BATON ROUGE — LSU finished the season ranked in the Top 10 of the final 2001 Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls released Monday.
LSU, which recorded a 44-22-1 mark and advanced to NCAA Super Regional play, was ranked No. 9 by Baseball America and No. 10 by Collegiate Baseball. The 2001 Tigers won the SEC Western Division title and placed second in the overall league race. LSU played host to an NCAA Regional for the 12th straight season, winning the tournament with a 14-9 victory over Virginia Commonwealth to advance to the Super Regional.
The 2001 rankings mark the 13th time in the past 16 seasons the Tigers have finished in the Top 10. During retiring head coach Skip Bertman‘s 18-season (1984-2001) LSU tenure, the Tigers finished in the Top 25 on 16 occasions, the Top 15 on 15 occasions, the Top 10 on 13 occasions and the Top 5 on 10 occasions.
LSU reached the College World Series 11 times during Bertman’s tenure, advancing to the CWS “Final Four” on nine occasions. The Tigers captured the CWS title in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 2000.
LSU and Arizona State have the second-highest total of CWS championships (five), trailing only Southern California (12). LSU has won its five titles in the past 11 years, while USC has one CWS championship in the past 23 years, and Arizona State hasn’t won a CWS title since 1981.
Miami (Fla.) and Texas are next in the all-time CWS title standings with four championships apiece.