BATON ROUGE– No. 1 LSU’s NCAA Regional baseball game scheduled for Sunday night against North Carolina Wilmington at Alex Box Stadium has been postponed until noon Monday because of expected bad weather, NCAA officials said shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday night.

North Carolina Wilmington (41-17) eliminated Tulane, 8-2, late Sunday night. LSU (50-10) defeated UNCW, 2-0, in a game that did not finish until 1:10 a.m. Sunday morning after not starting until 10:15 p.m. Saturday night because of a three-hour rain delay in the previous game.

LSU athletic director criticized the NCAA for its decision to move the game to Monday even though there was a 90 percent chance of continued rain late Sunday night and only a 20 percent chance of rain on Monday.

“I’m not real happy about the situation,” Alleva said. “Regretfully, the game we were supposed to play tonight against UNC Wilmington has been postponed to tomorrow at 12 p.m. Now, you’re going to ask me why. The NCAA made a decision. They didn’t give me a reason. I don’t have a reason, okay. There is a guideline that says that you are not allowed to start a game after 11 p.m. We could have easily started this game at 10:15 p.m. Frankly, it’s a ridiculous decision.”

LSU, which is 2-0 in the regional, has had its winners bracket advantage compromised by the postponement, Alleva said.

“It hurts from the standpoint that when you’re in the winner’s bracket, you have a competitive advantage,” he said. “That competitive advantage has been negated by this decision. It’s sad for our team, and it’s even worse for our fans. I feel so terribly bad for our 10,000 fans that all showed up here tonight, and now have to go home. A terrible decision by the NCAA. Period. That’s all I have to say.”

LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri had no comment, but Alleva said he was upset with the decision as well. Mainieri had asked to move Sunday’s original schedule of games of 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to earlier in the day to avoid rain, but the NCAA said no, Alleva said. It also rained heavily Sunday morning.

If LSU wins Monday, it will advance to the best-of-three Super Regional round at Alex Box against the winner of the NCAA Houston Regional, where Louisiana-Lafayette (41-21) has reached the championship round with two wins. An LSU loss at noon Monday will force a Baton Rouge Regional championship game at 7 p.m. Monday. Television information was not available for Monday’s game or games.

LSU will start sophomore left-hander Jared Poche (7-1, 3.35 ERA) against UNCW.