The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the LSU nine that day;
The team had lost the night before, leaving another game to play.
The Tigers scored four quick runs, then Texas did the same,
The rally nearly silenced the gold clan fans who came to see the game.

Yet few left their seats in despair.  They knew the best
Was still to come with “Tigers” across their chest;
They chanted, “Geaux Tigers!”.  The faithful knew that
Their beloved team would soon prevail, their mascot an oversized cat.

Up stepped Mitchell, soon after Gibbs the catcher,
Micah was an All American, Jared dodged line backers.
Mahtook hugged third base, then scored off Helenihi’s bat,
Texas changed pitchers to stop the bleeding, but it would take more than that.

Schimpf took one for the team, beaned by the ball,
He would cross the plate soon after, when Ochinko answered the call;
And when the inning was over, and the fans saw what occurred,
The Tigers had jumped to a substantial lead, five men had rounded third.

“Hook ‘em Horns! We’ll get them back!” Fan in orange would yell;
A resounding “L-S-U” call answered them back, voiced by Buzzy Haydel.
The clubhouse leader energized his team, not always with has bat,
A vocal leader in the dugout, he was a one man rally hat.

The Tigers had been there before, last year settling for fifth place;
This would not be the result this time, a smile beamed from Mainieri’s face.
His team would prevail and storm the mound at Rosenblatt,
It wouldn’t matter who the Longhorns put up to bat.

Jones came in to pitch, a lefty who knows how to deliver the hurt.
He pitched effortlessly and struck out two, smooth as pecan pie dessert.
Then the senior Coleman emerged, Louis throws with zip,
He returned to mound one last time, his final Tiger road trip.

The scoreboard showed bottom of nine, three outs left in the affair.
Gibb’s mitt would crack as fastballs ripped through the air.
The first two outs were backwards K’s, Coleman put them straight to bed.
One more out remaining before the Cajuns painted the town red.

Not a fan nor player were sitting, the Tigers began to roar,
“One more out is all we need”, Mainieri would implore.
“Geaux Tigers! Geaux Tigers!” the purple and gold would demand;
Coleman fired a strike across the plate, the umpire pointed his hand.

Relaxed on mound was Coleman, as if Omaha was his home;
He prepared another pitch, and again it found the zone;
The batter flailed aimlessly as if he didn’t know what to do;
The offering had him baffled, bellowed the umpire, “Stike two!”

The old stadium rumbled as fans would yell and applaud,
Some men missed the second call, instead admiring Erin Andrew’s bod;
The final pitch was signaled to Coleman, adrenaline in his vein,
Sixty feet six inches and the Tigers would be champs again.

Horsehide came spiraling, the offering was headed to the plate;
The batter tried with all his might, but failed like Jon and Kate.
The Tigers were tops once again; a win novel like Thoreau.
Players poured from the dugout to the field, tears filled the front row.

Oh, the sun will rise in Austin once again, despite what happened this night,
In Baton Rouge the party’s just getting started, students hanging from street lights;
On the field at Rosenblatt players celebrate, pump fist in the air and shout,
There is joy again at LSU - the Bayou Bengals have won out.

Tayor Jungmann, the Longhorn’s freshman hurler from Temple, Texas could have been playing professional baseball this season.  After a sensational high school career, culminating with a senior season in which he posted a 13-0 record with a scant 0.41 ERA and 142 K’s in 85 innings and was named to the Baseball America High School All-America First Team, Jungmann was drafted in the 24th round of the 2008 MLB Draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Thus, instead of taking to the hill in front of 24,000 screaming fans at Rosenblatt Stadium and propelling UT to a victory in game two of the championship series, he could have been playing in front of half filled bleachers for the Inland Empire 66ers, riding from town to town in a jerky bus as he fashioned his game.  One shutters to think what Jungmann and the Longhorns might have missed out on…

With little exception Jungmann was every bit as brilliant throughout the regular season as he was Tuesday night.  Pitching as both a starter and reliever, Jungmann has posted a 2.00 ERA with a marvelous 11-3 record.  He has now struck out 101 batters in 94.2 innings and only allowed 65 hits for a dainty opposition .193 batting average.  Numbers which are freaky awesome for anyone, let alone a freshman.  His performance in the Super Regionals was especially remarkable as well, giving UT the decisive win against an experienced and talented TCU team and launching Texas into the College World Series.  At this pace Jungmann will have Stephenstrasburgian type hype in two years when he becomes draft eligible once again.

Despite Junggman’s stats this season Texas Coach Auggie Garrido’s decision to go with him as the game two starter was actually one that could be second guessed going into the contest.  The night before in game one of the best-of-three showdown, Junggman couldn’t find the strikezone when he made an appearance in relief.  He tossed four straight balls and walked the batter who would eventually score the tying run for LSU.  Nevertheless, Garrido had little fear the 6’6” hurler would prevail, “I was very confident. It was my decision to put him in that position last night. It was a decision made in haste. I put him into something he wasn’t prepared for. He is a pitcher and a real good one.”

A “good” pitcher?…  That’s a statement as understated as his win Tuesday night was big.

Matty Ott might lose his job. Not because of the economy or budget cuts, nor will the reason he won’t be closing games for LSU be because can’t get the job done.  Instead it is because he’s just too damn good to limit to one or two innings of work. With All American senior starter Louis Coleman moving on to pro ball once the CWS concludes, Ott may transition into a starting role in 2010, some big shoes to fill, but he seems more than capable.

Monday night Ott, a freshman from New Orleans, earned the win for LSU by pitching three hitless and scoreless innings to allow his team to earn the precious first victory in the CWS finals.  His performance was yet another in a long list of memorable outings this season which earned him All American honors and finalist consideration for the Stopper of the Year Award.  To date this season he is 4-2 with a 2.68 ERA and has 16 saves – a LSU single season record.  He has shown outstanding control and poise, only issuing six walks in 50.1 innings while striking out 69 batters. As far as relievers go, the 6’1 righty is so potent he should only be used under a doctor’s supervision.

Despite being accustomed to only pitching to a handful of batters a game, in Monday’s contest he seemed to get only stronger as the game went on.  To close the game he struck out the first two batters before inducing a feeble grounder to second to end the game.

“I was feeling good the whole time,” Ott stated after the win, “We practice and lift weights to keep conditioned. Throughout the season, I told myself that I need to be able to throw three to four innings because I might need to step in and throw later in the season.”

The win puts LSU nine innings away from claiming their sixth national championship and it’s first since 2000.

1955. 

That was the last, and only, year a team from the ACC won the College World Series when Wake Forest won the championship.  With the ousters of North Carolina and Virginia, the Atlantic Coast Conference representative to the CWS will once again go home empty handed.

It’s hard to believe that it has been over five decades since a team from the powerhouse conference has captured the baseball title.  The conference has sent 38 teams to Omaha sine that time, none of which ended the year dogpiling on the mound in celebration.  Two of those teams, Clemson and Florida State have been to Omaha a combined 30 times (Clemson 11, FSU 19) without ever wining it all.    Last year seemed to be the conference’s best bet to break the streak when Miami, North Carolina and Florida State were the 1, 2 and four national seeds respectively.  However each were picked off one by one and neither team even finished in the final two (UM’s five titles were all accumulated before joining the conference).

UNC was Ping!Baseball’s pick to capture the flag this season, but with their pitching implosion on Thursday resulted in them blowing a four run lead in the fifth and consequently the game to Arizona State. 

Virginia returns most of their roster next season and FSU and Miami are perennial contenders.  Clemson is alive and kicking after missing the tournament completely two seasons ago and they, along with Georgia Tech, nearly made it back to Omaha this season.  So will one of them finally get the mojo going and double the conference’s all time baseball titles?  Possibly.  Until then they’ll have to settle for having the same number of CWS championships as Holy Cross.

One strike away. 

During Wednesday night’s game against Arkansas, Virginia was just one strike away from eliminating the Razorbacks and advancing to the final four in the College World Series.  However Zack Cox singled to extend the game and Brett Eibner followed it up with a moon shot deep into the left field bleachers to tie the game.

One ball away.

The Cavaliers loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning, with just a single out against Dallas Keuchel.  Keuchel, Arkansas usual Friday starter, was making his first appearance of the year out in relief and faced off against Virginia’s Danny Hultzen, the talented freshman All American who started the game on the mound and limited Arkansas to a single unearned run in over six innings and is just as an accomplished hitter. Hultzen watched three straight pitches miss the strike zone; drawing a 3-0 count to bring UVA one misdirected pitch away from a walk off victory.  After the obligatory bat on the shoulder strike from Keuchel, Hultzen again prepared for the offering from Keuchel.

One step away.

Hultzen lined a shot to short, a grounder scooped up by Tim Carver, the backup shortstop who came in to replace Ben Tschepikow.  Tschepikow a senior draft pick of the Kansas City Royals, had broken his hand earlier in the game when he was hit by a pitch to allow Carver the opportunity to enter the lineup.  Any outcome other than a double play would end the game for Arkansas as the Cavaliers’ winning run was running home to complete the win for Virginia.  Caver quickly grabbed the ball and prepared to flip it to second to start the double play, but fumbled it and watched as it fell to the ground.  Without delay he quickly scooped the ball back up and delivered it to second.  It was then jettisoned to first base, just beating Hultzen to the bag, whose every effort momentum was less than a step away from winning the game.

One foot away.

The Hogs never led in the game until Andrew Darr’s twelfth inning double.  The fortunate hit came on the 10th pitch of his at bat and jettisoned off third base to bring home the winning run. Had the ball landed just a foot to the left it would have been foul, stranding the runner.  Perhaps Darr would have capitalized later in the at bat to bring him home, but maybe not.  Fortunately for the Razorbacks they didn’t have to find out.  In a rollercoaster game of inches, Arkansas had luck on their side and won the memorable game 4-3.

The final innings of the Arkansas-Virginia game was unquestionably some of the most dramatic baseball actions I’ve witnessed.  Furthermore, Keuchel’s bend but don’t break performance was a remarkable example of inspired pitching.  He entered the game in the bottom of the ninth with run runners on and no outs.  Four times he pitched himself out of a jam that would have caved other pitchers, even professional hurlers.  Considering the Cavs had the winning run or tying run aboard every inning it’s amazing the young lefty didn’t lose his lunch, let alone the game.

Keuchel’s performance is a shining example a part of the reason while I enjoy watching college baseball so much.  He was playing not for money, honor or prestige, not even necessarily for his school, but for his grandmother.  Keuchel pointed to the sky with both hands before taking to the mound to honor her. 

The Series is full of ordinary students and players performing at an extraordinary level.  Wednesday’s game continues a long tradition of wonderful games in Rosenblatt.  He’s hoping there’s a couple more before the final out is recorded.