If officials strike, the NFL will be negatively impacted
June 12, 2012
Anna Agnes Duet Ledet
June 13, 2012
A winner-take-all game was played Sunday night in Alex Box Stadium with a berth to the College World Series on the line.
Surely, this story ends with LSU dog piling its way to Omaha, right?
Wrong.
This time, little-known Stony Brook is the one going to the pinnacle of college baseball.
Thanks to a perfect storm of two-out, two-strike hitting and a three-hit, complete game gem from sophomore right handed pitcher Frankie Vanderka, the Seawolves pounced the Tigers in front of the largest postseason crowd in college baseball history, earning a 7-2 win.
The loss ends the Tigers’ season with a 47-18 record and marks the first time LSU has ever been beaten in a home Super Regional since the NCAA adopted the format in the late 1990s.
Before the loss, the Tigers were also 8-0 in their previous eight winner-take-all home games played in either the Regional or Super Regional round.
“This is obviously a very tough thing to deal with for us,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said following the loss. “We had every expectation that we were going to win this Super Regional and head off to Omaha this week, but things do not always work out the way they are planned. … They deserved to win this Super Regional. We have no excuses. They out played us, really in every phase of the game. It is hard for me to find weaknesses in their team.”
Sunday’s rubber game was set up after the teams split a pair of soggy, rain-filled games on Friday and Saturday.
The final game was weather altered as well, as first pitch was pushed from noon to 7 p.m.
The delay allowed threatening skies to clear and LSU fans to pack Alex Box Stadium, as an NCAA record crowd of 10,620 watched the rubber meeting between the teams.
The big crowd didn’t intimidate the small-school Seawolves.
Stony Brook struck for a run in the top of the first inning off LSU starter Ryan Eades – a score the Tigers matched in the bottom half of the frame with a tally of their own.
But the Seawolves struck for three more in the third inning and two in the fourth to grab complete control of the game.
Stony Brook pounded out 15 hits in the win and worked the count in virtually every at-bat, fouling out countless pitches.
Leadoff hitter and first-round draft pick center fielder Travis Jankowski led the charge with four hits in six at-bats.
Cleanup hitter Maxx Tissenbaum and five-hole slugger Kevin Krause each added two hits and combined for 5 RBI in the win.
“Offensively, one through nine, that was the toughest line up that we have faced all year. I will put them in the category with Florida, maybe even better.”
With the Seawolves offense putting up crooked numbers, Vanderka strung together zeroes.
The Stony Brook right handed pitcher was dominant in every stage of Sunday’s game, limiting the Tigers to just three hits and four walks in his nine innings of work.
Vanderka struck out just five hitters, but lulled the Tigers’ bats to sleep with his moderate-speed fastball and his ability to change speeds.
He needed just 129 pitches to dust LSU’s College World Series hopes.
“I thought he kept us off balance,” LSU outfielder Raph Rhymes said. “We would think we were getting a fastball count, and he’d throw a curveball. I think he just kept us off balance all night. We hit balls hard, but they just found some gloves tonight. You have to give credit to Stony Brook, to their pitching and to their defense.”
“He worked both sides of the plate, he threw three pitches for strikes and he was keeping us off balance,” LSU outfielder Mason Katz agreed.
LSU’s loss marks the third-straight season the Tigers don’t reach the College World Series after winning it in 2009.
That’s not a standard that LSU fans are used to.
It’s a standard Mainieri hope changes in the future.
The coach said he will remember this loss for a long time.
Why wouldn’t he?
It was the first of its kind – the only time the Tigers were ever denied in their home park.
“It is hard to look at the positive from our season right now because the hurt is so great for these kids,” Mainieri said. “They had every confidence, every anticipation of going to Omaha and playing for the national championship and all of a sudden it is over. The suddenness is just awful. … Right now I just hurt for these kids, especially the seniors and the kids that will not be back. They have given so much to our program, the university, and we are going to miss them dearly. I wish we could have sent them out with one more trip to Omaha.”
LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri argues with an umpire during Sunday’s loss to Stony Brook. The Tigers were outclassed by the small New York school, marking three-straight years the team fails to reach the College World Series.
