Stony Brook Advances To College World Series With Win Over LSU

The Stony Brook Seawolves aren't a complete unknown to followers of college baseball and were considered a solid dark horse pick to get out of their regional. Very few, however, could have imagined that they would make a run all the way to Omaha. They're heading to the College World Series for the first time in school history after an impressive Super Regional victory over the LSU Tigers.

America East regular season and tournament champions Stony Brook were given a No. 4 seed at the beginning of the tournament, but got a bit lucky in drawing the Miami Hurricanes, who were almost universally dubbed by experts as the weakest No. 1 seed in the field. The Seawolves destroyed Miami 10-2 in their tournament opener and eventually went on to win the Coral Gables regional.

Their Cinderella run was supposed to end at Alex Box Stadium against a formidable LSU team, but they put together three fantastic games in a row. The first game of the Super Regional was a classic, with Stony Brook barely missing out on multiple opportunities to win the game. They led in the bottom of the ninth and on multiple occasions in extra innings, but couldn't close out Game 1. After a rain delay postponed the game, LSU brought out first round MLB draft pick Kevin Gausman to close out the game, and LSU won 5-4 in the 12th inning.

That turned out to be Stony Brook's shakiest performance. Their pitching was stellar in the following two games, as they took out LSU 3-1 on Saturday, then 7-2 on Sunday to advance to Omaha. They're just the second No. 4 seed to ever advance to the College World Series.