College World Series preview: LSU's path to championship series

LSU is headed to Omaha for the first time since 2017 and enter as one of the favorites to leave with the trophy. The Tigers are rolling, having won all five games in the NCAA Tournament so far and seemingly putting it together on the mound to match their explosiveness at the plate.

Now, the difficulty ramps up for head coach Jay Johnson and his team. It’s a double elimination tournament with the four teams in the bottom of the bracket and the winner heads to the championship series. Standing in LSU’s way are three high quality teams in No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 9 Stanford, and the always dangerous Tennessee.

LSU’s first game is against the Volunteers on Saturday at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN, with Wake Forest and Stanford preceding them. Here’s a look at the three teams in LSU’s bracket with stats and thoughts on each team.

Tennessee: 43-20, 16-14 SEC

At the plate

A modest .284 team ERA perhaps shows the lack of depth in Tennessee’s lineup, but it’s a team that ranks 12th in the country in walks and 7th in home runs per game, showing the potential to get runners on and score in a hurry. The heart of their lineup is what you’d expect from an SEC team in Omaha. They beat up a really good Southern Miss team in games two and three.

All of this may not matter, though, as Tennessee will be facing Paul Skenes, and when they met in the regular season, Skenes went 7.0 innings, allowing five hits, one walk, and one earned run, while striking out 12 of his 25 batters faced on 107 pitches. If the Tigers get that type of performance again, it will be a lot for the Volunteers to overcome.

On the mound

When the Volunteers faced LSU in the regular season, they started Chase Dollander, then Chase Burns, then Drew Beam, but in game one of the regionals and super regionals, they started Andrew Lindsey. As evident from the impressive ERA, Lindsey has been a significant piece to Tennessee’s second half push this season and could start in game one against LSU.

In the series against Southern Miss, Tennessee was able to use Chase Burns in relief, which was a productive strategy as Burns pitched 3.2 innings in two games and allowed zero hits, one walk, and struck out five of the 11 batters he faced. He closed out the series with a save in game three touching north of 100 mph. He could be a big piece in game one if he’s allowed to close the game for Tennessee.

On the season, the Volunteers have the second best ERA in the country at 3.57, and are second in the country in strikeouts per nine innings, one spot ahead of LSU. Tennessee has found its footing on the mound over the past two months and are heading to Omaha prepared to face the Tigers’ loaded lineup. 

Full story and quotes on Tennessee

1. Wake Forest: 52-10, 22-7 ACC

At the plate

A .309 batting average as a team is top 20 in the country and 2.08 home runs per game is third best of any team. It’s hard to really see a flaw in Wake Forest’s core with Kurtz, Bennett, and Wilken.

Third baseman Brock Wilken is expected to be a first round pick and leads the way with 30 home runs on the year. Kurtz and Wilken’s absurd slugging percentage speaks to the threats they are in the lineup. The ACC was helpless and so far this tournament, there’s been no signs of slowing down for a Wake Forest team that supplanted LSU as the No. 1 team in the country late in the season.

On the mound

The Demon Deacons are No. 1 in team in the country in ERA, No. 1 in hits allowed per nine innings, tied for No. 1 in shutouts (tied with LSU with 10), No. 1 in strikeouts per nine innings, No. 1 in WHIP, and No. 2 in walks allowed per nine innings. Is that it?

Rhett Lowder is potentially a top 10 pick in the MLB Draft next month and is their usual game one starter, so I expect him to start against Stanford, even though Wake Forest started its No. 2 in Seth Keener against George Mason in the regionals. 

The Deacons rolled through Alabama and are an incredibly talented and deep team to sustain their pitching quality behind their excellent starters. Hartle, Lowder, and Sullivan were all named to the first-team All-ACC with Lowder winning Pitcher of the Year.

9. Stanford: 44-18, 23-7 PAC-12 

At the plate

With future first-round pick Tommy Troy and PAC-12 Player of the Year Alberto Rios, Stanford hosts an incredibly deep lineup that gave the Pac-12 fits. Talented freshman Malcolm Moore has had an impressive season and came up big in the super regional against Texas, while Crew Bowser is a three-year starter who had the walk-off pop fly to send the Cardinals to Omaha.

Stanford’s .318 batting average is 9th in the country and the lineup can get on base in various ways effectively. The Cardinals rank 11th in the country in home runs per game, which is good, but still behind the three other teams in this side of the bracket.

It hasn’t been a clear path for Stanford to reach the College World Series, losing four of its last 10 games, but the Cardinals are 5-0 in elimination games so far in this tournament, proving to be resilient.

On the mound

Quinn Mathews made headlines when he totaled 156 pitches in a complete game win over Texas in game two of the super regional in a must-win game. It was a heroic effort and one that kept the Cardinals alive. When looking at the stats, it made sense why they needed him to do that.

Mathews won PAC-12 Pitcher of the Year, but he’s been the only consistent force for Stanford this season. As a team, the Cardinals are tied for 126th in the country in ERA at 5.75. Going through various weekends throughout the season shows a different combination of pitchers used. Eleven different pitchers have started a game this year and plenty more have come in to contribute. It’s hard to navigate their pitchers from the outside, but it will be interesting to see if they start Mathews in game one against Wake Forest or try to piece it together as they did against Texas for game one, starting Joey Dixon then going to Drew Dowd.