Baseball Awaits NCAA Tournament Fate

UPDATE: 7:45 P.M.

Baton Rouge will not be a hosting site for the NCAA Tournament, as the Tigers ended up being on the wrong side of the bubble. The 16 host locations are: Auburn (Auburn), Austin (Texas), Blacksburg (Virginia Tech), Chapel Hill (North Carolina), College Park (Maryland), College Station (Texas A&M), Coral Gables (Miami), Corvallis (Oregon State), Gainesville (Florida), Greenville (East Carolina), Hattiesburg (Southern Miss), Knoxville (Tennessee), Louisville (Louisville), Stanford (Stanford), Statesboro (Georgia Southern), Stillwater (Oklahoma State).

LSU will find out where they’ll be traveling to Monday when the entire bracket is revealed at 11 A.M. on ESPN2.

LSU’s run in Hoover came to an end Saturday as the Tigers were knocked out of the SEC Tournament by Kentucky.

The Tigers found themselves in an elimination game after losing late Friday night/early Saturday morning to Tennessee 5-2. The Vols jumped on Ty Floyd early going up 3-0 after two innings, but LSU was able to get back into the game with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth.

Unfortunately for LSU, Tennessee got those two runs immediately back in the bottom of the fifth and the No. 1 team in college baseball looked the part and the Volunteers have cruised to an appearance in today’s SEC Tournament championship game.

Still clinging to life, LSU had a rematch with Kentucky Saturday afternoon and the Tigers laid an egg and lost 7-2.

Jacob Hasty got the start for LSU and lasted all of six batters before being pulled. Hasty was charged with the loss but not before issuing three walks and allowing a pair of hits and a pair of runs.

The Tiger offense no-showed as well. LSU was held to just two hits, and the first base hit wouldn’t come until the sixth inning.

“I’m not pleased with today, but it’s time to move on, so we’ll either get ready to play at home or we’ll get ready to get on a bus or a plane on Wednesday and go to work,” Jay Johnson said.

We’ll know LSU’s fate one way or another later tonight. The NCAA is going to announce the 16 regional host sites tonight at 7:30 and the full bracket will be revealed tomorrow. Obviously this means if LSU doesn’t see their name called tonight we’ll have 12 hours or so wondering where the committee is shipping the Tigers off to.

The Tigers still seem to sit squarely on the hosting bubble. I’d have thought that after sweeping Vanderbilt in the regular season finale and winning their SEC Tournament opener LSU would have secured one of those final 16 spots, but that may not be the case anymore. Florida’s made a run to the SEC Tournament championship game and that might have resulted in the Gators taking LSU’s hosting spot (and if they haven’t, surely beating Tennessee will put them over the top).

Florida Resumé: 39-21 (19-16); No. 11 RPI; No. 11vSOS; 14 Q1 wins; 2nd in SEC East; possible SEC Tournament champions; lost series against LSU

LSU Resumé: 38-20 (18-15); No. 25 RPI; No. 19 SOS; 12 Q1 wins; 3rd in SEC West; took series against Florida

For what it’s worth D1 Baseball dropped LSU back to a 2 seed and in the (12) Louisville Regional which would be paired with the (5) College Station Regional

We’ll find out later tonight whether LSU is hosting or not; otherwise check in tomorrow to see where the Tigers’ run to Omaha begins