Hot LSU Tigers to host Stephen F. Austin

BATON ROUGE – No. 2 LSU will play five games in six days with a weekend road trip, then host McNeese State on March 11 before opening Southeastern Conference play at home on March 13 against Ole Miss.

The Tigers (10-1) host Stephen F. Austin (4-8) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and host Grambling (2-8) at 3 p.m. Wednesday before playing in the Houston College Classic against Houston at 7 p.m. Friday, against Baylor at 3:30 Saturday and against Nebraska at 11 a.m. Sunday. LSU has won its last seven, including a three-game sweep of Princeton on Friday and in a doubleheader Saturday.

“This is the final full week of non-conference games before we begin SEC play, so it’s a very important week for us,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “We’ve been very pleased with the progress the team has made thus far, and we want to continue to build momentum and play at a high level.”

STARTING PITCHERS: Senior left-hander Kyle Bouman (0-0, 12.00 earned run average) will start Tuesday night’s game against junior left-hander Eric Polivka (0-0, 14.85 ERA) of Stephen F. Austin.

TOP HITTERS: LSU sophomore outfielder Jake Fraley batted .467 (7 for 15) last week with three triples, two doubles, six RBIs and four runs scored. His two-run triple in the bottom of the eighth gave LSU a 9-8 lead over Southeastern Louisiana on Thursday night, and the Tigers held on for the win. He is hitting .385 on the season with six RBIs and three stolen bases.

Junior outfielder Mark Laird of Monroe hit .400 in the four games last week with six hits in 15 at-bats with a double, an RBI, a stolen base and five runs scored.

TOP PITCHERS: Freshman right-hander Alex Lange improved to 3-0 on the season with a win over Princeton Saturday with a 2.25 earned run average and 22 strikeouts in 16 innings. Freshman right-hander Jake Godfrey (2-0) also won on Saturday over Princeton and has a team-low ERA of 1.26.