LSU baseball has been there, done that. In a difficult year the Tigers have seen the nation's best and beaten the nation's best. That provides optimism to Paul Mainieri.
"We're not going to play any team that will be tougher than any team we've been playing all season. With all due respect to Oregon, Central Connecticut State, and Gonzaga, they're all great teams, championship caliber teams, but none of them are going to be better than Arkansas, Vanderbilt, SC, Tennessee and all the other teams we've played this year," Mainieri said.
Division 1 Baseball ranks LSU's schedule as the third hardest. The Tigers played 16 games against host seeds, recording a 5-11 record.
This year's regional is not the same situation as it was in 2018 when LSU went to Corvallis, OR, and lost to Oregon State the eventual College World Series Champions. The Tigers are in a much better situation and legitimately believe they can advance out.
"We're five wins from going to Omaha, five wins," said Mainieri. "And that's how I explain it every year. We're five wins away from going to Omaha."
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