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.
The Tigers are the No. 2 seed in the regional hosted by Southern Miss.
LSU is headed to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for the Hattiesburg Regional as the No. 2 seed to open the NCAA Tournament, the selection committee announced on Monday afternoon.
I’m nicknaming this the “All-Gold Regional” because every team has some form of gold in their color scheme. LSU’s first game will be against the No. 3 seed Kennesaw State Owls (35-26) on Friday night. The Owls were the champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
The winner of the Hattiesburg Regional will play against the winner of the Coral Gables Regional. Miami is the host for that one. The Arizona Wildcats are the No. 2 seed, Ole Miss is the No. 3 seed, and Canisius is the No. 4 seed.
Looking at the full bracket, I would say LSU got a really favorable draw as far as their regional is concerned. Some of these regions are absolutely stacked. The Miami regional is one of them that has three really good baseball teams. The Gainesville and Louisville regionals are insane.
The No. 4 seed in the Gators‘ regional has a record of 42-17 just to describe how insane it is. Regional play is a double-elimination format and LSU has a great shot at finding their way to the Super Regional, at least.
It’s fitting that one of the first spring college events on the east coast, the Any Given Tuesday Intercollegiate, pays homage to van drivers.
The team van is more symbolic than ever in college golf as the majority of teams and conferences resume play this spring after as many as 10 months off amid a lingering global pandemic. Many teams will play a regional schedule, Kennesaw State among them.
It’s fitting that one of the first spring college events on the East Coast, the Any Given Tuesday Intercollegiate, pays homage to that – Sprinter van tee markers and all. Kennesaw State head coach Bryant Odom said the roughly 350 miles from Kennesaw, Georgia, to this week’s tournament in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, may be the longest trip of the season.
After a 13-under team effort in Sunday’s opening round, it was a drive well worth it. No other team is within seven shots.
So far, a parking ticket has been Kennesaw State’s only setback.
In college golf, a Sprinter van may be iconic, but in Kiawah Island, it’s viewed more as an eyesore. In a laughable bit of irony, Odom got a call from security late the night of his team’s arrival, that such a van wasn’t permitted on the property where the team was staying. It was too late to move it and take a shuttle ride back, so Odom took his chances.
“I came out the next morning and the ticket was sitting there,” he said laughing.
It’s a minor obstacle amid the bigger picture.
“We’re just grateful to be out here on the road and play college golf. Anything from here is just the cherry on top, really.”
Starting on the tougher back nine at Oak Point Golf Club, Kennesaw State offset most of their birdies with bogeys. Fifth-year senior Connor Coffee punctuated the opening half of his round with a triple-bogey 7.
Odom met him in the fairway of the par-5 first, where Coffee hit his second shot to 10 feet, and gave him a rallying speech – that there was a lot of golf ahead.
“He just went off,” Odom said. “That’s the kind of player he is, he can just catch fire in a bottle like that.”
Coffee made the putt for eagle at the first, birdied Nos. 2 and 3 then eagled the par-5 fourth, too. He eagled the par-5 eighth and birdied the ninth for a 9-under 27 after turning in 40.
Not everything is back to normal, though, and the 10 six-man teams in the event played in two groups of three teammates at Oak Point. Everyone on the Kennesaw State roster could rally around what Coffee was doing. The Owls’ four counters played the front nine in 14 under.
“Easiest day of coaching I’ve had,” Odom remarked. “I didn’t have to do much.”
Coffee, a native of Peachtree City, Georgia, is tied with Coastal Carolina’s Zack Taylor at the top of the individual leaderboard.
Connor Coffee’s first-round scorecard at the Any Given Tuesday Intercollegiate. (Photo submitted)
Remarkably, 320 days have passed since Kennesaw State’s last competitive round as a team. Most classes were online at Kennesaw State this fall, but the team still gathered 20 hours a week.
“Our goal all fall was to stay sharp and have fun without getting burned out,” he said. “…It was a long fall but we made the best of it, I guess. We just tried not to get burned out. If the guys wanted to focus on school, let them focus on school. If they wanted to do more golf practice and drills and grind, they could do that. There was never any pressure either way.”
It’s a sign of a successful fall that the thought of rust never once crossed Odom’s mind watching his team compete on Sunday.
“They were making great decisions, they were staying aggressive, it was like everything was forgotten,” he said.
COVID precautions brings widespread schedule jockeying into play for many teams, Kennesaw State included. The Owls will play seven regular-season events this spring, and five of those events will be at new venues, this week included. Four of them are new on the college golf schedule, period.
All things being normal, Kennesaw State would have played a University of Greensboro-hosted event in Puerto Rico this month. The Auburn-hosted Tiger Invitational also went off the schedule when the SEC announced it would give priority to in-conference competition.
But Odom gained the Sea Palms Invitational at St. Simons Island, Georgia. The Atlantic Sun Conference championship will be at a new venue, the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Georgia, too.
“I really like the way it played out with the events we have on our schedule now,” Odom said.
(@prostubbs) 