Has LSU baseball done enough to host an NCAA Regional? Here's the Tigers' case
LSU baseball was eliminated from the SEC Tournament on Saturday, falling 7-2 to Kentucky.
After defeating 12th-seeded Kentucky easily on Thursday night, 11-6, the fourth-seeded Tigers lost consecutive contests to top-seeded Tennessee, 5-2 on Friday night, and Kentucky.
LSU entered Saturday's contest with the No. 22 ranking in the RPI and was projected to host an NCAA Regional as the No. 14 seed, according to D1 Baseball.
But do consecutive losses from the Tigers drop them out of a hosting spot? Here's a look at LSU's resume and how the other potential regional hosts are performing this week.
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LSU's resume
LSU will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 38-20 record. The Tigers finished Saturday's game with a 13-18 mark against top 50 RPI teams but went just 3-10 against clubs ranked 26-through-50.
Their resume of wins includes a three-game road sweep against Vanderbilt (No. 9 in RPI) and series victories over Georgia (No. 20), Alabama (No. 48) and Florida (No. 16). But LSU has also lost series to Auburn (No. 11) and Texas A&M (No. 18) and got swept by Ole Miss (No. 37) and Arkansas (No. 40).
Additionally, LSU's non-conference schedule will not help its case much. The Tigers' strength of schedule outside of the SEC ranked 112th in the nation. LSU has just one win against a non-conference opponent ranked in the top 50 of the RPI, an extra-innings victory over Oklahoma (No. 26) in March.
What other regional host contenders have done this week
According to D1 Baseball, the other teams in contention of hosting a regional include Auburn, Texas State, NC State, Texas Tech and Georgia, all of whom the site projects are on the outside looking in. Georgia Southern, TCU, North Carolina, East Carolina and Texas hold the hosting seeds closest to LSUs.
Auburn losing its final regular season series to Kentucky and then falling to the Wildcats in the first round of the SEC Tournament helps LSU's hopes of hosting. But Auburn's superior RPI and LSU's loss to Kentucky on Saturday could still place it over LSU in the hosting pecking order.
Georgia being eliminated in round one of the SEC Tournament by Alabama also helps LSU. And beyond the SEC, TCU and Texas Tech's exits from the Big 12 Tournament should also aid the Tigers' chances.
But most of the other teams LSU is contending with for final hosting spots are still alive in their conference tournaments. East Carolina and Georgia Southern are still playing in their respective tourneys. North Carolina beat Virginia Tech (No. 5) and NC State beat Miami (No. 15) on their way to the ACC Tournament final.
In conclusion
If LSU had beaten Kentucky on Saturday, the Tigers would have been feeling much better about its hosting chances.
A win over the Wildcats would have given LSU two late-season victories against a potentially tournament-bound team playing their best baseball. Kentucky had won six of its last eight games and is the only team in the nation to win a series over Tennessee.
But Saturday's loss nulls LSU's win over the Wildcats on Thursday. And the Tigers' early exit from the SEC Tournament opens the door for teams like NC State to steal their hosting spot.
With the regional hosts to be announced on Sunday, consider LSU's odds of being one of those teams a coin flip.
Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser and the USA TODAY Sports South Region. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball case to host an NCAA Regional after SEC Tournament
