Special to the American Press

The Tigers, the No. 5 national seed, will host fellow Southeastern Conference member Kentucky this weekend in an NCAA Tournament super regional with the winner advancing to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

The best-of-three series will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday. Game times for Sunday and Monday (if necessary) will be determined.

The Tigers (46-15), who have won their last three games, beat Oregon State for their 26th regional title in program history — all since 1986 — and advanced to a super regional for the 16th time. LSU is trying to return to Omaha for the 19th time and first since 2017.

“I’m really proud of the team, and I think this was a great week,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said after beating Oregon State 13-7 on Monday. “The preparation by the players and the staff was elite. And then the execution on the field by the players on all sides of the ball was outstanding.

“Defensively, I thought we had a great weekend. We had one error (Monday), but I think that was it for the tournament.

“Offensively, we had really, really, strong performances throughout the weekend,” said Johnson, whose team scored 26 runs and had nine home runs among its 40 hits in three games. “I think it shows the capability of this team, and I’m really proud of them. We’re going to get reset, put together another great week, and get prepared for the coming weekend.”

The Wildcats (40-19) won the Lexington (Ky.) Regional by winning three games in 36 hours, finishing off Indiana 4-2 Monday night to advance.

Kentucky, which is in the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time, will be making its second super regional appearance. The Wildcats have never been to the College World Series.

The Tigers took two of three when the teams met in April in Baton Rouge. LSU won the first game 16-6 in eight innings only to see the Wildcats outlast the Tigers 13-10 in the second game. LSU won the rubber game 7-6.

“Great team, great program,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mignione said of LSU. “I know their head coach well. We’re good friends. He’s one of the premier coaches in the country.

“I think anytime that you can go somewhere that you’ve already been, that definitely helps. And I told them, I don’t know how to prepare you to have 13,000 people go against you. But we’ve been there. They have great fans. They’re great people. And it will definitely be a different environment now.

“It’s a really good one, but it will go up another level. But the fact that our guys have experienced that definitely helps.

“They’re a good team,” Kentucky catcher Devin Burkes said of LSU. “We’re also a good team. Just compete. At the end of the day it’s not about nothing else. The best team that wins. It’s the team that plays the best, not the best team that wins.”