Florida gets the top seed in NCAA baseball tourney

Beavers will spend a weekend in LSU’s raucous Tiger den

By Bob Clark
Eugene Register Guard
May 29, 2012

Oregon State starts play in the NCAA tournament against Belmont, but the Beavers are only too aware that to advance out of their regional that opens Friday, they’re almost certainly going to have to deal with host LSU.

The Tigers (43-16) were seeded No. 7 overall nationally, and will open the regional in Baton Rouge against Louisiana-Monroe (31-28) in a night game after the Beavers (38-18) meet the Bruins (39-22), champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

The OSU game Friday is scheduled to begin at noon PST, when temperatures are expected to be 90 degrees or higher with the usual stifling humidity of the Southeast.

The Beavers say they learned about handling those kind of elements two years ago in a trip to Florida, but there also remains the looming challenge of hooking up with LSU in Alex Box Stadium, which seats 10,500 and is usually filled past the listed capacity for a big game, with the Tigers regularly leading the NCAA in baseball attendance.

“One of the more hostile environments in baseball,” as OSU coach Pat Casey termed it when he met with reporters Monday after the NCAA bracket was announced.
“It’s a culture shock, a different world down there,” OSU pitcher Matt Boyd told reporters. “Baseball’s life ... big crowds, crazy fans, they play good baseball.
“It is the same game. We have to stick with our game. Play our game and we’ll be fine.”

The Beavers are at least experienced with NCAA regionals, with this being their fourth year in a row to receive an at-large berth, and seventh in the past eight seasons. In addition to playing in Gainesville, Fla., two seasons ago, the Beavers played a super regional at Vanderbilt last season.

“The older guys know what to expect,” OSU catcher Ryan Gorton said. “I don’t care where we’re going. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing.
“It’s about us, and if we play our best we can beat anybody.”

The Beavers say they’ve proven that, with a series win over No. 2 national seed UCLA and last weekend’s sweep of No. 5 national seed Oregon. OSU has won its past four series, and 10 of its past 13 games.

“We’re hopefully hitting our peak at the right time,” OSU outfielder Michael Conforto said.
Casey said that with the sweep of the Ducks, “hopefully it’s something we can build on, winning and winning against a national seed in pretty good style.
“We’ve talked a lot about LSU, and it’s their regional, but everybody who plays there you have to contend with. We have to go and win the first ballgame” to even face LSU.

The Beavers are one of five Pac-12 teams in the NCAA tournament, though the only one playing away from home in a regional. In addition to Oregon being selected to host a regional, UCLA, Arizona and Stanford from the Pac-12 will also be the sites of regionals.