LSU Tiger Blog

“All In” Time for the Tigers

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009      Email Print

Its funny how sports can be. You can play months of regular season baseball. You can win your conference tourney, steamroll through your regional and bulldoze your way through the Super Regional. Follow it up with 4 straight wins in the College World Series and still for LSU, it all comes down to one game. One game for all the CWS marbles will take place today in Omaha where LSU has a chance to win its first national title in 9 years. A long wait for a program which is growing impatient!

As good a team effort as it was on Monday, the tigers pulled together for a team loss on Tuesday. The hitting and pitching shared this defeat. Longhorn pitcher Taylor Jungmann was the difference silencing the Tiger bats with 9 K's in 9 innings of work. It gave the Texas bullpen the night off and gave his school new life. The Tiger pitchers were as bad as Jungmann was good. Starter Austin Ross walked the first batter of the game and never could steer his car back in the passing lane after that. Ryan Byrd wasn't any better in relief and while Nolan Cain was solid, it was too late for the tigers.

You may wonder why Mainieri didn't throw Anthony Ranaudo on the hill in Game 2? The reason was simple, he didn't want to roll the dice on a pitcher who has never taken the mound with only 3 games rest his ENTIRE career. I talked to Ranaudo after the game and he understood and supported his coach's decision. Its safe to say he savors this once in a lifetime opportunity of starting a winner take all CWS classic.

LSU has only lost 2 games in a row ONCE all season dating back to their back to back losses versus Tennesee in April. Now is no time to do it again and you have to like the tigers chances of putting it all together. Ranaudo got his grove back against Arkansas last Friday, and the LSU bats have proven they can rebound as well. The chips are on the table, its time for LSU to go "all in" where it doesn't matter what they've done this season, it all boils down to what happens on Wednesday night, where the high stakes have never been well...higher.

SUPPORT STAFF: With the thought of winning it all a real possibility Tuesday, LSU flew in Les Miles and Trent Johnson who talked to Mainieri and the team before and after the game. Its clear the LSU family is poised to celebrate another title...together.

LEON"S RETURN: So were you surprised Leon Landry made a return to the starting lineup on Tuesday? Mainieri said he played "a hunch" that with another left handed bat, Leon might be good for a home run versus Texas. Landry didn't go yard, but he was solid with a GREAT catch in left and showed some nice hustle beating out a single in the second.

CAIN WAS ABLE: Nice to see senior Nolan Cain get his moment in the Omaha sun, ok maybe in this case the Omaha overcast sky. He was sharp in middle relief duty noting his slider was his go to pitch against the Horns.

ROSENBLATT RUNNER-UPS: This year's CWS has recorded the second best attendance in the history of the event. Through the first 14 games, the total ticket count was 316,090 compared to the biggest total in 2008 through 14 which was 330,099.

By: Mike Nabors

An Emmy award winning sports reporter who covers a wide variety of events for CST. Primarily, Mike serves as the network's reporter for Saints coverage.

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