We will find out on Memorial Day the 64 teams who have made the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Will LSU receive an invite? There’s no question in the mind of Coach Jay Johnson, who believes his team is good enough to reach the College World Series.
“I don’t think us being in the postseason should be in the discussion,” Johnson said. “We have the players, we pass the eye test, we have 23 wins outside of the league, we have 36 wins as an SEC team, this is a no-brainer.”
LSU is making a strong push to receive an at-large berth. They finished off the regular season with a sweep over Ole Miss, giving them a 13-17 record in the SEC.
Getting to 13 wins was important, under the current format, an SEC team that finished 12-18 has never made the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers ended up winning four of their last five SEC series. Johnson says not many teams in the country can say that.
“I don’t think there is five teams in America that can accomplish what these guys did the last five weeks, there the ones we are chasing in our league that made it hard on us, and we beat one of the them, Texas A&M, two out of three, only five teams in America that can probably do that.”
LSU finished the SEC tied for seventh with a 13-17 league record. But they are the 11th seed in the SEC Tournament. The Tigers ended up with a lower seed because they had the worst record based on games played among the tied teams.
The Tigers finished tied with Alabama, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Florida. They didn’t play South Carolina, but they lost series to the Crimson Tide, Commodores, and Gators.
Eleven teams from the SEC in the same season have never made the tournament before, so the Tigers might have a little more to do to secure a bid.
They will play 6th seeded Georgia (39-14,17-13) in a single-elimination game in the SEC Tournament on Tuesday. The Tigers could use another quality win against a Bulldogs team to boost their KPI ranking.
The NCAA Tournament selection committee announced earlier this year the KPI Ranking will be a major factor in seeding the 64 teams. In the KPI, a point scale is used for every win and loss and it takes into account location of the game, score of the game, and strength of the opponent, plus other factors.
LSU’s KPI ranking is 21st and other NCAA Tournament bubble teams like Florida, Vanderbilt and Alabama are all ranked ahead of the Tigers.
Johnson says it’s a no brainer the Tigers are in the NCAA Tournament, but it’s still up in the air if the Tigers have done enough. A win on Tuesday should punch their ticket into the baseball’s version of the Big Dance.
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