As LSU baseball gathered and watched the NCAA selection show Monday morning, there was a real calming sensation in the Champion's Club. The real sweating happened overnight, when the Tigers learned they'd be one of 16 teams selected to host a regional.
Monday morning LSU (37-24, 17-13) learned the three teams who would be joining them in Baton Rouge for this weekends festivities. The other three teams are No. 2 seed Arizona State, No. 3 seed Southern Miss and No. 4 seed Stony Brook, who the Tigers will play Friday at 6 p.m.
Everyone knows the history with Stony Brook, the team that came into Alex Box in 2012 as an unknown and went on to beat the Tigers in the Super Regional to advance to its first College World Series. Only coach Paul Mainieri and pitching coach Alan Dunn were members of the staff, who were a part of that 7-2 Sunday night loss and currently still with the team.
Mainieri said the 2012 team, a team that won 51 games that year and had seven players drafted in the first three rounds, was "unbelievable"
"I knew as soon as I saw who our first opponent was it would bring back a lot of memories to 2012," Mainieri said. "In all honesty, this year has nothing to do with 2012 and I don't know much about Stony Brook's team this year. I thought they were better than us that year but this is a completely different year, completely different team and we just have to get ready to play I don't care who the opponent is."
Even shortstop Josh Smith and Antoine Duplantis, two of the team's most veteran players, remember watching the games with their families. Duplantis was family friends with former Tiger Tyler Moore, who hit a game tying homerun in game two of that series to keep LSU from being swept.
"We were all freaking out because obviously we knew him," Duplantis said. "Obviously you see the name and not many people have heard of that school but then you watched them play, they had a bunch of good players. Then my freshman year we played Coastal Carolina, a team I had never heard of before, and they beat us in the Super Regional and went on to win a National Championship. So you can never take any team lightly."
The senior outfielder was unsure if he'd get to play in front of the Alex Box faithful two weeks ago, when the Tigers took two out of three from Auburn to close the regular season. With one more weekend confirmed, Duplantis is ready to leave it all out on the field, regardless of the outcome.
"It's exciting but we have to play loose and confident just like we've been playing the last few weeks and I think we'll be alright," Duplantis said.
Duplantis has an opportunity to put his name in the record books by becoming the all time hits leader in program history, currently trailing Eddy Furniss by three hits. Duplantis said he received a text from Mainieri when the team was still in Hoover, making sure his mind wasn't consumed with pressure about breaking the record.
"He just wanted to make sure I was focused on winning and I assured him that I'm going out there to play to win," Duplantis said. "That's how I want to go out, to go as far as we can and knowing in my head that I did everything I could to help us win."
LSU received the No. 13 seed overall, which means if the Tigers are able to advance past the regional, they would be matched up with the winner of the No. 4 seed Georgia Bulldogs for a chance at a trip to the College World Series.
Georgia, who beat the Tigers two out of three in SEC play this year, hosts Mercer, Florida State and Florida Atlantic in its regional.
Before the Tiger can even think about the possible scenario's, Mainieri said the team must focus on the task at hand, which is not to lose two games this weekend and be eliminated on their home turf.
"My comments [after the Georgia series] were that was as evenly a matched SEC series that I can ever remember," Mainieri said. "Outside of me mentioning it now, we're not going to talk about super regionals because we have our work cut out for us this weekend."
Once returning from a semi-final exit in Hoover on Saturday, the team was given off Sunday and Monday in the hopes that "their batteries would be recharged." Smith said that it wasn't too long ago he was playing four games a day so while the extra rest is nice, the team is feeling as healthy as can be.
"Honestly I think everyone's feeling pretty good," Smith said. "We used to play four games a day when we were little kids so to play five games in five days isn't that bad. I think everyone's feeling good and we're just excited for the regional."
"We need the rest, which I think will do us a lot of good," Mainieri said. "That 17 inning game, you're tired but the next couple of days is when it really hits you. I'm still having trouble recovering from it but may be 21 year olds recover quicker than 61 year olds."
With Cole Henry returning to the rotation in the SEC tournament, Mainieri is confident he has three starters in Henry, Eric Walker and Landon Marceaux. While he doesn't yet know the order of when those three will pitch, he acknowledged having them all available is a huge boost to the team.
"Momentum is only as good as tomorrow's starting pitcher," Mainieri said. "I think our starting pitching has me excited. Marceaux is throwing like a seasoned veteran and Cole Henry is back healthy and I think Eric Walker will get him self on track with a good week of side practice. I think we have momentum because I think we'll have a good rotation."
