OMAHA, Neb. – It’s just about the end of the line for the LSU and Rice baseball teams in Omaha, Neb.
After opening round losses, two of college baseball’s most successful programs face each other in a 1 p.m. elimination game today – something not uncommon to the schools.
The current Tigers, players and coaches had little first-hand experience with Rice to talk about Monday afternoon.
“I don’t know too much about them,” said freshman center fielder Leon Landry. “But obviously they’re a pretty good ball club because they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t.”
Few on the current roster were at LSU when the Tigers most recently faced Rice in the 2006 Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic in Metairie. And only senior third baseman Michael Hollander remains from the squad Rice defeated twice in the 2005 Baton Rouge Regional.
“I remember my freshman year they came in, and they had a great team and great pitching,” Hollander said. “I’m sure they have great pitching this year … We kind of owe them a little bit, you know? They beat us twice my freshman year, and then they beat us at the Wally Pontiff game at Zephyr Field my sophomore year.”
While senior pitcher Jared Bradford has never faced Rice, he said he considers the Owls consistently one of the top teams in the nation.
“It’s definitely one of those colleges you think about when you think baseball,” Bradford said.
The LSU standouts’ inexperience with Rice may be deceiving, but the Tigers and Owls are two programs with their fair share of head-to-head history.
Beginning with the teams’ first matchup in 1914, a 5-3 Rice victory, they have faced 22 times, with the series record tied at 11.
The teams have battled 11 times since 1990, including seven postseason games and two games at the Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic.
Rice has taken eight of those 11, including the past three, and six of the seven postseason duels.
The Tigers’ only postseason victory against Rice came in the teams’ only College World Series matchup, an opening round game in 1997.
Second-year LSU coach Paul Mainieri said he did not know much about the Tigers’ history with the Owls, but he said it was not exactly shocking.
“It doesn’t surprise me that there’s history because you’re talking about two of the premier programs in the country,” Mainieri said. “They’re bound to meet.”
While Mainieri may not be familiar with the Tigers’ history with Rice, he was quick to reminisce about his own history with the Owls.
“I’ve coached against Rice twice when I was at Notre Dame,” Mainieri said. “The first time was in the College World Series when we beat them, 5-3, on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. They were No. 1 in the country then. That was a special week for me.”
The Fighting Irish’s comeback effort against the Owls was June 17, 2002 – exactly six years ago today. The date also marks Mainieri’s wife, Karen’s, birthday.
“She said all she wants for her birthday is a victory over Rice,” Mainieri said. “I’m counting on my guys to help me with the birthday gift. Hopefully it won’t come down to the bottom of the ninth. Hopefully we can do something before then, but whatever it takes is what we need to do.”
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]