcats and is second on the team in innings pitched (24.0) and strikeouts (27). The LC pitching staff has been great all season long and rank first in the ASC in team ERA and lead the conference in strikeouts (140), fewest runs allowed (53), and fewest hits (108).
LSU and LC have met 22 times since 1914, most recently in 2012, when the Tigers posted a 10-2 win over the Wildcats. Over the past few decades, the Wildcats and the Tigers have played some tightly contested games, including a 7-5 Wildcat victory over LSU in 1994 and a close 2-1 LSU win three years earlier in 1991. Follow the game live from Baton Rouge via any of the links provided above and be sure to stay connected to Louisiana College baseball all season at www.lcwildcats.net, following @LC_bsb on Twitter, and liking LC Athletics on Facebook.
