LSU re-enters top 10 in baseball rankings; Tulane knocking at door – NOLA.com

LSU has ridden a season-best eight straight wins back into the top 10, with Tulane not far off from either distinction.

The Tigers (36-16) climbed three spots to No. 8 in the latest Baseball America rankings and six spots to No. 10 in the D1Baseball.com rankings after a 5-0 road trip with two midweek wins at Notre Dame (27-23) and a three-game sweep of Tennessee (26-26)  in Knoxville, Tenn.

LSU also leaped 10 spots to No. 11 in the Collegiate Baseball poll.

The Green Wave (35-15) have now won eight of their past nine after a 4-1 week and are No. 11 on the Baseball America list, a seven-position jump from No. 18 last Monday.

Tulane, which beat UNO (30-20) and Southern (12-30) before taking two of three from Memphis, also climbed six spots, according to Collegiate Baseball, up to No. 13 this week and one to No. 14, per D1Baseball.com.

Louisiana-Lafayette (33-19) also re-entered the Collegiate Baseball rankings at No. 22 after a 2-2 week on the road.

Memphis vs. Tulane, May 13, 2016Tulane outfielder Lex Kaplan (6) attempts to steal second during the game between Memphis and Tulane at Turchin Stadium on Friday, May 13, 2016. 

The Ragin’ Cajuns lost one-run games at Houston (31-20) on Wednesday and South Alabama (37-16) on Friday before rebounding to claim their weekend series from the Jaguars with Saturday and Sunday victories.

Florida (43-9) once again topped all three rankings and will visit Baton Rouge this weekend as the nation’s top team.

No. 9 Virginia (33-18) was the only new team to crack the Collegiate Baseball top 10 and joined LSU as the only teams to do so on this week’s Baseball America and D1Baseball.com lists.

Baseball America’s top six remained unchanged with Florida, Texas A&M (39-11), Mississippi State (37-14), Miami (40-9), Texas Tech (38-13) and Ole Miss (39-13).

All three sets of rankings boast seven SEC teams in their respective top 12.

LSU will host Northwestern State (30-21) on Tuesday and Florida on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Tulane will host Nicholls State (22-30) on Tuesday before visiting Houston on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

And Louisiana-Lafayette will visit UNO on Tuesday before closing the regular season at home against ULM (20-32) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

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Jerit Roser can be reached at Jroser@nola.com or 504.826.3405.