LSU’s Paul Mainieri believes he has a championship-caliber baseball team heading into the 2019 season. Mainieri gave up an update on his team with an hour long press conference. The coach says right-hander Zack Hess is ready to become one of the top pitchers in the country after a successful stint with the USA Collegiate National team….
cut 30 (14) “….next June”
Mainieri says pitcher Eric Walker is set to return next season after missing 2018, as he recovered from Tommy John Surgery.

The Tigers will open the 2019 campaign by hosting ULM. But LSU will not play Tulane. Mainieri says he’s treating the Green Wave like the other in-state schools, which means only making trips to Tulane every five or six years, if they play at Alex Box every season. But Tulane declined a trip to Baton Rouge in 2019.

ULM returns 17 starters for the 2018 season, a big reason why the Warhawks are picked to finish second in the Sun Belt West division. Coach Matt Viator says he’s looking for more consistency from his veteran group…
cut 29 (22) “…learning that”
Viator says the ceiling is really high for his quarterback Caleb Evans, who rushed for 13 touchdowns and threw for 2,868 yards and 17 TDS as a sophomore last year.

UL Lafayette have two quarterbacks battling for its starting spot, sophomore Levi Lewis and senior Andre Nunez. Coach Billy Napier says both guys go into camp with a chance at grabbing the starter’s role.