LSU has some scores to settle

BATON ROUGE – LSU has been the No. 1 baseball team in the nation in a myriad of polls for going on two months now. So, one might not think they have so many scores to settle. And one might be wrong.

The Tigers, 48-10 Southeastern Conference champions, lost out to UCLA, 42-14 Pacific-12 champions, on Monday for the No. 1 national seed – something LSU has never been named despite its illustrious history of six national championships and 16 College World Series appearances since 1986. UCLA, by the way, also beat the Tigers and 12-0 ace Aaron Nola, 2-1, in the opener of the 2013 College World Series, and LSU was eliminated two days later by North Carolina.

“Quite frankly deep down, I was kind of hoping we would get the No. 1 seed, because it had never happened before in the history of LSU baseball,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said Monday after the Tigers were named the nation’s No. 2 overall seed for the NCAA postseason.

“There are not many firsts in the history of LSU baseball. And I thought we were probably deserving of it,” Mainieri said. “You can’t argue with UCLA either. They’re a great program. For them to be the No. 1 overall seed is well deserved.”

The Bruins got a slight edge over the Tigers because of a higher rated non-conference schedule and a conference schedule comparable to that of LSU, which did not play two of the SEC’s best teams — Vanderbilt and Florida — in the regular season.

“Did we deserve the No. 1 seed? Maybe,” said LSU junior shortstop Alex Bregman, who went 0-for-4 against UCLA as a freshman at the CWS. “But that’s OK.”

It was not so OK to LSU pitcher Alex Lange. “We’re going to play with a little chip on our shoulder because of that,” he said.

LSU and UCLA could meet in the best-of-three national championship series in the CWS in Omaha, Nebraska.

But first things first, and second things second. The Tigers first must play Lehigh, 25-29 Patriot League tournament champions out of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, at 3 p.m. Friday on the SEC Network to open the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional at Alex Box Stadium. The winner plays at 8 p.m. Saturday against the winner of Baton Rouge Regional No. 2 seed Tulane (34-23) and No. 4 seed North Carolina-Wilmington (39-16). Those two play at 7 p.m. Friday.

“We have to beat a very good Lehigh team first,” Bregman said.

LSU has defeated Tulane twice this season – 6-0 in Alex Box on April 21 and 13-7 at Tulane on March 24.

Lange (10-0, 2.11 ERA) will start the Saturday game, said Mainieri, who had not decided on a starting pitcher for Lehigh as of Monday.

Should LSU win its NCAA Regional, it will get to host a best-of-three Super Regional, June 5-8, because it received one of the top eight national seeds. The Baton Rouge Regional is paired with the Houston Regional, which will pit Houston (42-18) against Houston Baptist (28-25) and Louisiana-Lafayette (39-21) against Rice (35-20).

LSU beat Houston, 4-2, in the Houston College Classic on March 6 at Minute Maid Park in Houston behind starter Jared Poche, who allowed four hits and two runs in seven and two-thirds innings. But LSU’s players do not remember that game as much as two others against Houston last season.

It was the Cougars who fought back from a 5-1 loss at LSU in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional last year and came back from a 4-0 deficit after seven innings to beat LSU, 5-4, in 11 innings, then beat LSU in the Regional championship game, 12-2, to advance to the Super Regional round. Houston became the first team to ever beat LSU at a NCAA Regional in Baton Rouge after LSU won the first two games of that Regional.

“It will be huge if we get to play Houston again,” Bregman said. “I know a lot of us on this team were on that team last year. So we all tasted that. We know we’re a better team than that this year. We’re a more complete team. We learned you have to play nine innings from that game. We learned that the hard way.”

When “Houston” flashed on ESPN during LSU’s viewing party at the Champions Club in Alex Box, a collective, “Ooh,” went through the crowd of players.

“It’ll be a dream come true if we get to play Houston in the Super Regional with a chance to go to Omaha,” Bregman said. “But we have a lot to do before that.”

BREGMAN WINS BERTMAN AWARD: LSU junior shortstop Alex Bregman won the Skip Bertman Award Monday that goes to the player who best embodies the spirit of the LSU baseball program.

“He’s the best all-around shortstop that has ever played here,” said Bertman, who presented the award to Bregman. Bertman led the Tigers to five national championships from 1991 through 2000 and was coach from 1984 through 2001.

SCIAMBRA WINS PONTIFF AWARD: Senior outfielder Chris Sciambra won the Wally Pontiff Jr. Scholar Athlete Award in honor of the late LSU third baseman who played on the 2000 national championship team.

Friday’s game

Lehigh at LSU

When: 3 p.m.

Where: Alex Box Stadium, Baton Rouge

TV: SEC Network