Preview: LSU vs. Grambling State On Tuesday Night In Alex Box Stadium

Grambling State Tigers (18-22) at LSU Tigers (28-17)

DATE/TIME
Tuesday, April 30 @ 6:30 p.m. CT (SEC Network +)

STADIUM
Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field (10,326)

RADIO
-LSU Sports Radio Network affiliates
-Live audio at www.LSUsports.net/live; Live stats at www.LSUstats.com

TV/ONLINE
The game will be streamed on SEC Network +

LSU SERIES RECORD VS. GRAMBLING STATE
LSU leads the all-time series with Grambling, 12-0, with all 12 games having been played in Baton Rouge, beginning with the first meeting between the schools in 2009 … LSU defeated GSU, 17-5 (seven innings), on March 28, 2023, in the most recent meeting between the teams.

QUOTING COACH JAY JOHNSON
“Tuesday is must-win game, there’s no question about that. We’ll get ready to roll and prepare for a very good Grambling team, and then we have the No. 1 team in the country (Texas A&M) coming in this weekend. I hope our fans will come out and support us all week. Our guys are still invested in each other and invested in winning baseball games.”

ABOUT THE LSU TIGERS
-LSU won three of four games last week, including a victory over Nicholls and a SEC series win versus Auburn … the Tigers have won four of their past six SEC games and six of their past eight games overall.

-Sophomore left-hander Gage Jump fired seven scoreless innings on Friday night, leading LSU to a 5-0 win over Auburn … Jump recorded seven shutout innings, limiting Auburn to just two singles with no walks and six strikeouts … he threw 100 pitches in the outing, 67 for strikes … Jump allowed just one Auburn baserunner to reach second base, and he retired eight hitters in a row to complete his outing … in his last two starts versus Missouri and Auburn, he has allowed only one run on five hits in 14.0 innings with one walk and 20 strikeouts.

-Freshman outfielder Ashton Larson was LSU’s leading hitting in its series victory versus Auburn, batting .462 (6-for-13) with one double, three RBI, and one stolen base … his RBI single in the seventh inning on Friday night highlighted a three-run rally in LSU’s 5-0 victory … for the entire week, Larson batted .375 (6-for-16), helping to lead LSU to three wins in four games ... Larson is hitting a team-high .412 (21-for-51) in SEC games this season with six doubles, three homers, nine RBI and 10 runs scored.

-The LSU pitching staff has posted a 2.74 ERA in the Tigers’ last eight games, allowing just 21 earned runs while recording 22 walks and 81 strikeouts in 69 innings … opponents are batting just .190 against LSU during that eight-game span.

-Senior right-hander Christian Little is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in his last four relief appearances … Little has worked 7.0 scoreless innings in those four appearances, allowing just two hits with one walk and nine strikeouts.

-Junior shortstop Michael Braswell III is hitting .407 (11-for-27) in the Tigers’ last eight games with three doubles, four RBI and five runs … sophomore first baseman Jared Jones has four doubles, five homers and six RBI in LSU’s last eight games; junior third baseman Tommy White has five homes and 10 RBI in that eight-game period … LSU has out-homered its opponents, 21-3, in the Tigers’ last eight games.

-Sophomore left-hander Griffin Herring has excelled in his SEC outings, posting a 2-0 mark with a 1.44 ERA and two saves in seven league appearances … Herring has recorded 25.0 innings in SEC games, allowing just four earned runs with five walks and 36 strikeouts.

-LSU recorded back-to-back shutouts vs. Nicholls (9-0) on Tuesday and vs. Auburn (5-0) on Friday, marking the Tigers’ first back-to-back shutouts since March 14-17, 2023, when LSU blanked New Orleans (16-0) and Texas A&M (9-0) in consecutive games.

-Junior leftfielder Josh Pearson’s ninth-inning single to defeat Auburn on Saturday night marked LSU’s first walk-off win since June 22, 2023, when third baseman Tommy White blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift the Tigers to a College World Series semifinal win over Wake Forest.

ABOUT THE GRAMBLING STATE TIGERS
-Grambling has a 15-6 mark in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and the Tigers are just one-half game behind Texas Southern (15-5) for first place in the SWAC West Division.

-Grambling is hitting .313 as a team with 70 doubles, 14 triples, 38 homers and 67 steals in 80 attempts … the GSU pitching staff has a 8.08 cumulative ERA with 253 strikeouts in 318.2 innings.

-Infielder Kyle Walker is batting .370 for Grambling with seven doubles, one triple, eight homers, 26 RBI and 55 runs … outfielder Tiger Borom leads the club in doubles with 14, and he shares the team lead in RBI (39) with infielder Cameron Bufford.

(Release via LSU Athletics)