BATON ROUGE — LSU will face Minnesota at 2 p.m. Friday in the first game of the four-team NCAA 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 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 regional ticket books are available at the LSU athletic ticket office. Ticket books, which are good for the entire tournament, are $45. The ticket office, located on the first floor of the LSU athletic administration building, is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. For ticket information, call (225) 578-2184.
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).
“I would say that this is a pretty strong regional,”LSU head coach Skip Bertman said of the Baton Rouge field. “Minnesota has to be one of the strongest No. 4 seeds in the tournament. It looks like being the No. 1 seed in this regional is not a big advantage.
“I’m sad to see that the three Louisiana teams (LSU, Tulane and Southern) are bracketed together, so only one of us can get to Omaha,” Bertman said. “I would like to have seen all of us have a chance to get there.”
Bertman said he was disappointed the Tigers were not named one of the tournament’s eight national seeds. The top eight seeds, who have the inside track on playing host to super regionals, are Cal State-Fullerton, Miami (Fla.), Southern California, Stanford, Tulane, Georgia, East Carolina and Nebraska.
Should Tulane win the New Orleans Regional, the Green Wave would likely play host to the Baton Rouge Regional winner in the Super Regional series.
The Super Regional winner advances to the College World Series June 8-16 in Omaha, Neb.
“I had hoped we would be one of the eight national seeds, but I wasn’t sure,”Bertman said. “Tulane certainly deserves to be in the top eight. Evidently, our record over the last two weeks of the regular season (1-5) hurt our chances to be a top eight seed.”
NCAA Sub-Regional Pairings
* indicates Regional Host
(#) indicates tournament seeding
1. * (1) CS-Fullerton
2. Arizona State
3. Texas Tech
4. Temple
1. Mississippi State
2. *Ohio State
3. Delaware
4. Kent
1. * (2) Miami (Fla.)
2. Florida
3. Stetson
4. Bucknell
1. South Alabama
2. * Clemson
3. William & Mary
4. Seton Hall
1. * (3) Southern Cal
2. Pepperdine
3. Fresno State
4. Oral Roberts
1. * Notre Dame
2. UC-Santa Barbara
3. Florida International
4. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
1. * (4)Stanford
2. Long Beach State
3. Texas
4. Marist
1. Central Florida
2. * South Carolina
3. The Citadel
4. Princeton
1. * (5) Tulane
2. Ole Miss
3. Oklahoma State
4. Southern
1. * LSU
2. Virginia Commonwealth
3. California
4. Minnesota
1. * (6) Georgia
2. Georgia Tech
3. Coastal Carolina
4. Georgia Southern
1. * Florida State
2. Auburn
3. Jacksonville
4. Bethune-Cookman
1. * (7) East Carolina
2. Winthrop
3. South Florida
4. Maryland-Baltimore County
1. Wake Forest
2. * Tennessee
3. Middle Tennessee
4. Tennessee Tech
1. * (8) Nebraska
2. Rutgers
3. BYU
4. Northern Iowa
1. * Rice
2. Baylor
3. Houston
4. Texas-Arlington