update: June 9, 10:30 a.m. After junior ace Kevin Gausman sat the Seawolves down in order in the 12th, junior outfielder Mason Katz singled home freshman Tyler Moore to put the Tigers one win from Omaha, 5-4.
____ In the midst of arguably one of the most thrilling, unpredictable postseason games in LSU baseball history, mother nature came out as the ultimate winner.
A torrential downpour halted the first game of the super regional between LSU and Stony Brook just as the teams took the field for the twelfth inning in a 4-4 game, causing a two and a half hour delay before the NCAA finally made the decision to postpone the game until 10:05 a.m. Saturday.
NCAA tournament representative Wilbert Ellis said the decision was made not only because of the poor field conditions, but also due to the ominous forecast that called for more rain and lightning in the Baton Rouge area.
“We had lightning six and eight miles away,” Ellis said. “We talked about trying to get the game in tonight, but then we had another weather front behind us.”
The second game will begin approximately 50 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.
Stony Brook lead 2-1 going into the bottom of the ninth inning, before sophomore infielder JaCoby Jones led off the frame with a mammoth solo home run to knot the score at two and send the 9,222 fans in Alex Box Stadium into a frenzy.
“I asked Coach [LSU head coach Paul Mainieri] if he wanted me to take the first pitch or swing away, and he said to hit it out,” Jones said.
After Stony Brook’s Steven Goldstein answered Jones with a solo home run of his own in the top of the tenth, freshman Tyler Moore stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the inning.
Down to his final strike, Moore, inserted in the eighth as a pinch runner, hit a sinking line drive home run to right field to once again tie the score and prompting madness in the Tiger dugout.
“I was just trying to stay alive and hit something hard in play,” Moore said. “The ball met the barrel and just carried out.”
Stony Brook answered once again in the eleventh when Travis Jankowski scored on a shallow sacrifice fly by Kevin Krause, narrowly beating the throw from junior center fielder Mason Katz.
Katz would become the third Tiger to tie the score in as many innings as he led off the eleventh with a no-doubt solo home run to even it up at four. Junior Raph Rhymes followed with another deep shot that left the park, but was ruled just inches foul.
“Quite frankly, I feel like we’re pretty fortunate to be sitting here with a tie ballgame and be able to win tomorrow and try to win this game,” Mainieri said. “This team that we’re playing is very good.”
The Seawolves started the scoring in the second inning when Sal Intagliata launched a two-run home run off of freshman starter Aaron Nola.
Nola would settle himself to only scatter nine hits and two runs through his six innings of work, before being lifted in favor of junior Joey Bourgeois.
Bourgeois, along with fellow juniors Chris Cotton and Nick Goody, would combine to allow only five hits through the remaining six innings, while striking out four.
____ Contact Chandler Rome at [email protected]
Update: Tigers win postponed game, 5-4
June 7, 2012