College baseball National Championship: No. 13 Coastal Carolina vs. No. 6 LSU

The 2025 Division I college baseball season comes to a bitter end in Omaha at the national championship series.

The No. 13 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers look for their second national title in program history and their first since 2016.

The No. 6 LSU Tigers are on the hunt to hoist the trophy for the first time since 2023.

Will the Chanticleers cap off their stellar season with a title? Or will the Tigers get to have the final dogpile of 2025?

Here are some storylines from the upcoming national championship series.

Chanticleers are riding the high of a long win streak

Coastal Carolina has won 26 straight games, which now leads the nation with the longest current win streak.

This streak is now the longest stretch of winning before a national championship series in Division I history, with the record being previously held by USC in 1948.

USC went on to win it all that year, taking down the Yale Bulldogs in three games.

Having not lost since April 22 against the College of Charleston on the road, the opportunity presents itself for a perfect run to come to a victorious end exactly two months later.

Jay Johnson, Tigers looking to close the book on 2016

Nine years ago, Jay Johnson was the head coach of an Arizona team that made it all the way to the national championship series.

Facing Coastal Carolina, the Wildcats took the opening game but fell in the final two contests to lose the title.

As for LSU, they were attempting to stand in the way of the Chanticleers’ first trip to Omaha but got swept in two games hosting the Baton Rouge Super Regional.

The mammoth storylines for the Tigers collide as this series just means more.

The history of Coastal Carolina-LSU

Coastal Carolina leads the head-to-head series with a 2-0 record against LSU all-time.

In the most recent meeting, the Chanticleers swept the Tigers in two games on the road in the Baton Rouge Super Regional on the weekend of June 11-12.

LSU has never defeated Coastal Carolina in its two head-to-head matchups.

Chanticleers players to watch

First baseman Colby Thorndyke has made the biggest impact for Coastal Carolina at the plate in Omaha, going 5-for-12 with eight runs batted in during the three-game stretch last week.

Left fielder Sebastian Alexander has not recorded a steal since May 31 against East Carolina, but he leads the Chanticleers in that category with 27.

Right-handed pitcher Cameron Flukey has the most strikeouts out of any Coastal Carolina arm this year with 109, and he’s likely to get the nod in Game 1.

In the bullpen, right-handed pitcher Ryan Lynch has been a shutdown closer with nine saves on the season and a team-best 0.58 earned run average in 27 appearances this season.

Tigers players to watch

Pitchers have had a hard time trying to throw around first baseman Jared “Bear” Jones, who has hit the ball out of the park 22 times this year.

Left fielder Derek Curiel has hit in all but one game since the start of the NCAA Regionals, batting .424 in 33 at-bats during that stretch.

The likely Game 1 starter on the mound is left-handed pitcher Kade Anderson, sporting an 11-1 record in 18 starts.

The first arm out of the bullpen in any game this weekend for LSU will probably be right-handed pitcher Zac Cowan, having struck out 60 batters and maintaining a 2.94 earned run average this season.

Who’s winning the series?

The collision course that these two teams have run into makes this one of the more interesting title series on paper in recent history.

This series has all the makings of going to three games, and I have the LSU Tigers winning it all.

Bryan Portney is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email bep5295@psu.edu.