HAMMOND – Fresh off the opening weekend of Southland Conference play, Southeastern Louisiana hosts No. 21-ranked Mississippi State in a pair of mid-week games.

Tuesday is Lion Proud, Lion Loud Night with noisemakers being handed out. Wednesday night there will be post-game fireworks. Both games start at 6 p.m. and can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9). Live statistics will be available at www.LionSports.net.

Southeastern (11-5) snapped Nicholls State's five-game winning streak Sunday, 5-3. The Lions came from behind with four runs in the eighth inning and Stefan Lopez shut the door on the Colonels with two scoreless innings of relief work.

Brock Hebert (.448), Jonathan Pace (.386) and Ladd Rhodes (.367) lead Southeastern in hitting. The Lions are hitting .276 as a team.

Hebert leads the Southland in average, runs scored (20), hits (26), doubles (10) and stolen bases (15).

The Lions will start freshman right-hander Andro Cutura (0-1, 1.86) on the mound. He took the loss at Jackson State last Tuesday after surrendering two runs on three hits in five innings pitched. He struck out four and did not walk a batter.

The Bulldogs (14-3) are coming of a 4-1 week that included a mid-week sweep of a two-game series with Penn State and a weekend-series victory over Mercer. Saturday's loss to the Bears snapped a seven-game Mississippi State winning streak.

Tuesday's game marks the first road game of the season for the Bulldogs and is Mississippi State's first trip to Southeastern since March 13, 1984. The Bulldogs won the game played in Ponchatoula, 10-2.

Demarcus Henderson (.414), Daryl Norris (.375) and Adam Frazier (.371) lead Mississippi State in hitting. The Bulldogs are hitting .299 as a team.

Fans interested in purchasing tickets in advance are encouraged to call the Southeastern Athletics ticket office at (985) 549-5466. More information is available at www.LionSports.net.


Fisher Named To Bench Award Watch List

Lions' senior catcher Jacob Fisher was named to the Johnny Bench Award watch list announced by the Greater Wichita (Kan.) Area Sports Commission.

The award, presented by BaseballSavings.com, is given annually to the top catcher in Division I college baseball.

Fisher is hitting .250 with seven RBIs and has more walks (8) than strikeouts (6). Defensively, he has picked off one runner and thrown out 5-of-19 would-be base stealers (27 percent).

Johnny Bench presented James Madison catcher, Jake Lowery, with the award last June in Wichita, Kan. Mike Zunino of the University of Florida and Chris O'Brien of Wichita State University were the other finalists for the award.

To be eligible an athlete must serve as the starting catcher in at least 75 percent of his team's games.