2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament, LSU Regional: Early Analysis and Prediction

The LSU Tigers will host their 20th NCAA Regional this weekend when Oregon State, Belmont, and Louisiana-Monroe travel to Baton Rouge. The Tigers were also announced as the #7 national seed, which means they are guaranteed to host their Super Regional round if they advance past this weekend. The winner of this weekend's round will go on to play the winner of the Coral Gables Regional hosted by Miami.

The schedule for the weekend looks like this:

Friday, June 1
Game 1: No. 3 Belmont (39-22) vs. No. 2 Oregon State (38-18) (ESPN3, 3 p.m.)
Game 2: No. 4 Louisiana-Monroe (31-28) vs. No. 1 LSU (43-16)* (ESPN3, 8 p.m.)

Saturday, June 2
Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser (ESPN3, 3 p.m.)
Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner (ESPN3, 8 p.m.)

Sunday, June 3
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser (ESPN3, 2:30 p.m.)
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner (ESPN3, 7:30 p.m.)

Monday, June 4
Game 7: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser (ESPN3, 7:30 p.m.) (if necessary)

Early Analysis

This regional is the Tigers' to lose, but they'll still have to play some good baseball. LSU (49-16) won the SEC regular season, but went 1-2 in the SEC tournament. They should have no trouble with ULM (31-28) on Friday night. The Tigers have a lot to worry about in Oregon State (38-18), who plays three-seed Belmont (39-22) first. Oregon State finished second in the Pac-12, and boasts a series sweep of Oregon, and series wins against Stanford and UCLA. This team is very dangerous and playing with a ton of confidence.

Prediction

LSU is still the smart pick here, especially since Oregon State won't have the arms that Mississippi State did in the SEC Tournament. The Beavers, though, will likely give the Tigers a great game on Saturday before being eliminated on Sunday,