LSU baseball has found itself unranked after losing eight of its last 10 games.
The Tigers will try to get back on track tonight when they host McNeese ahead of their series with No. 4 Tennessee.
McNeese (16-14) is coming off a series loss to Lamar and has won six of its last 10 games. LSU (21-12) leads the all-time series with the Cowboys and has won 15 of the past 18 games against McNeese including the last three in a row.
LSU’s most recent win over McNeese came last season 7-4. The two teams have played every season since 2007 besides 2020.
In the last seven meetings between the schools LSU has gone 4-3. McNeese last beat LSU in 2019. The Cowboys won that game 2-0 at Alex Box Stadium.
McNeese’s head coach is former LSU pitcher Justin Hill. He appeared in 19 games in his final season for LSU in 2001. Hill has coached at McNeese for the last 11 seasons.
LSU struggled in its last midweek game. The Tigers surrendered 11 hits and had three errors while recording just four hits of their own.
“We’ve got to be able to finish the games that we can win, and we’ve certainly tried to do that,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. “We’ll try a different way. We need to improve our overall execution – put hitters away with two strikes and get off the field with two outs.”
The Cowboys are hitting .251this season with 51 doubles, 13 triples and 21 homers. Outfielder Conner Westenburg is hitting .306 this season and leads McNeese in doubles (12), homers (5) and RBI (24). Braden Duhon leads the team in batting average with a .324.
LSU is batting .282 this season with 51 homers. Tommy White leads the Tigers with a .321 batting average and is tied with Jared Jones for the team lead in homers with 11. Hayden Travinski leads the team in RBI with 31.
White had two home runs in game two against Vanderbilt but was held hitless for the first time in seven games in game three. Freshman Ashton Larson led LSU’s hitters last week batting .364 with a homer in four games.
McNeese pitchers have a cumulative 5.39 ERA this season and have 264 strikeouts in 267.1 innings. They are holding opposing batters to a .277 batting average this season and have allowed 28 home runs.
McNeese had two midweek games last week and Ty Abraham and Evan Maldonado started in those games. Abraham has four starts this season with a 7.82 ERA and Maldonado has two starts with a 5.28 ERA.
LSU has yet to announce a starter, but Kade Anderson started for the Tigers in their last midweek game. Anderson went two innings and surrendered three runs on three hits and two walks in LSU’s 12-7 loss to Southern.
LSU has 29 errors on the season and shortstop Michael Braswell III has the most errors in the SEC with nine. No other player has more than seven in the SEC.
McNeese and LSU will play tonight at 6:30 p.m. from Alex Box Stadium. The game can be streamed on SEC Network+.
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