How to watch, preview for LSU baseball’s NCAA Tournament opener against Kennesaw State

The Tigers begin their postseason against the No. 3-seeded Owls at the Hattiesburg Regional on Friday night.

The Tigers are hitting the road for the regional round of the 2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament, but they won’t have to go very far.

LSU will take the approximately three-hour trek east to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for a regional hosted by Southern Miss, the No. 11 national seed. First up for the No. 2-seeded Tigers is a matchup against the region’s No. 3 seed, the Kennesaw State Owls.

The Owls are just 35-26 on the season but made the tournament by virtue of a phenomenal run in the Atlantic Sun Tournament as the third-seeded team. After dropping the first two games, KSU won out and captured the league’s autobid with an upset against Liberty in the championship.

LSU, meanwhile, is coming off a disappointing performance in the SEC Tournament. As the No. 4 seed, it won its first game against Kentucky but dropped the next two matchups, ultimately being eliminated in a rematch against the Wildcats.

The Tigers will hopefully have two of its key players back in infielders [autotag]Jacob Berry[/autotag] and [autotag]Cade Doughty[/autotag], who were held out of SEC Tournament competition last week as a precaution.

We could see LSU’s Day 1 starter on the mound in [autotag]Ma’Khail Hilliard[/autotag], but coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] may choose to save his arm for a potential matchup against the top-seeded Golden Eagles on Saturday. If that’s the case, we would likely see [autotag]Ty Floyd[/autotag] or [autotag]Samuel Dutton[/autotag] take the bump.

The Tigers will look to emerge out of the regional as an underdog, and that run will begin with Friday night’s opener at 6 p.m. CT.

Here’s how you can catch the action in this one.