NCAA baseball projections: LSU falls from top seed, battle tight for final regional hosts

There’s a new top seed this week in in The Times-Picayune/Advocate NCAA baseball tournament projections following a conference series loss by previous No. 1 LSU at Auburn.

Auburn (27-19-1) won the final two games to hand the Tigers (37-10) their first SEC series defeat of the season. 

The new No. 1 this week is Wake Forest, which has consistently been the best team in the ACC all year with an overall record of 39-7 – the best winning percentage in the nation. 

The two new regional hosts in this week’s projections are Kentucky (33-13) and Clemson (31-17). Both teams pulled off weekend sweeps with the Wildcats toppling South Carolina and Clemson rolling past Louisville. 

The two squads that dropped out are Dallas Baptist (36-12), which is coming off a 2-2 week, and Oregon (31-16), which has lost four of its last five games.

Stanford, which rises to the No. 5 seed, is the lone west coast team hosting a regional this week, making for some long trips for some squads. 

It would be unusual for only one team to host a regional out west this year, but there is no other team that’s clearly deserving at the moment. Oregon and and Oregon State are still in the hunt to host, but both teams have work to do to boost their RPI rankings. 

Indiana State (32-13), UConn (35-11), Campbell (36-10) and East Carolina (34-14) all have cases to make as regional hosts, but they may be dragged down by poor conferences. Dallas Baptist is still in contention to host, but it doesn’t have much room for error over the next three weeks.

WINSTON-SALEM

1. Wake Forest* (1)

2. Indiana

3. Alabama

4. Maine*

BATON ROUGE

1. LSU* (2)

2. North Carolina

3. UTSA

4. Nicholls*

LSU falls in multiple college baseball polls after series loss to Auburn https://t.co/jKlnjTncSo

— LSU Sports from The Advocate (@LSUnow) May 8, 2023