A meme circulating around social media over the past two days indicated that fans in only three of the 50 states were rooting for LSU to beat underdog Coastal Carolina in the College World Series finals.

One of those, however, was Louisiana — and representing the state by adding another national championship to the program’s storied history means more to the Tigers than who else is rooting for them.

“It’s awesome. It’s something I’ve dreamed for my entire life, as I know other Louisiana guys on the team have. This is everything that you’ve worked for coming up,” LSU outfielder Jake Brown, who grew up in Sulphur, La., said at a press conference Friday. “In Louisiana your dream is to play baseball for LSU. And what goes with that is being able to represent it at the highest level of college baseball, which this program has been able to do year in and year out. And really just super thankful for the opportunity I’ve been gifted with and looking to make the most out of it.”

LSU (51-15) and Coastal Carolina (56-11) will play Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series Saturday at 6 p.m.

Even though both were national seeds and Coastal Carolina has been a top baseball program throughout this century — this is its 21st NCAA Tournament appearance in 25 years and it won the 2016 national championship — it’s hard not to paint the series as a contrast of pedigrees.

Coastal Carolina has the one national title to its credit, but LSU has seven and is chasing its second in three years.

LSU is from the mighty Southeastern Conference, which had a record 14 teams in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The SEC won the last five national titles and has a CWS finalist for the 16th time in 17 years.

Coastal Carolina is the champion of the Sun Belt Conference, a respected baseball league that still has had only two teams ever reach the CWS. The Sun Belt’s only other CWS team was Louisiana-Lafayette in 2000. Coastal’s 2016 national championship came as a member of the Big South.

Another national title, coach Kevin Schnall said, would give Coastal some of the respect it deserves.

“That would be two national championships in nine years. That would put Coastal Carolina baseball on a different planet. That would put Coastal Carolina University in a really good position, and again that’s really special,” Schnall said.

Although this team has a special feel, Schnall has bristled at the idea of the Chanticleers — pronounced “SHON-tuh-cleers,” as he made a point to emphasize at one press conference — being a Cinderella story.

Besides its history, he noted the 2025 team set an NCAA record with 176 hit by pitches. Its pitching staff ranks No. 2 out of 299 Division I teams with a 3.20 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP. It’s also won 26 consecutive games and is 38-3 over the last 41.

“It’s incredible, but it’s not unbelievable. And it’s not unbelievable because we’ve got really good players,” Schnall said after the 11-3 win over Louisville that sent the Chanticleers to the finals. “But the separator is these players are willing to drop ‘I’ and ‘me’ for ‘we’ and ‘us.’ When you bring a group of people together with that mentality, this is what can happen — 26 straight; 56 wins, school record; 176 hit-by-pitches, NCAA record broke today. Absolute selfless group that did unbelievable things this year.”

CWS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
LSU vs. Coastal Carolina
• Saturday, 6 p.m., ESPN
• Sunday, 1:30 p.m., ABC
• Monday, 6:30 p.m., ESPN (if necessary)