NCAA Tournament: Regionals
On Sunday May 25 it was announced that LSU was selected as a host site for the 2008 NCAA Tournament for the 18th time in the history of the program and for the first time since the 2005 season. When the full NCAA Tournament bracket was released the next day, LSU was awarded the #7 national seed in the tournament, guaranteeing them home field advantage throughout the Super Regionals as long as they won the Regional round. It was the third time LSU earned a national seed since the advent of them in 1999. In 2000 the Tigers were the #2 national seed and went on to win the College World Series. In 2003, LSU again earned the #2 national seed. They made the College World Series that year but went 0-2 and were eliminated quickly.
In the Baton Rouge Regional, LSU was designated the #1 seed, Southern Mississippi earned the #2 seed, the University of New Orleans, who beat LSU two out of three times during the regular season, earned the #3 seed and Texas Southern earned the #4 seed.
LSU opened the Regional against Texas Southern in an afternoon game on Friday, May 30. LSU grabbed a quick lead in the 1st inning and cruised to a 12-1 victory. The Tigers then awaited the results of the night game between New Orleans and Southern Mississippi to find out who their next opponent would be.
Southern Mississippi beat New Orleans and moved on to face LSU in the night game on Saturday. The Tigers defeated the Golden Eagles by a score of 13-4 to advance to the championship round of the Regional.
Southern Mississippi climbed back through the losers bracket to make the championship round and face LSU again. But the Tigers again put the Golden Eagles away by winning 11-4 and moving on to the Super Regionals. The win brought LSU's winning streak to 23 consecutive games and set a new SEC record. The previous record was 22 games set by South Carolina in 2000.
Read more about this topic: 2008 LSU Tigers Baseball Team