| Team Practice Schedule Thursday, May 29 |
| Alex Box Stadium
10 – 11:15 a.m. All practice sessions are open to the general public. |
BATON ROUGE — For the second time in the past four seasons, LSU has earned the number two national seed in the NCAA baseball tournament, and the Fighting Tigers will begin play in the Baton Rouge regional on Friday at 2 p.m. against Northeastern.
The NCAA Division I baseball committee announced the entire 64-team field and the regional pairings on Monday in a nationally televised announcement on ESPN2.
The second game of the Baton Rouge regional will feature No. 2 seed Tulane and No. 3 seed UNC Wilmington at 7 p.m.
The losers of Friday’s games will meet in Saturday’s first game at 11 a.m., with the winners of Friday’s games meeting at 3 p.m. Saturday’s third game at 7:30 p.m. will pair the winner of the first game and the loser of the second game.
The championship round is set for 1 p.m. Sunday, and if a second championship game is needed, it will be played at 5 p.m.
Ticket booklets for the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional at Alex Box Stadium will go on sale at 8 a.m. Tuesday in the LSU ticket office.
Regional ticket booklets are $45, and they may be purchased by phone (800-960-8587 or 225-578-2184) or in person at the LSU ticket office, which is located on the first floor of the athletic administration building. Phone will include a processing fee.
Individual-game tickets, which are $10 each, will be sold on game days only.
Payments may be made by cash, check, VISA, MasterCard or American Express.
LSU (40-19-1), the champions of the Southeastern Conference and runners-up in the SEC Tournament this past weekend, has been a national seed twice since the NCAA began naming national seeds in the expanded 64-team bracket in 1999.
The Tigers were also the No. 2 national seed in 2000, and LSU parlayed that designation into the school’s fifth national championship since 1991.
“It’s an honor to the players and the obstacles they had to overcome,” LSU coach Smoke Laval said. “When you win the Southeastern Conference, go to the championship game of the tournament, and eight teams go to the tournament, it also speaks highly of our club.”
LSU was one of eight SEC teams to reach the regionals, with Auburn and Mississippi St. joining LSU as host teams. Florida made the tournament despite the fact the Gators did not reach the SEC Tournament, finishing ninth in the conference at 13-16-1. The other SEC Teams in the tournament are Ole Miss, Arkansas, Alabama and South Carolina.
Florida State was named as the No. 1 national seed for the second consecutive year. After LSU, the remaining national seeds are, in order, Georgia Tech, Auburn, Rice, Stanford, Cal St. Fullerton and Miami.
Northeastern, located in Boston, won the America East Conference tournament with a 27-22 overall record and is making its first trip to the regionals since 1997. The Huskies become the second school from Beantown to play in an NCAA regional in Baton Rouge, as Harvard finished third in the 1998 South II regional behind LSU and Cal St. Fullerton.
UNC Wilmington will be making its first trip to the post-season in school history, and finished 38-19 overall and second in the Colonial Athletic Association behind Virginia Commonwealth. UNCW will be the third current member of the CAA to play in Baton Rouge in a regional, joining James Madison in 1995 and VCU in 2001. East Carolina, now in Conference USA, was a CAA member when it came to Baton Rouge in 1999.
Tulane (43-17) and LSU are the oldest of rivals, having played 274 times since 1893. The Tigers hold a 154-117-3 edge in the series, but the Green Wave won two of three meetings this year. Tulane won 5-4 in 11 innings at Zephyr Field on March 11 and 9-5 at the Superdome on April 29, but LSU won 8-0 at Baton Rouge on April 15.
LSU and Tulane have met six times in the NCAA tournament, with LSU holding a 4-2 edge. The Tigers defeated the Green Wave in regional play at Alex Box
“Tulane is definitely one of those clubs who could host their own regional,” Laval said. “We’ve just got to get on the phone and find out what we can about our opponents.”
The winner of the Baton Rouge regional will face the winner of the Hattiesburg regional in the super regional round June 6-8 or June 7-9. Should LSU win its regional, it will receive priority to host the super regional. The Hattiesburg regional matchups are No. 1 Baylor vs. No. 4 Murray St. and No. 2 Southern Miss vs. No. 3 Southern.
NCAA BATON ROUGE REGIONAL TELEVISION AFFILIATES The Jumbo Sports Network will carry the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional tournament LIVE Friday, May 30, through Sunday, June 1, on the following TV affiliates: BATON ROUGE WGMB-TV(Cable Ch. 6) (Games 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7) WZUP-TV (Cable Ch. 13) (Games 2 and 5) NEW ORLEANS WNOL WB 38 (all games) LAFAYETTE KLAF-TV UPN (all games) MORGAN CITY KWBJ-TV WB (all games) ALEXANDRIA KLAX-TV (Games 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6) KCLA-TV (Games 2 and 7) SHREVEPORT KPXJ-TV PAX (all games) MONROE KAQY-TV ABC (Games 6 and 7)