There's no denying it, LSU baseball and its players know they've arrived somewhere special.
Tre' Morgan had goosebumps as he walked through the dugout onto the field at Charles Schwab Stadium where the Tigers will compete for a College World Series crown. It's an environment the roster is experiencing for the first time, but it's one that head coach Jay Johnson has battled in twice before.
“It was cool. They were pumped. A lot of picture taking, a lot of smiling," Johnson said Wednesday afternoon. "It’s the holy grail of college baseball. They earned their way here and so happy to see them as excited as they are to be here."
LSU's head coach reached Omaha twice with his former Arizona Wildcats squad, advancing as far as the championship series in 2017. He jotted down notes each time that he's relaying to his players now to help them handle the situation.
But even then, it's not a situation where LSU finds itself unfamiliar. They've taken road trips for tournament play before, and they've routinely played in front of raucous crowds in the SEC and at Alex Box Stadium. Those fans turned out in droves Wednesday morning to send off their Tigers, and Johnson noted that he'd heard there's been a lot of purple and gold spotted on recent flights up to Omaha.
"Luckily, we have some of the best fans in college baseball, if not the best," said LSU catcher Hayden Travinski. "Our attendance is usually very high, so I don’t think playing in front of pressure-filled situations, or situations where the atmosphere can get hectic is much of an issue.”
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The Tigers arrived Wednesday afternoon, and that's when the surreal nature of the upcoming weekend was allowed to sink in. But as they got on the field for practice, that was all behind them, Morgan said. The goosebumps were gone, and it was all prep for Tennessee, an opponent the Tigers are very familiar with already.
“I’d say it’s strictly business here now that we’re in uniform and practicing and everything," Morgan said. "The once-in-a-lifetime feeling was when we weren’t in these baseball clothes and we were walking around on the field. That’s what that was for. That was to get all that out. But it’s time to work, now."
LSU faces off with the Volunteers at 6 p.m. on Saturday, then will turn to face either Stanford or Wake Forest on Monday. The other half of the bracket will start on Friday with Florida-Virginia and TCU-Oral Roberts. Those second round games will be played on Sunday afternoon. The winners will be decided through the same format of regional play, and those two teams will then face off in a best-of-three series beginning on June 24.
The Tigers are making their 19th College World Series trip, but their first under head coach Jay Johnson, who is aiming to bring home the program's first title since 2009.
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