Tag: Baton Rouge Regional

LSU to face Oregon State in Baton Rouge Regional winners’ bracket Saturday

The Beavers absolutely clobbered Sam Houston State in the nightcap on Friday, winning 18-2.

LSU’s recent postseason rivalry with Oregon State renews on Saturday as the teams face off in the winners’ bracket of the Baton Rouge Regional.

The second-seeded Beavers clobbered third-seeded Sam Houston State in the nightcap, winning 18-2 behind 22 hits and three innings scoring at least four runs. OSU didn’t have to go too deep into its bullpen. Two relievers combined for five outs.

The Tigers, on the other hand, didn’t have to dip into the bullpen, at all. Ace [autotag]Paul Skenes[/autotag] drew the start, and he pitched a complete game (the first of nine innings in his career). LSU beat Tulane 7-2 to advance to the winners’ game.

These programs have met seven times, and all have come in the postseason. They last faced each other in the Corvallis Regional in 2018, when the Beavers took two games by a combined score of 26-1.

LSU will hope for a better result this time around.

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LSU beats Tulane in Game 1 of the Baton Rouge Regional

Paul Skenes pitched the first nine-inning complete game in his career as the Tigers took down their in-state rival.

Much to the surprise of many, [autotag]Paul Skenes[/autotag] got the start on the mound for Game 1 of the Baton Rouge Regional against 19-40 Tulane.

We’ll see if that pays off in the long run for coach Jay Johnson and the Tigers, but it certainly did on Friday as they opened their NCAA tournament run with a 7-2 win to advance to the winners’ bracket.

LSU drew first blood in the bottom of the first inning when [autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag] scored on a [autotag]Hayden Travinski[/autotag] RBI double to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second inning, the Tigers tacked on two more runs when [autotag]Brayden Jobert[/autotag] scored on an RBI double and [autotag]Gavin Dugas[/autotag] scored on an RBI groundout by [autotag]Josh Pearson[/autotag] to make it 3-0.

In the bottom of the third inning, Travinski scored on an RBI groundout by Jobert to give LSU a 4-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, LSU scored two runs off of two sacrifice flyouts to score [autotag]Cade Beloso[/autotag] and Travinski to make it 6-0 Tigers after 5 innings.

In the top of the seventh inning, Tulane finally got on the board with a two-run homer off of Skenes to cut the lead to 6-2.

LSU loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth inning and Travinski walked to score another run to make the score 7-2 LSU as we headed to the ninth inning.

Skenes stayed on the mound to start the ninth inning as he looked to pitch his first complete game. Skenes retired the hitters 1-2-3 as he pitched the first nine-inning complete game of his career. His final stat line was nine innings pitched as he allowed two runs on seven hits, zero walks and 12 strikeouts.

LSU moves on to the winners’ bracket to face the victor of Friday night’s matchup between Oregon State/Sam Houston State on Saturday.

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Paul Skenes to start LSU’s regional opener vs. Tulane

When LSU opens the Baton Rouge Regional against the Green Wave, it will do so with the National Player of the Year on the mound.

When LSU takes the field at Alex Box Stadium on Friday afternoon against Tulane to begin the Baton Rouge Regional, it will do so with the National Player of the Year on the mound.

In a fairly surprising decision, Tigers coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] announced that ace [autotag]Paul Skenes[/autotag] will get the start at pitcher against Tulane, which is just 19-40 but got hot at the right time and captured the American Athletic Conference tournament title.

It was expected that Skenes would be saved for a potentially tougher matchup later in the weekend, but the Tigers will look to secure an opening win and put themselves in the winners’ bracket on Saturday.

Skenes, who was also named a First Team All-American after transferring in from Air Force last offseason, is 10-2 on the season with a 1.89 earned run average. A projected top-two pick in this summer’s MLB draft, Skenes’ 167 strikeouts this season is the second-highest single-season mark at LSU behind Ben McDonald’s 202 in 1989.

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How to watch LSU baseball open the Baton Rouge Regional against Tulane on Friday

The Tigers open their postseason run against the 19-40 Green Wave.

It’s NCAA tournament time once again for LSU baseball, and unlike in coach Jay Johnson’s first season, the Tigers are hosting a regional as the No. 5 national seed.

They’re joined in the Baton Rouge Regional by Oregon State — a team LSU has a good deal of history with — and Sam Houston State, but first, Johnson’s team will face Tulane.

The Green Wave are 19-40 on the year and have the worst record of any team in the tournament. Tulane went 8-16 in American play and only won a single regular season series, but they went 4-1 en route to a conference tournament title.

Here’s what you need to know to watch as LSU begins its postseason run.

LSU coach Jay Johnson updates Tommy White, team injury status entering regionals

White missed the SEC tournament loss to Texas A&M, but he’s expected to play Friday night.

Despite a frustrating close to the regular season, LSU remains poised to make a potential deep run in the NCAA tournament as the No. 5 seed.

When the Tigers open up the Baton Rouge Regional on Friday afternoon against Tulane, there will be one player fans will hope to see return to the lineup: first baseman [autotag]Tommy White[/autotag].

The NC State transfer and national RBI leader missed LSU’s elimination game loss against Texas A&M in the NCAA tournament, though coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] said he was “banged up” and it was mostly for rest purposes.

Based on Johnson’s comments in an interview with the SEC Network, it seems White is expected to play against the Green Wave.

“I anticipate (White) being able to play on Friday,” Johnson said. “He was a little banged up, but he needed that rest and we gave it to him. It was hard to do… I think it was the right thing for Tommy and ultimately the right thing to do for our team.”

Johnson said that the rest of the team is looking good from a health perspective and that the week the Tigers had off could prove beneficial as the team enters regional play.

“For the rest of the position players, I think we’re in a good spot,” Johnson said. “I think a couple days off was not the worst thing in the world. You look at [autotag]Jordan Thompson[/autotag], he’s played in every game since I’ve been the coach here. You look at [autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag], he’s played in every game since I’ve been the coach here.

“Those guys play two of the most demanding positions on the field. So, for them to get a rest and to get their legs underneath them, for them to get mental rest the last few days, I think was positive. We feel like we have a good plan in preparing for the week and doing the things we need to do to get ready. I feel like we’re in a pretty good spot.”

After dropping two of the final three regular-season series and exiting the SEC tournament shy of the semifinal round with a 2-2 record, LSU will hope it can get hot at the right time and make a run to Omaha for the first time since 2017.

The Tigers open up the Baton Rouge Regional against Tulane at Alex Box Stadium at 2 p.m. CT Friday.

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What’s at stake for Dylan Crews’ LSU legacy this postseason?

This month offers Crews a chance to define his legacy at LSU.

Players the caliber of [autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag] don’t come around often.

Crews hit the moment he picked up a bat at LSU. His freshmen slash line of .362/.453/.663 put him near the top of the sport as a 19-year-old.

The last two years, he’s only gotten better. He slugged .691 in 2022 and is slugging .710 this season. He’s fifth on LSU’s all-time home run leaderboard with a chance to get to third. He’s climbing the top 10 on the total bases list too, chasing names who played in a run environment much more favorable to hitters than the current one.

Crews is preparing for his third postseason with LSU. In some ways, this will be his first normal one.

His freshman year was Paul Mainieri’s final season, and last year was Jay Johnson’s first. This is the first Crews team to have real stability. It’s the first tournament Crews enters where LSU has a real championship expectation. Part of that expectation is the hope that Crews can carry this lineup to Omaha.

Crews isn’t the only star swinging the bat for LSU. This team was preseason No. 1 for a reason. But Crews is the biggest of them. He’s the SEC Player of the Year with a good chance at being first off the board when the MLB draft rolls around.

All those numbers and accolades should be enough to cement a legacy. Game to game, Crews produces at a level on par with some of the greatest athletes in LSU history.

Yet, legacies aren’t determined by what happens February through May. Legacies, real lasting legacies, are built in June. Right now.

What’s remembered most is what happened when it mattered the most. That can be a reductive way of looking at a player. Maybe, we should care about what happens in the playoffs less and try to look at the bigger picture. That’s probably more fair.

But that’s not how it is.

Crews is in his final stretch as a Tiger. In these days, he’ll be held to the standard he set for himself his first 183 games.

LSU needs Crews to look like a player that can be in the major leagues by next fall. The more runs created by Crews, the lesser the strain on the pitching staff. If Crews comes through in big at bats, it cushions the rest of the lineup.

If Crews slumps this weekend, it won’t define his career. But if he plays like the best player in the country, that will. This is the quintessential legacy moment.

Crews is a player with game changing ability. That needs to be on full display this weekend.

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LSU baseball among most favorable NCAA regional draws, according to On3

Falling to the No. 5 national seed may not be that bad, after all.

For a team that entered the season as the unanimous No. 1 squad and stayed that way for most of the 2023 campaign, LSU lost some momentum down the home stretch.

The Tigers dropped two of their final SEC series and exited the conference tournament one win shy of the semifinal round. As a result, coach Jay Johnson’s team earned the No. 5 national seed in the 2023 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

That may not be a bad thing, though. According to On3’s Jonathan Wagner, the Baton Rouge Regional is one of the three easiest on this weekend’s tournament slate.

It features a 19-40 Tulane team, far and away the worst record of any team in the field, as well as Sam Houston State and an Oregon State program that the Tigers are very familiar with.

Here’s Wagner’s breakdown.

LSU is the No. 5 overall seed, and the Baton Rouge Regional is an interesting one to say the least. The Tigers are one of the deepest teams in the country, led by SEC Player of the Year Dylan Crews and SEC Pitcher of the Year Paul Skenes. Those are your likely first two picks in the 2023 MLB First-Year Player Draft, as well. And given the opposition in Baton Rouge, it would be tough to envision LSU losing this regional.

Oregon State is the No. 2 seed in the Baton Rouge Regional. The Beavers were a contender to host at various points during the season, but they ultimately struggled in the end and finished No. 37 in RPI. With a staff ERA of 4.65, a team average of .290 and 79 home runs as a team, Oregon State doesn’t exactly scare a team like LSU.

Sam Houston, the No. 3 seed in Baton Rouge, has two players hitting above .400, which could be scary in the postseason. The team doesn’t hit for a lot of power, though, and a staff ERA of 5.26 is concerning given who they could have to face. Finishing No. 70 in RPI after winning 22 games in the WAC, Sam Houston is a low-end No. 3 seed.

LSU’s matchup in the opening round will be Tulane, a team that went 19-40. The Green Wave went 7-23 in non-conference games and followed it up by going just 8-16 in the American. Regardless, Tulane got hot when it mattered and won the grueling AAC Tournament.

Certainly, no game can be taken for granted come tournament time. We’ve seen top-eight national seeds upset in the regional round plenty of times before, and even Friday’s opener against the Green Wave could be tricky if they keep up their momentum from the American Athletic Conference Tournament.

Still, there are tougher regional draws in the field, including for teams with a higher national seed than the Tigers. Johnson has a good chance to reach the super regional round for the first time at LSU in his second season.

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A brief history of the LSU-Oregon State baseball rivalry

LSU and Oregon State could continue their budding rivalry this weekend. Here’s a look back at the recent history between the two.

LSU could be gearing up for a familiar foe this weekend.

The full NCAA Tournament field was announced Monday, sending Oregon State to the Baton Rouge Regional as a No. 2 seed.

The Tigers and Beavers are no strangers. Over the last decade, the two programs can’t seem to avoid each other when June rolls around.

There’s no natural rivalry here. LSU is buried in the Deep South while Oregon State sits in the Pacific Northwest. But if any two teams meet enough under the right circumstances, a rivalry emerges. That is the case with LSU and Oregon State.

Before the two potentially see each other this weekend, here’s a look back at recent meetings.