LSU baseball has plenty of work ahead of it in the Chapel Hill regional before they can truly set their sights on a return trip to Omaha.
Still, if the Tigers can fight their way past North Carolina, Wofford and Long Island, the bracket-makers have set up a potential must-see-TV super regional showdown: LSU vs Arizona.
"It’s a great storyline," Mike Detillier said on SportsTalk this week, "Jay Johnson going up against his former team.”
It was the Arizona Wildcats that Johnson led on two College World Series trips, including in his final season there in 2021, prior to taking on the head job at LSU and succeeding legendary coach Paul Mainieri. His departure led to a slew of transfers, including Jacob Berry who went on to be a top pick in the 2022 MLB draft. To their credit Arizona has found success in each of the past two seasons under new head coach Chip Hale with a combined record of 72-49 and a pair of regional trips.
Arizona would have to win its own regional in Tuscon over the liked of West Virginia, Grand Canyon and Dallas Baptist.
The move worked, of course, with LSU winning the national title a year ago. But what are the chances of the Tigers becoming the first back-to-back champion since South Carolina in 2011. Bobby Hebert says with the way the Tigers have been playing of late, it's certainly possible.
"I’d be surprised if LSU won back to back, if they won it all, but I would not be surprised, the way they're playing right now, if they went back to Omaha," Hebert said.
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That's due in no small part to the emergency of Gage Jump and Luke Holman atop LSU's pitching rotation. Jump went 6-1 in his first season with the Tigers and was particularly dominant late in the season, holding down Ole Miss and Georgia to just 2 runs total over 13 innings in a pair of must-win games to solidify the Tigers' bid. Holman went 9-3 on the year and most recently shut out Kentucky over 6 innings in another key SEC Tournament clash.
"There’s still a way back to Omaha for LSU, because if you look at, if you have two stud pitchers and right now … Jay is very confident in those two pitchers winning their games," Hebert continued.
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