This year’s rendition of the Major League Baseball World Series sees two former LSU baseball players competing for a championship.
Former LSU All-Americans Aaron Nola of the Philadelphia Phillies and Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros are facing off in this year’s World Series. Nola, a right-handed pitcher who is a Baton Rouge native, and Bregman, a third baseman from Albuquerque, New Mexico were once wearing the purple and gold together as teammates in 2013 and 2014. They were critical in the Tigers’ drive to the 2013 College World Series.
Former LSU baseball players have played for World Series participants on 43 occasions and on 19 occasions were a part of championship teams. Outfielder Andrew Stevenson is LSU’s most recent World Series champion as he played for the Washington Nationals in the team’s 2019 World Series run. That year, the Nationals beat Bregman and the Astros in seven games to win the organization’s first World Series championship
Nola, a 2018 National League All-Star, helped lead Philadelphia this season to its first postseason appearance since 2011 and its first World Series berth since 2009. He recorded an 11-13 mark and a 3.25 ERA in 205 innings during the 2022 regular season with 29 walks and 235 strikeouts. This season, Nola recorded the most strikeouts with fewer than 30 walks in Major League Baseball history.
Nola is Philadelphia’s No. 2 starter and has collected wins in the postseason over the St. Louis Cardinals in the Wild Card Series and over last year’s World Series champions, the Atlanta Braves, in the Division Series. The pitcher was the Phillies’ first-round draft choice back in 2014 and is now in his eighth MLB season.
Nola enjoyed a monumental three-year (2012-14) career at LSU, recording a 30-6 record and a 2.09 earned run average in 332 innings with 345 strikeouts. He was a two-time first-team All-American and is the only pitcher to win the SEC Pitcher of the Year award twice, receiving the honor in both 2013 and 2014.
Bregman, who won the 2017 World Series with the Astros, helped lead the Astros to the American League pennant in a 4-0 sweep over the New York Yankees. He helped guide the organization back to the world series for the fourth time in six seasons. The two-time American League All-Star and 2019 Silver Slugger Award winner batted .259 during the 2022 regular season with 38 doubles, 23 home runs, 93 runs batted in and 93 runs scored.
Bregman was drafted as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft and is now in the height of his seventh season with the Astros. He recorded a .333 batting average, going for 5-for-15 in Houston’s Division Series sweep of the Seattle Mariners with one double, one home run and three runs batted in. Bregman also hit a .333, going 5-for-15 in the ALCS with one double, one home run and four RBIs.
Bregman has hit 14 home runs and registered 43 RBIs in 80 career MLB postseason games, marking the most postseason home runs by a third baseman in MLB history.
Although he’s a third baseman in the majors, Bregman played shortstop at LSU from 2013 through 2015 and led the Tigers to two appearances in Omaha for the College World Series. He was a two-time first-team all-American for the Tigers. Bregman was named the recipient of the 2013 Brooks Wallace Award as the nation’s best shortstop for his efforts.
