FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
HAMMOND, La. – With seven regional participants on the 2014 schedule and five of those coming to Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field, including College World Series participant LSU, Southeastern Louisiana interim baseball coach Matt Riser has put together an impressive slate of competition for the Lions.
Southeastern faces the Tigers, Feb. 19, in the home opener and Ole Miss comes to town for a midweek pair, March 11-12. Jackson State, South Alabama and Louisiana-Lafayette, all regional teams in 2013, make the trip in for midweek contests as well.
“We’ve got three SEC games at home,” Riser said. “That’s the most we’ve had in a long time. It shows how we’re trying to step up our strength of schedule. Our goal every year is to win a conference championship, but we want to set up our schedule so that if we don’t our RPI will help us. We also have two games each against South Alabama and Louisiana-Lafayette, both regional teams last year.”
The Lions will travel to Central Arkansas and Sam Houston State. Each represented the Southland Conference in field of 64 last season. Home conference series include Lamar, Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word and Northwestern State. Southeastern will play split series against both New Orleans and Nicholls State meaning a portion of those games will also be played in Hammond.
With weekend series at Louisiana Tech and Louisiana-Monroe, the schedule has a decidedly Louisiana fell to it.
“We’re trying to create some in-state rivalries,” Riser said. “We go to Louisiana Tech and Louisiana-Monroe for weekend series this season. We have some northern Louisiana boys that’ll be proud to go play back home in front of friends and family.”
Southeastern will also face Tulane three times, play a single game against Grambling State as well as a conference series at McNeese State.
“It’s a dogfight recruiting in this state,” Riser said. “We’ve got a lot of talent in Louisiana and the best way to get a guy is to go play in front of him. Then they can go see how we played against our in-state opponents. We’ve been very successful recruiting Louisiana guys and hopefully we continue to do so by playing some in-state opponents.”
The Lions, who are in the middle of fall practice, will continue preparations for the upcoming season with the upcoming Heart of a Lion Fall World Series. Running from Oct. 23-31, admission is free to all five games.
2014 Southeastern Louisiana Schedule
