It’s Here! LSU Opens Its 20th World Series Vs. Familiar Foe Arkansas Tonight

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

A national record 13 Southeastern Conference baseball teams made the NCAA postseason field last month.

A record nine were out by the end of the first weekend and a record 11 by the end of the second weekend.

Two are still standing – No. 6 seed LSU (48-15) and No. 3 seed Arkansas (48-13). They are the two highest remaining seeds and meet at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN in 24,000-seat Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.

Act like ya been there before … even if you haven’t:https://t.co/pG53ESLdga

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) June 13, 2025

“We’ve already seen Arkansas once this year,” LSU junior power hitter Jared Jones said. “That was at our place. Now, it’s a neutral site.”

Well, not exactly.

LSU has owned Omaha ever since its early sojourns in the mid-to-late 1980s of 14 hours by car over 950 miles northwest of Baton Rouge and more or less from other Louisiana spots. Purple & Gold dominated the seats at Rosenblatt Stadium from the first trip in 1986 through the Tigers’ five national championship under coach Skip Bertman, Warren Morris’ walk-off in 1996, and through 2000 before the sixth one under coach Paul Mainieri in 2009.

The new, less-neighborhood stadium opened in 2011, which just meant room for more LSU fans on trips in 2013, ’15, ’17 and the seventh LSU national crown in 2023 under coach Jay Johnson. The Tigers and their LSU Traveling Nation are on their 20th trip – complete with a 13.5-foot high Mardi Gras Mike the Tiger float. As if, LSU needed a bigger entrance.

“I don’t know how there’s going to be enough seats here on Saturday in order to get them all in here,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said.

The Tiger won’t have a seat.

The 13-foot-tall Mike the Tiger float made its way from New Orleans to Omaha. See how the creators made it.

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— Louisiana First News (@LAFirstNews) June 13, 2025

The Hog Nation is much closer – only 423 miles, a mere six-hour drive, for Sooey headquarters in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and 611 from Little Rock. They’ll make the trip, too, as the Razorbacks search for their first national title after 11 previous trips with runner-up finishes in 1979 and 2018, which ended a pop-up catch away from Van Horn’s first title.

“There’s going to be a lot of red here and a lot of purple,” Van Horn said. “We were going to play each other some time.”

LSU BASEBALL BEATS ARKANAS ON WALK-OFF SACRIFICE FLY

LSU took two of three from Arkansas from May 9-11. The Tigers won the opener, 5-4, in 10 innings on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Ethan Frey at 1:16 a.m. following a delayed start because of weather. LSU then won 13-3 the next day in seven innings via the 10-run rule before a 7-4 loss in the finale.

Sophomore left-hander and projected top pick of the July MLB Draft Kade Anderson (10-1, 3.58 ERA) is expected to start for LSU tonight against Arkansas junior left-hander Zach Root (8-5, 3.59 ERA). Those two put on an impressive duel in the opener with each taking a lengthy no-decision.

“I think it’s a good advantage for us,” said Jones, who went 2-for-5 with an RBI in the first game, but 0-for-8 the rest of the way with five strikeouts.

“They’re very talented on the mound – as good a pitching staff as I’ve probably seen in my time in college baseball,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson, who took Arizona to a runner-up finish in 2016 and on a return trip in 2021 before coming to LSU.

“In terms of starters, relievers, arm strength, out pitches, pitch-ability, the whole deal,” Johnson said. “I think they would probably say the same thing about us. I think it will make for a great game Saturday night.”

Arkansas is also full of left-handers, which has been a weak spot for LSU. It is for most teams, but the Tigers’ top hitter in particular. Freshman left-handed hitting left fielder Derek Curiel leads the Tigers in batting average at .347 with seven home runs and 52 RBIs. But he is hitting only .225 (20-for-89) against left-handers.

Chances are, one could think LSU was going to Omaha last January, so thought Jake Brown’s dad, Chance Brown:https://t.co/KTyATtGven

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) June 12, 2025

Sophomore left-handed hitting right fielder Jake Brown is hitting .315 for fourth on the team and has eight home runs and 44 RBIs, but he is batting .176 (6-for-34) against lefties.

But Curiel did hit a critical, three-run home run against West Virginia left-hander Griffin Kirn for a 3-1 lead on the way to a 16-9 win last Saturday in the first game of a Super Regional sweep in Baton Rouge.

Root will likely be better than Kirn, but LSU has gradually gotten more accustomed to the southpaws. And it’s a good thing, because Arkansas also has left-handed relievers in Parker Coil (3-0, 1.27 ERA, 1 save), Cole Gibler (3-1, 3.25 ERA, 1 save) Colin Fisher (3-0, 4.62 ERA) and Landon Beidelschies (4-0, 4.92 ERA).

“I don’t want to say immune to it,” Johnson said. “But you kind of get accustomed to seeing this elite pitching. And the more you see something, the more you get a little more comfortable with it. I don’t know if ‘comfortable’ is the right word to use. But I think it’s the beauty of playing in our league. You get to postseason, and there’s really nothing that you have not seen.”

And LSU and Arkansas could meet again a second or third time as the two, four-team brackets in the College World Series operate as two separate tournaments with the bracket winners meeting in the national championship series next weekend.

LSU won its previous two CWS meetings against Arkansas, 9-1 and 14-5, on its way to the 2009 national title. The Tigers lead the all-time series with the Razorbacks, 79-45, including a current 15-5 run and nine series victories out of 13.

The LSU-Arkansas winner plays at 6 p.m. Monday against the winner of UCLA (47-16) and Murray State (44-15), which play at 1 p.m. Saturday. The two losers meet at 1 p.m. Monday. The World Series opened Friday with Coastal Carolina beating Arizona, 7-4, and Oregon State edging Louisville, 4-3.

“I feel like we were going to face LSU at some point in this next week and a half or so,” Root said. “So, why not just make it the first game and get it out of the way?”