Three Things to Watch: West Virginia at LSU
06/06/2025
By Hunt Palmer
This version of Alex Box Stadium hosts its ninth Super Regional starting on Saturday afternoon.
The home team has won five–Rice, Oklahoma, ULL, Mississippi State, Kentucky—and lost three—Stony Brook, Coastal Carolina, Florida State. The Mountaineers of West Virginia will attempt to make their first trip to Omaha. A win would mark LSU’s 20th trip.
The analysts and oddsmakers deem LSU a sizeable favorite this weekend, but that’s nothing new. The same thing could have been said to a higher degree when Coastal Carolina and Stony Brook waltzed into Baton Rouge. It took the wildest extra-inning game in the stadium’s history for LSU to win one of those five games.
After a crazy weekend of regional play that saw seven hosts fall, West Virginia will try to continue the chaos while the Tigers look to fight off another underdog in college baseball’s most revered environment.
Alex Box Stadium will be full Saturday. It will be loud. The same goes for Sunday. The question remains, will that be the case when the final out is recorded?
Let’s look at “Three Things” that could decide the Baton Rouge Super Regional.
NOTHING GIVEN
West Virginia is not a powerful offense. It’s not an aggressive offense. The Mountaineers do their damage with patience and plenty of contact.
They also take charity.
In regional play, West Virginia created five multi-run innings. They got a ton of help in all five.
Their only crooked number in the opener was a two-run fifth. In that inning, Kentucky made two errors and hit a Mountaineer batter.
On Saturday, West Virginia scored three in the first and four in the ninth. The first was sparked by a leadoff hit by pitch on an 0-2 count. The ninth included a walk and two hit batsmen, both of which came with the bases loaded and forced in runs.
In the finale, they posted a six-run fourth and a six-run eighth. This is where Kentucky really helped out. The Wildcats walked two, hit two and made an error in the fourth. Then in the eighth, they walked three more.
Those five innings featured three errors, five hit batsmen and six walks. That’s 14 free bases and a total of only three extra-base hits, all doubles.
We saw the Tiger staff walk 11 on Sunday against Little Rock. That’s one sure-fire way to get yourself in trouble. West Virginia is unlikely to bludgeon the baseball all over Alex Box Stadium. But they can put up runs if you help.
The Mountaineers’ offensive numbers in the regional are odd.
They only stole one base and only sacrifice bunted once. They only collected eight extra base hits. But they only struck out 13 times over three games. The engine of the offense was 17 walks/hit batsmen and 26 singles.
TIGERS IN TWO
The prevailing thought is that LSU needs to finish this series in two games. Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson are the best duo going, and a third game without either of those two on the mound could get dicey like last weekend did.
The Tigers handled the first two games 19-0 and then lost the next 12 innings 15-5 to Little Rock.
Anderson and Eyanson have made an individual start in 15 of the 16 weekend thus far, the SEC Tournament being the exception. LSU has won both starts 10 times, split them four times and lost them both once (at Auburn). In SEC play, LSU won both starts six of the 10 times. At home, LSU won both starts four of the five weekends.
The Tigers were 4-7 against SEC competition when neither started.
When those two are on the mound, LSU may be the best team in the country. When they aren’t, things tend to wobble.
HOME-ERS
Traditionally, LSU has hit home runs home and away at similar clip. Not this year. The Tigers have 97 home runs on the season, and 77 have come at Alex Box Stadium.
Good news. The super regional is at Alex Box Stadium.
West Virginia doesn’t figure to hit for much power, but they also don’t surrender many longballs.
Griffin Kirn has only allowed five since March 16, and the staff has a whole has only given up 55. This is an obvious bit of data, but home runs shift momentum and can ignite the home crowd. They also have a way of hanging crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
I certainly wouldn’t suggest LSU dig in looking to launch, but the Tigers have enough talented hitters to run into some longballs over the weekend. Power is one of LSU edges this weekend. If LSU hits, say, two per game, that should be an advantage over the visitors from Appalachia.