MCWS Game 1: A must win for LSU-Arkansas

By Chris Marler

The College World Series kicks off Friday in Omaha. The annual tournament will last roughly two weeks through the end of the Championship Series. However, the winner may very well be all but decided in the first round Saturday night. 

That’s what’s on the line when Arkansas and LSU face off Saturday night in game one for each school. 

We saw the importance of what winning game one meant in the Regionals and Super Regionals. Nearly 80 percent of teams that won game one of the regional went on to win the regional. Over 91 percent of the teams that won those regionals also started out 2-0.

Only four teams that have won the title have lost their first game of the College World Series. The last was Oregon State in 2018. 

Getting to the winners bracket is more important than ever in Omaha. And, having the two betting favorites to win the whole tournament face each other in the first game for each on Saturday night makes the significance even higher. 

LSU and Arkansas are not only the betting favorites in the CWS, but they are also the two most talented teams in the tournament. The teams have a combined nine players listed in the MLB Top 150 Prospects list for next month’s draft, including multiple first rounders. There’s top tier talent on the mound, multiple middle infielders, and some of the best power hitting prospects in the entire draft on each side. 

These two teams met in mid-May in Baton Rouge for a three game series, and LSU won that two games to one. However, on a neutral field, things could be different. Regardless, what fans are going to get in game one Saturday night will almost certainly feature two future first rounders on the mound and several future big leaguers in each lineup. 

Enjoy it for those nine innings because history tells us that the loser of that game may not be around for much longer after that, no matter how elite they are. That’s just the luck of this year’s draw in Omaha.