BATON ROUGE — LSU begins its final NCAA baseball tournament under head coach Skip Bertman Friday as the Tigers face Minnesota at 2 p.m. in the first game of the four-team Baton Rouge Regional in Alex Box Stadium. The game between the top-seeded Tigers (40-19-1) and the fourth-seeded Gophers (39-19) will be followed at 7 p.m. by a contest matching No. 2 seed Virginia Commonwealth (38-17) and No. 3 seed California (33-23).
The regional continues with three games on Saturday at 11 a.m., 3 p.m, and 7:30 p.m., and the tournament concludes with the championship round at 1 p.m. Sunday.
A limited number of tickets for the LSU-Minnesota game will go on sale at 8 a.m. Friday at Alex Box Stadium. Individual-game tickets are $10 each.
The LSU-Minnesota game can be heard on the LSU Sports Network (98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The game will also be televised by the Guaranty Sports Network, whose affiliates include WGMB-TV (Cable Ch. 6/Fox 44) in Baton Rouge, WNOL-TV in New Orleans, KLAF-TV in Lafayette, KWBJ-TV in Morgan City, KDCG-TV in Opelousas, KLAX-TV in Alexandria, KPXJ-TV in Shreveport and KNOE-TV in Monroe. As of noon on Thursday, there was no affiliate carrying the game in the Lake Charles area. Outside of Louisiana, fans can pick up the game on their regular CSSE station.
The winner of the Baton Rouge Regional will face the winner of the New Orleans Regional in a best two-of-three NCAA Super Regional series June 1-3 at a site to be determined. The New Orleans Regional includes top-seeded Tulane (50-10), No. 2 Ole Miss (38-21-1), No. 3 Oklahoma State (40-20) and No. 4 Southern University (43-10).
Bertman, who is retiring from coaching at the end of the 2001 season to become LSU’s athletic director, has guided the Tigers to five NCAA national championships in the last 10 years. He enters the regional with an 866-327-3 (.725) overall record, including an 85-26 (.766) mark in NCAA Tournament play.
Left-hander Lane Mestepey (10-3, 3.30 ERA), the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year, will be LSU’s starting pitcher against Minnesota. The Gophers, who enter the regional riding a 10-game win streak, will counter with junior right-hander Mike Kobow (10-3, 4.41 ERA).
LSU, which is playing host to an NCAA Regional for the 12th consecutive season, has a 45-8 mark in regional games at Alex Box Stadium. The Tigers have won five straight NCAA Regional tournaments (1996-2000) in their home stadium.