Preview | Salukis Set for 15th NCAA Tournament Appearance - Southern Illinois University Athletics

Carbondale, Ill. – Southern Illinois enters the Baton Rouge Regional as the No. 3 seed as it will take on the No. 2 California Golden Bears in the game one of the weekend for a 2:30 PM CT first pitch on Friday, May 17. No. 9 overall seed Louisiana State University claims the top seed in the Regional as it will take on the No. 4 seed in Jackson State following the Salukis on Friday.

Playing in its second-straight NCAA Regional and third over the last four seasons, SIU will be the No.3 seed for the first time since 2019. The trip to Baton Rouge will be a first for the Dawgs, having played LSU just once before as Southern defeated #5 LSU 8-5 at the Crowne Plaza Classic in Houston, Texas back in 2007.

The Salukis have won nine-straight games heading into the NCAA Tournament, with all nine games being played on the road. On the year, Southern is 27-6 while playing away from home with a 12-2 neutral site record and 15-4 true road record.

Southern Illinois and Cal will meet for just the fourth time in the two programs' history and the first time in the postseason. The last time the two teams met was 2006 as the Bears improved to 3-0 all-time against SIU.

California earned an at-large bid after a 36-17 (9-13 Pac-12) season with six wins against ranked opponents on the year. The Bears and Salukis have both played and defeated Illinois State and Illinois this season with those two being the only opponents both teams faced in 2024.

The Salukis currently have the fourth-best ERA in the nation (1.58) led by freshman Maddia Groff (0.81) who ranks second in the country and Madi Eberle (2.62) who has picked up three-straight wins over the previous two weekends. On the other side, Cal currently ranks 11^th in the country in home runs per game (1.45) with 77 total on the season. The Bears also have the 40^th best batting average in the country (.306), led by Tatum Anzaldo who hoists a .408 average in 51 games played.

The LSU Tigers (40-15, 12-12 SEC) finished sixth in the SEC regular season standings before falling 2-1 (8) to Missouri in the SEC Tournament semifinal round. Three Tigers were placed on the All-SEC First Team including starting pitcher Sydney Berzon who leads LSU with a 1.64 ERA in nearly 200 innings pitched.

Following Friday's game, the Salukis will go on to play either LSU or Jackson State on Saturday afternoon depending on the outcome of Friday's contests. The Salukis will either play at noon CT or 2:30 CT on Saturday.

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Preview | Salukis Set for 15th NCAA Tournament Appearance

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Madi Eberle

Maddia Groff

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