SUPER REGIONAL NOTEBOOK:

BATON ROUGE, La. — The team with the 23-game win streak, the longest current streak in the nation and the longest in the history of the storied Southeastern Conference, was not the hottest team at Alex Box Stadium for the opening game of the NCAA Super Regional between host LSU and UC Irvine.

Saturday night, from the outset until the last of the 8,023 shuffled off to their tailgate-ravaged parking spaces, the hottest team in Baton Rouge, if not the country, was the Anteaters.

During its 11-5 triumph, which puts it within one win of returning to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., UCI won out in pitching, hitting and, well, winning.

The Anteaters also proved more powerful than the mighty five-time national champion Bayou Bengals, who came in with 88 homers to the ’Eaters’ 35, but saw their outfielders twice run into fences as batted balls sailed over their head.

UCI, which won for the eighth straight time, is now 9-0 in regionals and super regionals the last two seasons, all on the road.

The Anteaters continued their consistent and balanced hitting, and their dominant pitching, as junior All-American Scott Gorgen produced his best start in three weeks and improved to 12-3, one shy of his 13-3 record last season.

Gorgen’s 32 wins tie him for second in UC Irvine career annals.

UCI, the so-called small ball squad that came in with 99 fewer extra-base hits than the Tigers, pinged two homers and four doubles, accounting for most of the game’s extra-base hits.

And while UCI committed two errors, including just the sixth of the season by junior shortstop Ben Orloff, it pulled off productive defensive plays to help Gorgen and four relievers finish the deal.

In the fourth inning, third baseman Eric Deragisch, though stumbling after he fielded a grounder, started a 5-4-3 double play that extricated Gorgen from potential damage and ended the inning.

In the sixth, second baseman Casey Stevenson, who wound up with an RBI infield single that left the bases loaded and the potential tying run coming to the plate, kept the ball in his glove while patting Gorgen on the back and telling him to stay off the dirt [mound, a requirement for what followed].

What followed was the Anteaters’ third successful hidden ball trick of the season, though LSU players, coaches and fans would all disagree about the successful part.

Still, DJ LaMehieu, who some would suggest had no business being an inch off the bag [where was he going to go?], was ruled out when Stevenson approached him and tagged him for the third out of the inning.

Sean Madigan later made a diving catch of a sinking line drive in right field to add to the string of 27 outs that Gorgen and his pitching mates, who entered the week with a staff ERA of 2.88 to rank No,. 2 in the nation, seem to be getting with relative and consistent ease.

And left fielder Dillon Bell threw a runner out at the plate after backing up an overthrow to third base to end the eighth.

 Madigan, a lefty who started against left-handed pitcher Ryan Verdugo largely because he had five RBIs in Sunday’s Lincoln Regional championship game win over Oral Roberts, sat on a curve ball and ripped a three-run homer to give UCI a 6-1 lead in the sixth.

It was Madigan’s second homer of the season, his first in 44 games.

Madigan, who is now eight for 15 with eight RBIs in the postseason and hit .462 with 13 RBIs in just 15 games in May, was so excited he made up a new word to describe the Anteaters’ surprising power display: Thundermash.

 Brock Bardeen launched his fourth pinch-hit dinger of the campaign, a no-doubt blast that plated two in the seventh.

 Senior catcher Aaron Lowenstein, who hopes to celebrate his 23rd birthday on Monday with a flight to Omaha, rather than playing a deciding third game, doubled in the sixth to end an 0-for-10 slide.

 Sophomore Jeff Cusick, who had three hits, including a pair of doubles, is now eight for 15 in the postseason, while Stevenson got just one hit and is now a “cool” eight for 13 since the regular season ended.

Cusick, who missed about a month with a sore shoulder during the Big West Conference season, is now 13 for 23 in his last 11 games (.565).

 UCI, which hit .305 in the regular season, is now hitting .343 as a team in four postseason games.

 UCI’s win also halted a 24-game unbeaten streak for LSU, which tied a game with Georgia, before reeling off 23 straight. The Tigers’ last loss was April 19.

The victory also ended an unbeaten run in televised games this season for LSU, which had been 28-0-1 on the tube, before Saturday’s game, televised on ESPNU.

 LSU sophomore designated hitter Blake Dean, whom Tigers Coach Paul Mainieri called the team’s most complete hitter and came in batting .351 with 19 homers and 66 RBIs, went hitless in five at-bats, including three strikeouts against Gorgen.

Dean had produced 15 RBIs in his previous seven games for LSU.

 UCI is now 17-1 when it scores in the first inning.

 LSU reliever Paul Bertoccini, who took over for starter Ryan Verdugo in the sixth inning, had not allowed a run in 12 1/3 innings, during which he had fanned 18, before being nailed for three earned runs in one-third of an inning Saturday.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.