Both incarnations of Alex Box stadium have been home to some of college baseball’s most storied post-season performances.
Of the 14 years the NCAA has used the super regional format, LSU is tied for third all-time, having made nine appearances.
When upstart Stony Brook rolls into Alex Box this weekend, it will mark LSU’s sixth time hosting a super regional since the format’s inception in 1999. The Tigers have never failed to reach the College World Series when hosting a super regional.
“Playing at home makes a huge difference,” said Bill Franques, baseball’s sports information director – now in his 24th season with the Tigers. “The players feed off the crowd. The fans are a big reason why we’ve had such success when playing the super regional at home.”
LSU has out-scored opponents 116-69 on its way to a 10-2 record in super regional home action, as opposed to being outscored 54-20 with a 1-6 record in super regional action on the road.
The Tigers broke in the new Alex Box Stadium by sweeping Rice in the 2009 super regional, en route to the program’s 15th CWS appearance and a national title.
“The ’09 team had some tremendous talent on it,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “If you look at the starting lineup you saw some guys who were drafted pretty high up. This [2012] team has a deeper pitching staff and I think it might be as good at the top as [the ’09] team.”
In the inaugural ’99 super regional, LSU faced Southeastern Conference rival Alabama in Tuscaloosa, allowing 26 Crimson Tide runs and getting swept.
The Tigers’ 2000 experience was markedly better. A sweep of UCLA inside the old Alex Box Stadium led to the program’s fifth national championship. It was also the eleventh and final CWS appearance during the Skip Bertman era.
The series with UCLA was highlighted by LSU’s high-powered offense, which posted 22 runs in the two games. Senior catcher Brad Cresse hit the Tiger’s only home run of the series with a rare center-field blast in game one.
“Overall, I’m about as proud of this bunch as any team in the 17 years I’ve been here,” Bertman said in 2000. “A couple of months ago, I didn’t think so. Our defense was shoddy, our offense was spotty and our pitching at times was non-existent. But everybody’s put it together.”
Bertman retired after the next season when his Tigers dropped a super regional series against Tulane at Zephyr Field – the only time the two rivals have met beyond regional play.
LSU was swept at Rice in 2002. The Tigers returned to friendlier confines in 2003 when they hosted the Baylor Bears. It was the second super regional under Bertman’s successor, Smoke Laval.
The Bears handed LSU its first taste of defeat in a home super regional, winning game one, 4-1. However, the Tigers bounced back to force a game three, and LSU clinched a 12th trip to Omaha, decimating Baylor, 20-5.
Laval and the Tigers swept Texas A&M inside the Box during the 2004 super regional, again reaching Omaha, where LSU dropped both games for a second straight year.
Mainieri’s first super regional matchup came in 2008 and may have been the most dramatic in LSU history.
Facing elimination in game two versus UC Irvine, the Tigers roared back from a five-run deficit to score seven in their final two at-bats, while pitcher Louis Coleman threw three scoreless innings to prevent elimination.
LSU rode that momentum to seven home runs in a 21-7 game-three romp game, closing out the old Alex Box Stadium in style.
After another thrilling postseason comeback against Oregon State last weekend, the Tigers hope to replicate past LSU squads’ success in home confines to a 16th CWS appearance.
 
____ Contact Mike Gegenheimer at [email protected]