LSU taking the long way to Omaha
Published 9:31 pm Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Scooter Hobbs
LSU’s Alex Box Stadium will remain shuttered for the NCAA regionals, which was no surprise.
But when the NCAA decided to ship LSU out on the road, the selection committee didn’t fool around.
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The Tigers, who weren’t assured of a spot in the tournament until a strong run through last week’s SEC tournament, will travel all the way to Corvallis, Ore., when regional play opens Friday.
LSU (37-25), the No. 2 seed in the regional hosted by Oregon State, will open play Friday at 3 p.m. against No. 3 seed San Diego State (39-19).
At least LSU will have some bayou-flavored company on the Left Coast.
Louisiana’s other team in the tournament, Southland Conference tournament champion Northwestern State (37-22), will also have to find a way to Corvallis and will open play Friday at 9:30 p.m. as the No.4 seed against regional top seed Oregon State.
The Beavers (44-10-1) are the No. 3 national seed.
LSU has been at home for regional play for the last six NCAA trips, last traveling to Los Angeles for a UCLA-hosted regional in 2010.
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The Corvallis regional is matched up against the Minneapolis regional, which has No. 1 seed Minnesota along with UCLA, Gonzaga and Canisius. The eventual survivors of those two regionals will play in the super regional.
“It’s going to be a new adventure for us not playing a regional in The Box,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “I don’t want to make that a habit, but we’re going to look at it as a positive this year. We get a new adventure.”
LSU has never played San Diego State, which earned an automatic bid by winning the Mountain West Conference tournament.
And LSU head coach Paul Mainieri joked Monday the he wasn’t sure he could pick out Oregon on a road map.
But if the Pacific Northwest surroundings will be strange to the Tigers — it will be farthest from Alex Box that LSU has ever played — the hosts will need no introduction.
LSU and Oregon State hooked up for three games last June in Omaha for the College World Series.
The Beavers, last year’s No. 1 seed in the CWS, hammered LSU 13-1 in both teams’ second game in Omaha, but the Tigers came back through the losers’ bracket and then beat Oregon State 3-1 and 6-1 in back-to-back games to advance to the finals.
Oregon State returns most of the players from that team, and the Beavers, who won back-to-back national championships in 2006-07, have now gone 100-16 over the last two seasons.
But first LSU has to play San Diego State, far more challenging opponent than the No. 4 seeds the Tigers get when hosting a regional.
“We earned a No. 2 seed,” Mainaieri said of the SEC tournament surge. “But probably not a high No. 2 seed, which probably meant that they put us into a Top 8 seed regional.
“It doesn’t really matter who you play. Once you get in the NCAA tournament, everybody is good. Every team has either won a championship to earn their way into the tournament or they were so good that they got an at-large bid. You’re going to face a good team no matter where you’re sent, no matter what your seeding is, and that’s the way we’re going to approach it.”
Mainieri probably knows far more about Oregon State that Northwestern State coach Bobby Barbier.
The Demons are in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005 when NSU went to Baton Rouge. It’s NSU’s fourth trip overall.
“They weren’t one of the teams we did a lot of preliminary stuff on,” second-year head coach Barbier said of the Beavers. “I know they’re a really good baseball team. Their coach (Pat Casey) does a tremendous job out there. I look forward to seeing a different brand of baseball. That West Coast baseball is a little different than what we play down here. I’m looking forward to competing against those guys.”
LSU was one of a record-tying 10 SEC teams to get tournament bids, four of which will be national seeds hosting regionals — No. 1 Florida, No. 4 Ole Miss, No. 5 Arkansas and No. 8 Georgia.
