LSU freshmen pitchers answered hype; Northwestern St. game Wednesday pushed to March 12

BATON ROUGE — LSU's top two freshman pitchers performed as advertised in the No. 1 Tigers' opening weekend.

Right-hander Landon Marceaux of Destrehan threw a two-hitter over five and two-thirds innings, allowing one run with five strikeouts in a no-decision Saturday as the Tigers beat Army, 6-5.

MORE: LSU wins in dramatic fashion over Army

Then on Sunday, right-hander Jaden Hill of Ashdown, Arkansas, allowed one run over five innings with four hits, one walk and eight strikeouts for the win as LSU beat Air Force, 17-5. He threw 71 pitches with 44 for strikes and struck out the first three batters he faced.

Hill was named Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week on Monday.

The Tigers (3-0) will debut another freshman hurler today when they host Southeastern Louisiana (0-3) at 4 p.m. in Alex Box Stadium. Right-hander Cole Henry of Florence, Alabama, will start for LSU.

The game was originally scheduled for 6:30 p.m., but was moved up because of expected bad weather in the area. 

Bad weather predictions for Natchitoches, meanwhile, has postponed LSU's scheduled game at Northwestern State at 6 p.m. Wednesday to Tuesday, March 12, at 6 p.m. at Northwestern State. Tickets for the game Wednesday cannot be refunded, but they will be honored at the rescheduled game. 

LSU coach Paul Mainieri was enthused by his team's performance over the first weekend.

"I thought the opening weekend showed a lot of different facets of our team," he said.

The Tigers won their opener over Louisiana-Monroe, 12-7, on Friday.

"I was pleased with the way our players competed. Everything was very positive, but we have a lot of games ahead," Mainieri said.

LSU hosts Bryant for three games this weekend. Sophomore Eric Walker, who missed all of 2018 after elbow surgery following the 2017 season in which he was an All-American, will start for the Tigers.