BATON ROUGE — LSU is ranked No. 5 in the final 2003 Baseball America magazine poll released Wednesday, marking the 11th time since 1986 the Tigers have finished among the nation’s Top 5 teams.
The 2003 Tigers were ranked No. 7 in the Collegiate Baseball magazine poll released earlier this week.
The 2003 polls mark the 11th time in the past 18 seasons that LSU has achieved a Top 5 final ranking, and the 14th time in that span the Tigers have finished in the Top 10.
The 2003 Tigers won the Southeastern Conference title and advanced to the College World Series, recording a 45-22-1 overall record. LSU played host to an NCAA Regional for the 14th straight season, winning the tournament with a 9-8, 11-inning victory over North Carolina-Wilmington. The Tigers then played host to an NCAA Super Regional for the second time in four years, defeating Baylor in a best two-of-three series to earn a berth in the CWS.
In just his second season at the helm of the LSU program, Smoke Laval was named SEC Coach of the Year and Louisiana Coach of the Year.
LSU has reached the College World Series 12 times since 1986, advancing to the CWS “Final Four” on nine occasions. The Tigers captured the CWS title in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 2000.
LSU, Texas and Arizona State have the second-highest total of CWS championships (five), trailing only Southern California (12). Miami (Fla.) is next in the all-time CWS title standings with four championships.