Cajuns Head East to Face Green Wave

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns open conference play this weekend, but before they head to Statesboro, GA, there's a stop along the way in New Orleans.

Louisiana (6-9) takes on Tulane (8-8) in a non conference game tonight at 6:30  Pregame on ESPN1420 begins at 6:00 pm.

It's the first of five straight on the road for the Cajuns, who play at Georgia Southern to open Sun Belt play and visit McNeese next Wednesday before returning home to meet Troy in a three game series March 16-19 at M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park.

It's the 92nd meeting between the schools with the Cajuns holding a 47-44 edge.  Louisiana is 15-18 against the Greenies under Tony Robichaux.  The teams split a pair of meetings last year, with Tulane taking a 6-4 win at "The Tigue" and Louisiana winning 1-0 in New Orleans.

Colton Schmidt (1-0, 1.50 ERA) will get the start for the Cajuns, but don't expect to see him for long.  Robichaux said Monday Schmidt will go only 2-3 innings and the Cajuns will "piece-meal" it from there.  Robichaux said he expects Hogan Harris to be ready for a start on Sunday, but added he would be limited on his pitch count and wants Schmidt to be ready to back up Harris.  Robichaux also said Schmidt would get the Sunday start if Harris is unavailable.  Harris has been sidelined with a strained oblique since the opening weekend at Texas.

Freshman Josh Bates (1-0, 4.82) will make his third start of the year for the Green Wave.  Bates has allowed four hits and five runs in 9.1 innings of work this season.  Tulane is 8-4 at home this season and was 2-1over the weekend at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium, taking two out of three from Purdue.