LSU Magic in Omaha

By Jim Gazzolo

It is better to be lucky than good.

If you are both, magic can happen, just ask LSU.

Thanks to an improbable comeback Wednesday night, the Tigers will be fully prepared for their championship series against upstart Coastal Carolina. 

Their 6-5 comeback victory over Arkansas in the semifinals gave LSU two days of rest and a set pitching rotation as they open the best 2-of-3 series against Coastal starting Saturday night.

Four times, Arkansas had chances to either make the winning play or send the game into extra innings Wednesday. Four times the Hogs failed.

Just by putting the ball in play, the Tigers made Arkansas pay.

That doesn’t even take into consideration the fact that the Arkansas staff didn’t walk LSU’s top hitter, Jared Jones, allowing him to win the game with a line drive off the second baseman’s glove. 

“I thought he had caught it honestly because it fell in behind him,” Jones told reporters. “Once I saw the ball hit the grass, I blacked out.”

Given six outs in the inning, the Tigers needed just five.

The game will go down in the history books as one of the great ones in LSU baseball history, especially if the Tigers finish the season with two more victories and title No. 8. Yet in Arkansas, it will be perhaps the most crushing of all.

“It was a lot of heartbreak,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said.

Whether it was the Omaha magic of LSU or the city’s curse it has on the Razorbacks, nobody expected it to end the way it did. 

But don’t think LSU is some Cinderella. The Tigers are college baseball’s monsters and will play a team that might have destiny on its side, if that’s possible, looking back on the other night.

Coastal Carolina has won 26 games as it heads into the title series and has knocked off several big names along the way. That is a nice story. 

LSU is out to ruin it. 

The biggest thing about Wednesday’s win is it kept the Tigers in perfect line for the championship weekend. If they had lost, ace lefty Kade Anderson, an expected top-3 pick in the upcoming MLB draft, didn’t have to throw a do-or-die game Thursday. He will even be on extra rest heading into Game 1 Saturday. 

And most of the bullpen will be fully rested for the opener. Those who aren’t will surely be fine by Sunday’s second game. If needed, a third and deciding game will be on Monday night. 

The Tigers are looking to win their second title in three years under Jay Johnson. 

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers sports in Southwest Louisiana. He is also the host of Poke Nation, which airs weekly on CBS-Lake Charles.