LSU leaped to the second spot in two of the prominent national baseball polls after this weekend's series win over South Carolina.
LSU (42-14), the 2012 SEC champion, opens play in the conference tournament at approximately 12:30 CT on Wednesday at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala. The Tigers, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, will play either ninth-seeded Ole Miss, seventh-seeded Mississippi State or sixth-seeded Arkansas.
If Ole Miss defeats fourth-seeded Kentucky in the tournament’s opening game on Tuesday, LSU will face Ole Miss on Wednesday. If Ole Miss loses to Kentucky, LSU will face the winner of Tuesday’s Mississippi State-Arkansas game on Wednesday.
If LSU wins on Wednesday, the Tigers will play a second-round game at approximately 12:30 p.m. Thursday. If the Tigers lose on Wednesday, LSU will play in an elimination game at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
LSU claimed the 2012 SEC championship by winning two of three games at South Carolina last weekend. The conference crown was the second in the past four seasons under coach Paul Mainieri. LSU has won an SEC-best 15 overall conference championships in its history; Alabama is second with 13 SEC titles, Florida has 12 and Mississippi State has 10.
LSU also claimed the 2012 SEC Western Division title, the Tigers’ third division crown in the past five seasons under Mainieri. LSU has won 16 Western Division titles in its history, including five in the past 10 seasons.
LSU has a league-best 63-35 (.643) all-time record in the SEC Tournament, and the Tigers own a conference-high nine tournament titles. Alabama is second behind LSU with seven tournament titles, and Mississippi State is third with six championships.
LSU has won three of the past four SEC Tournament crowns, claiming the title in 2008, 2009 and 2010 before falling short of a tournament bid in 2011. The Tigers are 13-1 in their past 14 SEC Tournament games; the only loss in that span came in LSU’s 2009 tournament opener versus Vanderbilt.
“This time of the year, the postseason, is the most fun,” Mainieri said. “Our players have worked extremely hard all year to get into this position, and now they have a chance to create a memorable season. The SEC Tournament is a tremendous event, one in which we’ve had great success in recent years. We’re taking the approach that this is the third straight week we’re playing for a championship – we clinched the division title two weeks ago and the SEC championship last week, now we have a chance at the tournament title.”
| Collegiate Baseball Poll rankings | ||
| Rank School (Record) | Points | Previous |
| 1. Oregon (41-14) | 498 | 1 |
| 2. Louisiana St. (42-14) | 496 | 4 |
| 3. South Carolina (39-15) | 495 | 3 |
| 4. Florida (40-16) | 493 | 5 |
| 5. Florida St. (43-12) | 491 | 6 |
| 6. Baylor (42-12) | 489 | 7 |
| 7. North Carolina (42-13) | 486 | 10 |
| 8. Arizona (36-16) | 485 | 8 |
| 9. Rice (39-15) | 483 | 9 |
| 10. UCLA (38-14) | 482 | 11 |
| 11. Texas A&M (41-14) | 480 | 13 |
| 12. Stanford (36-14) | 478 | 15 |
| 13. Kentucky (41-15) | 477 | 2 |
| 14. Arkansas (39-17) | 474 | 17 |
| 15. Cal. St. Fullerton (33-18) | 471 | 12 |
| 16. N.C. State (38-15) | 469 | 14 |
| 17. Arizona St. (35-18) | 467 | 16 |
| 18. Purdue (41-12) | 459 | 18 |
| 19. Central Florida (41-14) | 457 | 19 |
| 20. San Diego (39-13) | 454 | 20 |
| 21. Mississippi St. (34-21) | 452 | — |
| 22. Texas (30-20) | 449 | 21 |
| 23. Miami, Fla. (34-19) | 448 | — |
| 24. Virginia (36-16-1) | 446 | 23 |
| 25. Oklahoma (35-21) | 442 | 24 |
| 26. Louisville (38-18) | 441 | 25 |
| 27. Kent St. (37-17) | 438 | — |
| 28. Oregon St. (35-18) | 434 | 28 |
| 29. Texas Christian (35-17) | 433 | 29 |
| 30. Utah Valley (43-12) | 431 | 27 |
