“Back home in Omaha.”
The title of the Todd Thibaud’s College World Series theme song (don’t get excited about the Cajun-sounding name, he’s from Boston) couldn’t be more fitting for the LSU Tigers.
Back in Omaha. Back where every LSU baseball fan believes the Tigers always belong.
If it’s your favorite venue, full of great moments and great players and championship celebrations, you’re not alone.
“This is my favorite place in the world,” second-year LSU coach Jay Johnson said during Thursday’s pre-CWS news conferences. “And this program has as good a history as any program in college baseball of being here.”
There are bluebloods in this year’s eight-team field: Florida, Stanford, top-seeded Wake Forest. But no one is bigger college baseball royalty than LSU. With six national championships, the Tigers have more titles than the other seven CWS teams combined.
But it’s been a minute for LSU. The Tigers are in Omaha for the first time since finishing runner-up to Florida in 2017 (the 2020 CWS was canceled because of the pandemic). That’s the longest LSU had been without a trip to Omaha since the Tigers made the first of their 19 trips in 1986.
That’s all over now. Now the questions flip from “Can LSU get there?” to “Can the Tigers win it?”
The Tigers possess more star power as anyone else going into their 6 p.m. opener Saturday against Tennessee on ESPN. They’re calling pitcher Paul Skenes “America’s ace.” With his 102 mph fastball, sweeping slider and pinpoint control, the former Air Force cadet may be the top pick in next month’s major league draft.
That is, unless LSU center fielder Dylan Crews beats him to it. Crews, who goes into the series with a .434 batting average that ranks as the best in school history, has the bat strength, discipline, arm and speed that makes pro teams drool. Then there’s players like hard-hitting third baseball Tommy White and magician-like Tre Morgan at first. Overall, the Tigers have eight players notching 10 or more home runs.
Will LSU’s power play continue in Omaha’s vast Charles Schwab Field? Skenes can only throw two or three times max; do the Tigers have enough pitching behind him to do the job? Will Tiger fans win the Jell-O shot challenge?
It’s time to find the answers. LSU is back in Omaha. And it certainly feels like the Tigers are at home.
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