LSU hosts Stony Brook, Arizona State at Southern Miss at NCAA Baton Rouge Regional

BATON ROUGE, La. – Top-seeded LSU will face No. 4 seed Stony Brook at 6 p.m. CT Friday in the second game of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.

No. 3 seed Southern Mississippi will face No. 2 seed Arizona State at 12 p.m. CT Friday in the first game of the four-team regional.

The regional continues Saturday and Sunday and, if necessary, will finish on Monday. The winner of the Baton Rouge Regional will face the winner of the Athens Regional, hosted by Georgia, in an NCAA Super Regional next weekend.

LSU is playing host to a regional for the 26th time in school history, and the Tigers have won 21 of their prior 25 home regionals.

The LSU-Stony Brook game will be televised by ESPNU and it may be viewed on ESPN3, accessible at WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app. The Arizona State-Southern Miss game may be viewed on ESPN3. Television coverage for the remaining games for the regional will be determined later this week.

Below is ticket information for the 2019 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional:

• LSU Season Ticket Holder Deadline – Monday, May 27, at 5 p.m. Season ticket holders can order by logging into their online account at www.LSUTIX.net or by calling the LSU Ticket Office at 225-578-2184 or toll free at 800-960-8587. The LSU Ticket Office will be open on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• All-session books will go on sale to the general public on Thursday, May 30, at 8 a.m. The sale will be available online at www.LSUTIX.net or by calling the ticket office or by visiting the ticket office in person

• Individual session tickets will go on sale at a later time to be announced

NCAA Regional Schedule
Baton Rouge, La.
Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field
All times Central and subject to change

Friday, May 31
Game 1 – 12 p.m. – #3 seed Southern Miss vs. #2 seed Arizona State (ESPN3)
Game 2 – 6 p.m. – #4 seed Stony Brook vs. #1 seed LSU (ESPNU/ESPN3)

Saturday, June 1
Game 3 – 12 p.m. – Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser (TV TBA)
Game 4 – 6 p.m. – Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner (TV TBA)

Sunday, June 2
Game 5 – 2 p.m. – Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser (TV TBA)
Game 6 – 8 p.m. – Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner (TV TBA)

Monday, June 3
Game 7 – Time TBA – Game 6 Winner vs. Game 6 Loser (if necessary) – TV TBA

QUOTES:

LSU Coach Paul Mainieri

On facing Stony Brook on Friday (Stony Brook defeated LSU in the 2012 NCAA Super Regional in Baton Rouge)

“As soon as I saw our first opponent’s name up there, it was going to bring back a lot of thoughts about 2012. In all honesty, this year has nothing to do with 2012. This is a completely different year, and we are a completely different team and they are a completely different team. We just have to get ready to play, I don’t care who the opponent is. When you play in the NCAA Tournament, every team either won their conference tournament championship or had a spectacular regular season and received an at-large bid. Obviously, the players know the history of our program and the history of us playing Stony Brook. It certainly is going to get our players’ attention and I think it will help us get ready to go. We are looking forward to playing them. Not because of what happened in 2012 but because they are a good team we always want to play.”

On Arizona State and Southern Miss

“Southern Mississippi won their conference championship, and we already know they are an outstanding team; they beat Ole Miss this season. Arizona State is, of course, one of the bluebloods of college baseball. We have not played Arizona State since I have been the coach at LSU, so I am looking forward to that if we get a chance to face them. It should be a great weekend of baseball. I think the fans will enjoy it. Hopefully, we will have great crowds.”

Senior outfielder Antoine Duplantis

On when the team began building momentum …
“I don’t know exactly. Maybe it was that last Arkansas win (May 11). We kind of hit rock bottom before that. To get that one win, it was almost a sigh of relief. Then we took it into that midweek game and right into the weekend. We played well all three games that weekend (vs. Auburn) and won two of them and then played well in Hoover (at the SEC Tournament). It seems every year that Hoover brings out the best in everybody. It kind of reminds us how fun baseball is. Everything about it—the fans there, the whole Fan Fest they have there, the media coverage—it’s just a fun environment. It’s kind of a little taste of what postseason baseball is like.”

On when the Tigers play their best …
“The biggest thing is to relax. When teams play their best, especially here, there’s a lot of expectations. For everybody to just relax and just be confident in their abilities, play loose and let it rip. That’s when we are at our best.”

On watching the 2012 Super Regional versus Stony Brook …
“We are good family friends with (former LSU catcher/first baseman) Tyler Moore. I remember his home run. He tied it up with two outs in the ninth (of Game 1). He tied it up with a home run. I had always watched LSU baseball growing up. I remember Stony Brook.

“You see a name like Stony Brook that not many people from the South have heard of. Then you watch them play. It’s different players now than it was then, but they had a first-rounder or two, a guy that’s in the big leagues now, a bunch of good players. My freshman year we played Coastal Carolina, a team that I never really had heard of until they came here. They won the Super Regional and won the national championship. You can never take anything lightly. You have to expect that they’re going to all be great teams, especially if they made the tournament in the first place.”

Junior shortstop Josh Smith

On the momentum from the SEC Tournament…
“This week definitely helped us out. To go play in the SEC Tournament and get three wins, it was pretty big for us. It gave us the chance to host. Some momentum is carrying over and everyone is feeling good.”

On playing another weekend at Alex Box Stadium…
“After the last series, I really didn’t know if I would get to play here again this year. To get to come back here, I know for me it is pretty special. Especially for guys like Antoine (Duplantis) and guys like that, it is pretty big for them. I am excited for those guys to get the chance to play here again.”

On playing well later in the season…
“We started winning. We played pretty well against Auburn (during the final regular-season weekend). We ended up losing the last game against them but played well against them and brought that into the SEC Tournament and played well there.”

On the turning point of the season…
“It seems like every year, LSU clicks at the end of the year. Guys get a sense of urgency that we have to turn it on, and we started to do that later in the year. After that Auburn series, it helped us out.”

On going into the postseason…
“You still just play the game. A lot of stress goes into these games. If you win you’re in, if you lose, you’re done. So we just try to play loose and play our game.”

DUPLANTIS, HESS RECEIVE LSU POSTSEASON AWARDS

Mainieri honored on Monday two of his players – Duplantis and junior pitcher Zack Hess – during the Tigers’ postseason gathering.

The team met to watch the NCAA Tournament bracket announcement on ESPNU.

“We’ve established a tradition here to honor two players each season who have distinguished themselves in all facets of our program,” Mainieri said. “I’m very fortunate to have had the honor to coach two outstanding young men like Antoine and Zack, who have been instrumental to our team’s success.

The awards were presented to the players by former LSU coach Skip Bertman, who directed the Tigers from 1984-2001 to five national championships and 11 College World Series appearances.

Just before the tournament field was revealed, Hess received the Wally Pontiff Jr. Scholar-Athlete Award. Pontiff was an all-SEC third baseman at LSU who played for the Tigers from 2000-02 and died tragically in 2002 due to a heart abnormality.

Hess, a product of Forest, Va., is a two-member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll who is majoring in interdisciplinary studies. He has 17 wins, six saves and 268 strikeouts in 220.1 innings during his career at LSU.

Duplantis was then presented the Skip Bertman Award, which goes to the player who best exemplifies the spirit of the LSU Baseball program.

Duplantis, a native of Lafayette, La., has 349 career hits, the third-highest total in Southeastern Conference history. He earned his LSU degree earlier this month in sport administration, and he is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll.