LSU was named as one of 16 regional hosts Monday in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.
LSU, the No. 13 national seed, is the Baton Rouge Regional’s top seed. The Tigers (37-24) will face No. 4 Stony Brook (31-21) at 6 p.m. Friday in the regional’s second game at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
No. 2 Arizona State (37-17) plays No. 3 Southern Miss (38-19) in the opener at noon.
The double-elimination regional runs through at least Sunday. A final elimination game, if necessary, is scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday.
The winner of the Baton Rouge Regional will visit the winner of the Athens, Ga., Regional. Georgia (44-15), the No. 4 overall seed, is the top seed in Athens.
Stony Brook won the America East Conference Tournament. The school should be familiar to LSU fans. In 2012, the Tigers lost to the Seawolves two games to one in a Super Regional in Baton Rouge.
“As soon as I saw our first opponent’s name up there, it was going to bring back a lot of thoughts about 2012,” LSU head coach Paul Mainieri said. “In all honesty, this year has nothing to do with 2012. This is a completely different year, and we are a completely different team and they are a completely different team. We just have to get ready to play, I don’t care who the opponent is.”
Southern Miss won the Conference USA Tournament after finishing second to Florida Atlantic in the regular season. Florida Atlantic is the No. 2 seed in the Athens Regional.
Former Captain Shreve star Bryant Bowen is a catcher for the Golden Eagles. The junior leads Southern Miss in batting with a .340 average. He also has 10 doubles, one triple, 11 home runs and 49 RBI.
Arizona State finished fifth in the Pac-12 with a 16-13 record. Five Pac-10 teams made the tournament. The Sun Devils led the nation in home runs during the regular season with 92.
LSU is coming off a strong showing in the SEC Tournament. After falling to Mississippi State, which earned the No. 6 overall seed, 6-5 in 17 innings, the Tigers advanced to the semifinals with a 12-2, seven-inning victory over the Bulldogs.
LSU lost to No. 2 national seed Vanderbilt 13-4 in the semifinals.
UCLA (47-8) is the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament followed by Vanderbilt (49-10), Georgia Tech (41-17), Georgia (44-15) and Arkansas (41-17).
