LSU Named 1 Of 16 NCAA Regional Host Sites; Now Awaits Top 8 Seed And Opponents

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

Home for the holidays!

And in Baton Rouge, Christmas tends to be in June in addition to the usual time, and sometimes late May.

The No. 1 Tigers (43-14) will host a four-team, double-elimination NCAA Regional baseball tournament this weekend, beginning on Friday, May 30, the NCAA announced Sunday night. The three other teams will be announced along with game times and pairings on Monday (11 a.m., ESPN2).

LSU is also expected to receive a top eight national seed during Monday’s announcement that will guarantee it a home, best-of-three, two-team Super Regional site the following weekend, should it advance this weekend.

LSU BATS SHUT DOWN IN 2-0 LOSS TO OLE MISS

LSU was the projected No. 5 national seed, according to D1Baseball’s projections over the weekend as the Tigers split two games in the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Hoover, Alabama, beating Texas A&M, 4-3, on Friday and losing to Ole Miss, 2-0, on Saturday.

D1Baseball’s other projected top seeds are No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 3 Arkansas, No. 4 North Carolina, No. 6 Georgia, No. 7 Auburn and No. 8 Coastal Carolina. Vanderbilt defeated Ole Miss, 3-2, in the SEC Tournament championship game on Sunday afternoon.

Ole Miss, like LSU, received one of the 16 NCAA Regional host sites along with six other SEC schools – Texas, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Georgia, Auburn and Tennessee for a total of eight. The other eight host sites will be North Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Clemson, Oregon State, Oregon, Southern Mississippi, UCLA and Florida State.

LSU will be hosting an NCAA Regional for the 28th time since 1986 at Alex Box Stadium (1986, 1990-2005, 2008, 2009, 2012-17, 2019 and 2023). The Tigers advanced from those NCAA Regionals to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series eight times from 1986-98, losing only twice in 1992 to Cal State Fullerton and in 1995 to Rice. The Super Regional round was added in 1999, and LSU advanced from a home NCAA Regional to a Super Regional 15 times from 1999 through 2023, losing at home only three times in 2012 to Stony Brook, 2016 to Coastal Carolina and in 2019 to Florida State.

Of the 12 Super Regionals hosted (2000, 2003-04, 2008-09, 2012-13, 2015-17, 2019 and 2023), LSU advanced to the College World Series nine times.

A limited number of all-session standing-room only tickets will go on sale at 9 a.m. Wednesday via www.LSUtix.net. Individual tickets for sessions (games one through six) will go on sale at 9 a.m. Friday – if any remain. Tickets for a seventh game on Monday, June 2 – if necessary – will go on sale at 9 a.m. on the day of the game. All tickets can be purchased via LSUtix.net.