Photo by LSU Athletics
By Hunt Palmer
The 2025 College World Series fires up Friday afternoon.
Charles Schwab Field will be buzzing for what feels like a wide-open event. LSU’s side of the bracket, which includes No. 3 seed Arkansas, No. 15 seed UCLA and Murray State, gets things rolling Saturday as part of a double header.
One of those four teams will emerge from the bracket and play in the championship series beginning Saturday June 21.
We’ll take a look at all four teams as part of our Bracket Breakdown series, examining their path to this point, strengths, weaknesses and more.
We finish up with the No. 6 national seed–LSU.
HOW’D THEY GET HERE
LSU never really slumped this year. The Tigers started 22-1, never lost back-to-back series and only lost consecutive games four times.
Seven of the 10 SEC series were wins, and the Tigers swept three of them. LSU won games against aces like Jared Spencer (Texas), Pico Kohn (Mississippi State), Kyson Witherspoon (Oklahoma), Zach Root (Arkansas), Liam Doyle (Tennessee) and Griffin Kirn (West Virginia).
Steady is probably more apt than spectacular, although LSU’s top two arms have been that for the second half of the season.
The Tiger offense finished the year fourth in the SEC runs per game, second in on base percentage, fifth in slugging, sixth in home runs and second in doubles.
The postseason draw was favorable. LSU got the lowest RPI in the field as the No. 4 seed in the Baton Rouge Regional and found themselves behind 5-1 early in game seven. The Big 12 champion West Virginia Mountaineers got to Baton Rouge low on reliable arms, and the Tiger offense swallowed that staff whole over two games, scoring 28 runs in 17 innings.
WHY THEY’LL ADVANCE
Statistically, no one boasts a better 1-2 punch in the rotation than LSU’s Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson. Doyle leads the country in strikeouts with 164, and his season is done. Anderson will tie him with his first Omaha punch out and pass him with the second. Eyanson’s 142 are good for third nationally.
LSU is 13-2 in the last 15 games started by either Anderson or Eyanson. If that holds through Monday, LSU will be in the driver’s seat of the bracket.
The Tigers also play excellent defense, fielding a healthy .981. Steven Milam and Daniel Dickinson are as good a middle infield combination as there was in the country this year, and the outfield play of Derek Curiel, Chris Stanfield, Josh Pearson and Jake Brown has been excellent all season.
LSU’s weaknesses, namely the bullpen but including random offensive lulls, are both loaded with talent. Those same relievers dominated West Virginia last week when the Mountaineers worked Anderson and Eyanson hard.
When a weakness potentially involves Chase Shores’s 101 mph fastball, Zac Cowan’s 3.09 ERA, Jacob Mayers and Mavrick Rizy’s big league stuff and Casan Evans, it can become a strength very quickly.
WHY THEY WON’T
All due respect to Coastal Carolina’s 23-game win streak on the other side, but the Tigers draw Omaha’s most talented, confident club right out of the gate. That’s the Hogs.
When Arkansas is at its best, it’s quite the machine. Texas and Tennessee found that out. Root is a big part of that, and he happens to be left-handed which has given LSU some issues.
The Tigers’ team OPS vs. righties is .948 (22nd nationally). It’s .891 against lefties (58th nationally). It’s not a disastrous fall off, but LSU prefers to hit right handers. Root and Arkansas freshman reliever Cole Gibler are two of the toughest lefties in the field.
The internal reason LSU could falter is likely the meat of the bullpen. If Shores, Rizy and Mayers cannot throw strikes, LSU won’t last long in Nebraska. Shores and Mayers both walked the bases loaded in the same regional game, a loss to Little Rock.
Cowan also has to find his groove again. He’s allowed 16 earned runs all year, and 11 of them have come in his last five outings. That’s 11 earned runs over his last 6.2 innings (14.85 ERA) after allowing five in his first 40 innings (1.13ERA).
Any offense is vulnerable to being suffocated by Charles Schwab Field over a given two days, but LSU was second in the SEC in doubles and hasn’t been too dependent on the home run ball. That said, the home run has not shown up away from Alex Box.
LSU hit 82 home runs in 41 home games. That’s two per game. Away from The Box, LSU hit 22 home runs in 19 games, just 1.15 per game. When LSU hits a homer, they’re 39-9 (.813). When they don’t, they’re 9-6 (.600).
The Tigers scored 118 runs (9 rpg) at home in SEC play and 66 (4.4 rpg) on the road. That doesn’t include a dismal four-run output over two games in Hoover which worsens the drop off.
Unless the Tigers packed the offense for Omaha, their stay could be short.
Check out more of our Bracket Breakdowns:
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