Previewing Baton Rouge Super Regional: MSU vs. LSU

Seeing as Mississippi State and LSU both occupy the SEC West, this weekend’s Baton Rouge Super Regional will be a rematch of their regular season series just three weeks ago.
Back in May, the Tigers swept the Bulldogs in Starkville, which had a lot to do with LSU sharing the SEC regular season title with Florida. The Purple and Gold haven’t lost since, running the table in both the SEC Tournament and the Baton Rouge Regional.
As one of five national seeds remaining, the Tigers still have the home field advantage, but it’s going to take more than that to punch their ticket to Omaha. Same goes for the Diamond Dawgs. LSU Head Baseball Coach Paul Mainieri said, “They don’t have any effect on the next game and I feel the same way about the games. We were fortunate enough to win all three games. It meant we won the SEC West, it meant we won the regular season overall SEC title and we’re very proud of those victories, but I don’t think those victories have anything at all to do with what’s going to happen here this weekend.”
LSU Second Baseman Cole Freeman said, “It’s almost every night you lay down and you turn the TV off and you close your eyes and you start thinking what it’s going to take, what do I have to do, let me take care of my job and will that be enough? Will that be enough to get us to Omaha, and not have that feeling that we had last year.”
Mississippi State Head Baseball Coach Andy Cannizaro said, “Here we are, two teams standing right now. LSU, Mississippi State and it’s going to be a heavy weight title fight. You know what I mean? Why not? If you’ve got to get to Omaha, why not try to go through LSU? They’re a program that’s accustomed to going there, so is Mississippi State. So let’s go play, let the best team win two and let’s see who’s standing at the end of Sunday or Monday.”
Game one of the Baton Rouge Super Regional is set for 8 p.m. on Saturday from Alex Box Stadium on ESPN2.