Review: The 2002 UL Baseball Post Season

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Tigers sweep Cajuns in final two games to reach Super Regional

BATON ROUGE - The LSU Tigers went into Sunday's championship round of the NCAA Regional looking for a bone. It's pretty safe to say they found the whole bag of 'em.

The Tigers, needing to beat the Louisiana twice to extend their season, combined for 30 hits in sweeping the Cajuns by identical 12-2 scores to advance to face Rice in the Super Regional this weekend.

LSU forced the second game by winning an emotion-filled first game by a 12-2 score. The game featured seven extra-base hits by the Tigers, a gritty pitching performance by Regional MVP Jake Tompkins and three ejections.

After forcing the second game, the Tigers took advantage of a depleted Cajun pitching staff to roll to a 12-2 victory, behind the strong pitching of Brian Wilson.

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Advertser
Brady Aymond
Posted on June 3, 2002

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BATON ROUGE - What should have been a banner day for college baseball in Louisiana was disrupted with a cloud of ejections, suspensions and controversy Sunday.

LSU's 12-2, 12-2 twinbill sweep of Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns was marred by three separate incidents in the final three innings of the opening game of Sunday's NCAA Regional tournament at Alex Box Stadium.

Those incidents resulted in ejections of players on both teams as well as Cajun head coach Tony Robichaux, and bad blood between two teams in a situation that was already tense.

It also robbed emotion from both clubs for Sunday's second game, according to UL associate head coach Wade Simoneaux.

"There wasn't any emotion because nobody could put their foot on the top step of the dugout,' he said after the Cajuns' second loss. "We were told that no one could leave the dugout at all, even if there was a home run or a pitcher struck out the side.

"It's hard to be up. Both teams were pretty physically drained by that point, and then you had to just sit back in the dugout. Anybody who touched the top step was told they would be thrown out of the game with no questions asked.'

Advertiser
Dan McDonald / Staff Writer
Posted on June 3, 2002

the REST of the STORY removed

Here is a version of events from TigerRag reporter Greg LaRose

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Robichaux: LSU better than us twice
Dan McDonald / Staff Writer
Posted on June 3, 2002
BATON ROUGE - It was pretty simple, according to UL Lafayette coach Tony Robichaux.

"They were just better than us two times,' said the Cajun mentor after LSU rolled past his squad 12-2, 12-2 in both ends of the NCAA Regional baseball tournament Sunday at LSU's Alex Box Stadium.

The second-seeded Cajuns, who had posted a 5-0 victory over the Tigers on Saturday to advance as the unbeaten team in the double-elimination event, only needed one Sunday win to advance to the Super Regional round against Rice.

Instead, the Tigers made it look easy with a 30-hit explosion in Sunday's two victories that locked down a likely trip to Houston beginning Friday.

"We ran out of gas today,' said associate head coach Wade Simoneaux, who filled in for Robichaux after he was suspended from the second game for a first-game incident. "We know that (Justin) Gabriel and (Andy) Gros can beat anybody in the country, but we didn't have them available today.'

Instead, the Cajuns wrapped up their season with a parade of lesser-utilized arms to the Alex Box mound, and LSU took advantage.

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Advocate-Brady Aymond

BATON ROUGE - Most people remember their first trip to Alex Box Stadium with great fondness.

Until Saturday afternoon, Andy Gros was not one of those people. Gros remembers his first appearance in Alex Box Stadium, but there was nothing fond about it.

As a freshman pitcher, Gros took the hill for the Cajuns and was rocked to the tune of four runs on five hits in only one and one third innings of work as the Cajuns suffered an 8-2 loss to the Tigers. Included in that hit total was a monster home run by Brad Cresse, a shot that many people say still hasn't landed.

Saturday, Gros set out to erase that memory. Not only did he erase, he replaced it with a memory that is now fond.

Gros tossed a seven-hit shutout against the Tigers Saturday to lift the Cajuns into Sunday's championship game. The winner of tonight's Tulane-LSU game will have to beat the Cajuns twice to advance to the Super Regional.

"It's war time and during those kind of times you try to put everything behind you," Gros said. "I didn't really think about it much to be honest with you. I just tried to focus on what I needed to do."

Gros has now thrown 18 scoreless innings against the Tigers this year, as he blanked the Tigers 7-0 earlier this year at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field. That's a far cry from his previous two appearances against the Tigers, which resulted in 8-2 and 12-7 losses.

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Gros handcuffs Tigers, puts Cajuns in title game

By CARL DUBOIS
cdubois@theadvocate.com


UL-Lafayette pitcher Andy Gros comes up with the ball after making the game-ending out at first base Saturday as the Cajuns defeated LSU 5-0 at Alex Box Stadium.

In 27 innings this season against the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the LSU Tigers have scored one run. Ragin' Cajuns pitcher Andy Gros has become their main tormentor, the instrument of their demise.

Gros, a junior left-hander from Morgan City, has pitched two complete-game shutouts against the Tigers. His second, a 5-0 victory Saturday at Alex Box Stadium, put second-seeded ULL into today's championship round of the NCAA regional.

Top-seeded LSU dropped into the losers bracket to play third-seeded Tulane a couple of hours later in an elimination game.

The Ragin' Cajuns (39-21) won their eighth straight regional game, ending a 13-game home winning streak for LSU (41-20). ULL needs only one victory today to advance to its third super regional in four years.

"We haven't won anything yet," Cajuns coach Tony Robichaux said after his team walked off the field without much of a celebration. "We won a game. That's all."

It was another outstanding game for Gros (11-4). He allowed seven hits -- as he did March 19 in a 7-0 complete-game win over LSU -- and walked two batters.

"If you look at his numbers, he's had a lot of shutout innings against a lot of people," LSU coach Smoke Laval said. He's very difficult. Obviously he's very, very difficult for us."

Meanwhile, ULL used a combination of small ball and the long ball to make the most out of nine hits and beat LSU's ace, sophomore left-hander Lane Mestepey (11-4). The Cajuns also beat Mestepey, who was making a rare relief appearance, 2-1 at Alex Box Stadium on March 12.

Left-handed hitters Justin Bourque and Bryan Sneed each hit outside fastballs to the same spot just beyond the wall in right field for a pair of solo home runs.

The lefty vs. lefty matchup is usually Mestepey's forte, but the Cajuns won that battle often enough Saturday to top an ineffective LSU offense.

"They just ran into two home runs," Mestepey said, "and hit it to the short porch. There was nothing I could do. They just sat there looking for one pitch, and they got it, and they took a hack."

ULL also bunted efficiently against the Tigers, who had trouble reacting. Chase Lambin's fifth-inning sacrifice bunt didn't lead to a run, but it marked the start of the Cajuns' success in applying offensive pressure against LSU.

Corey Coles twice drove in a run with a safety squeeze, and each time he beat out the bunt for a base hit. Lambin added the final run on an error by Tigers first baseman Rocky Scelfo.

LSU stranded eight base runners, three in scoring position.

In the sixth inning, with ULL leading 2-0, LSU's Sean Barker led off with a single and moved to second base on Scelfo's one-out single.

Jon Zeringue then hit a hard ground ball just to the right of second base. Bourque, the Cajuns second baseman, shifted over toward the base to cover on the hit-and-run, and Zeringue's grounder bounded straight to him.

Bourque stepped on second base, forcing Scelfo out.

Had Bourque not been breaking to cover the base, the ball would have gone through for an RBI single and put runners at the corners with nobody out.

Instead, LSU had runners on the corners with two out, and the next batter, David Raymer, popped out to second base to end the inning.

After Gros beat LSU in Lafayette in March, he said the Tigers didn't seem to have good bat control or much of a plan at the plate against him. Saturday, without using the same language, he said essentially the same thing.

Gros said Scelfo, who was 3-for-4, adjusted to his pitching strategy, which was different than in the first game, but the other LSU hitters didn't do the same.

Laval credited the Cajuns for hanging tough any time the Tigers put runners on base or in scoring position.

"We hit them with a right hook -- their knees buckled a little bit -- but they never went down," Laval said. "They outplayed us."

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Sour Grapes are one thing, getting beat is another...I must concur that the Tigers beat the CAJUNS on the field Sunday 2 times.

The problem you are hearing now is what has been bottled up for years, that the Tigers don't have any respect for the Cajuns. For years the Cajun fans and the nation have respected and even paid homage to the National Champion LSU Tigers. Skip ran a 1st class operation and the intra-state rivalry was excellent with us losing many times, while taking a few here and there from the Tigers.

2 years ago in Omaha was excellent, and last year was a disappointing one after losing 8 starters to graduation and the 3-4 to the draft, and this year a rebuilding year, new arms and inexperienced players and Robe worked his magic. 2nd in conference behind #1 seed South Alabama.

Remarkable...the sour grapes your reference too, is not sour at all, many Cajun fans are in disbelief of the magic Robichaux worked and many are elated that he was able to get them as far as he did. The Disappointment you are seeing is from the Cajun fans showing respect for LSU for all these years, with no respect being shown in return. Many LSU fans look down on our program because we haven't won 5 National Championships in the last 10 years, but neither has anyone else.

Tony Robichaux has developed a first class program and is the finest person you could ever meet, and the fact that the Tiger fans with millions of dollars in an athletic and baseball budget look down on the program down the road, who is their best baseball equal in the state is disrespectful.... and because we are now a very competitive opponent, they treat us like a second class citizen who doesn't deserve to be there. When in reality, if you take the fans out of the equation and let the teams play, we have beaten the Tigers 3 out of 5 games this year. But the 2 that really counted where the ones the Tigers won and for that they deserve to move on to the Super Regionals against a very good RICE team.

My defense of this situation is what you said in your post that you were pulling for the Cajuns in Omaha, and that maybe you were wrong...I am here to tell you, you weren't wrong, you should pull for the Cajuns too, and when they face each other support your Tigers, but remember we have a baseball budget 7 times less than the Tigers, our coach is paid 94,000 less than Smoke Lavall and when push comes to shove all we want is a fair shake with the Tiger fans respecting out coaches and players for what they have accomplished.

We don't want any favors, just remember we are from Louisiana too. SO please continue to pull for the Cajuns, we lost and we know it, we just want a fair shake at a chance to win. The tigers will have their paws full with RICE, we know we played them.
Geaux Cajuns!!

[Turbine]

Jay I am sorry if I sounded so adamant on your show today, but absolutly nothing happened yesterday that would justify a 1 year moritorium on baseball with LSU. To suggest a moritorium is crazy.

For those of you who missed it Jay is suggesting a one year cooling off period. In other words no UL vs LSU basebal games next year.

I think that sucks. 1st of all NO fight occured, there was passion, yes a bat did fly but it was handled during the game and we had another game after that without incident.

[ULexcite]

LSU beat us fair and square. Still there is no reason for us to feel down. Not in the least. In fact the opposite is true. For three consecutive games, UL's best went up against their best, for 27 innings LSU tried their best, mustering only 1 run. Still when it counted, when we ran out of pitching, when the box intimidation caught up with Baird (an out of state pitcher) LSU beat us fair and square. I can't wait for next year. Any team does better when it has a goal.

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Robbery was the worst crime of the 2002 NCAA Division I Baseball Baton Rouge Regional. Beanballs, three ejections and suspensions, taunting, accusations and counter-accusations stole the spotlight from a series of outstanding pitching performances.

The inevitable Sunday breakdown of dependable pitching cost the University of Louisiana in its twin 12-2 losses to champion LSU, but throughout the three-day tournament starting pitchers put on a remarkable display.

Six threw complete games. UL's Justin Gabriel dominated Tulane; teammate Andy Gros handcuffed LSU.

ADVOCATE
By CARL DUBOIS
cdubois@theadvocate.com
Advocate sportswriter

Original link
http://www.theadvocate.com/stories/0...ubois001.shtml has been removed.

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ADVERTISER

Cajun baseball comes long way in one year
Dan McDonald / Staff Writer
Posted on June 4, 2002
LAFAYETTE - With the disappointments of the final day of Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun baseball season - not to mention the incidents that marred the end of the NCAA Regional tournament - it was easy to forget where the Cajun squad was one year earlier.

The Cajun baseball team finished its 2001 season watching the Sun Belt Conference Tournament being played on its home field, having lost enough league games to finish out of the top eight and not even qualifying to play in the conference meet.

One year removed from its first-ever College World Series, the UL players were reduced to a grounds crew.

"Last year, we were picking up cups," said Cajun head coach Tony Robichaux, "and running a tournament we weren't in. This year, we're playing on championship Sunday in the regionals."

The back-to-back 12-2 losses to regional champion LSU on Sunday were covered by a veil of controversy that included ejections, suspensions and enough bad blood to fill venerable Alex Box Stadium.

But Robichaux stayed above that fray on Monday, preferring instead to praise the Super Regional-bound Tigers as well as look at the reasons his 39-23 club fell one win short of its third Super Regional trip in three tries.

"Their crowd does such a great job," he said, "we needed a veteran-type pitcher on Sunday."

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Advertiser-Dan McDonald

Let it go.

All of you, LSU and UL Lafayette baseball fans alike, just stop it. Quit trying to cast tempest-in-a-teapot blame on the other guys, because there ain't no saints here.

All of the ugliness that hit LSU's Alex Box Stadium Sunday on the last day of the NCAA regionals served only one purpose, and that was to take the glimmer off what should have been a third defining weekend for Louisiana college baseball in as many years.

Two years ago, when LSU dough-popped UCLA and UL posted a stirring series win over South Carolina to give the area two College World Series teams, it was a love-fest in Omaha.

Last season, over 35,000 fans watched a pulsating Super Regional when Tulane prevailed over LSU and made Zephyr Field the epicenter of college baseball for a weekend.

This year could have inspired the same images, with a regional round that for the first time ever had an all-South Louisiana field.

Instead, the memories will include Wally Pontiff popping off to the media and Justin Gabriel shoulder-blocking opponents before the first pitch was ever thrown.

That was a prelude to Black Sunday. Trash-talking everywhere, Matt Heath dissing a whole dugout after a home run, Donnie Bair retaliating by nailing Heath with a pitch, Aaron Hill's bat scattering people in the UL dugout.

And now everybody's holier-than-thou.

It's everybody else's fault. "We" didn't do this, but "they" did that.

At least for the teams and the players, it's hopefully a done deal and it's over. As the pundits say, it's part of baseball, warts and all.

But for talk radio, the chat rooms, e-mails and web sites, it's open season. More accusations than an entire Clinton administration, and more crawfishing than a Breaux Bridge festival.

Was Heath trying to embarrass his opponent? Sure. He said he only stared into the dugout, but the photos show otherwise.

Did Bair throw at Heath intentionally two innings later? Of course. If that wasn't coming, why was the entire UL squad standing on the top step of the dugout to watch that pitch?

Was Hill trying to sling a bat into the dugout? This one's tougher.

Plate umpire Randy Wetzel was probably in the minority when he ruled it intentional, and I thought it was accidental until I saw video replays from two sources on Monday. Now I'm not so sure ... sweaty batting gloves or not.

Are there hot-heads on both teams? Yep.

Are there "fans" on both sides whose sole purpose in attending is less to watch and enjoy the game, and more to antagonize their rivals and promote animosity? Unfortunately, yes.

Did the umpiring crew and NCAA representatives react accordingly? Yes and no. Their actions prevented a heated situation from becoming total meltdown. But their clamps on both dugouts in Sunday's second game sucked the emotion from all parties involved. It wasn't fun anymore.

And did they really need a conference call with the NCAA uppity-ups between games, one that resulted in three suspensions, after the crew reportedly had determined that none were warranted? In effect, people hundreds of miles away made a decision that the crew on site didn't need to make.

Had that crew been proactive from the start in turning down the volume instead of reacting in hindsight, I'd have memories of great baseball from this past weekend.

As it is, I remember the ugliness, and that's a shame.

Posted on June 5, 2002

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Daily World link

Al Boudreaux

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the NCAA Regional baseball games in Baton Rouge.

I saw the good the bad and without a doubt - the ugly of college sports.

The good was the spirit and excitement of college baseball that was on display on the field. UL-Lafayette, Southern and Tulane were each allocated only 200 tickets per school, and quickly gobbled them up. If you work the math, the LSU fans had access to 6,900 tickets (Alex Box Stadium holds 7,500).

There were people dressed in blue and gold, red and white, green and blue and purple and gold. The school pride was wonderful and the plays made on the field were great.

Also, the family pride that was on display to cheer for Mary Dupuis' grandson Dallas Morris; the third baseman for UL-Lafayette and the son of Mike and Stephanie Morris, natives of Opelousas.

Mike and Stephanie also brought their youngest son Zack to the games.

Dallas' uncles Stevie Dupuis, Charlie Dupuis and Troy Morris were clad in red bandanas and UL attire, cheering for their nephew and the Cajuns.

However, sadly enough, this is where the good ended. The bad came in the form of the vulgarity and cursing that I heard from the Tiger faithful fans.

I grew up cheering for LSU and finished school at Loyola, so I am not favoring one school over another. I have followed and supported LSU sports for 35+ years, but what I heard on Saturday and Sunday was inexcusable.

I'm no saint, and I have heard foul language before, but it is no wonder fans from other schools around the SEC don't enjoy coming to Baton Rouge to see their teams play.

I used to wonder why so many fans from Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, Alabama would fly into New Orleans, stay in the Crescent City then bus into Baton Rouge for the game.

After this weekend, I now understand. If your school comes into Baton Rouge and gets a W, you better get out of town ASAP. The LSU fans were rude, vulgar and not hospital to the visiting fans.

I guess they just don't get it. If people from out of town come to your city, spend their money on food, beverages and lodging, everyone benefits.

But if fans stay in New Orleans, eat in New Orleans and are treated rudely in Baton Rouge, you can bet those people are not going to spend money in Baton Rouge and won't come back to Baton Rouge.

I guess that's the bad, and unfortunately, it got worse. I was seated near a UL-Lafayette contingent of fans that were doing their fair share of cheering, without vulgarity I might add.

All of a sudden over my right shoulder, a guy wearing purple and gold was flashing a knife at a UL fan.

He was escorted out of the stadium, thank goodness.

However, the impression that was left was not a good one. Has the quality of the fans that cheer for LSU gone that low?

Maybe I have not been going to enough baseball games recently, but I sure thought baseball fans had a little more class than what I saw in Baton Rouge this weekend.

If I am wrong to desire a stadium where knives are not being pulled and vulgarity is not being thrown around like a first language, instead of a gutter language, then excuse me.

I always thought Alex Box Stadium was supposed to be the pinnacle of college baseball.

However, if the behavior of the fans is not curtailed, then the Box will be reduced to nothing more than a slum. I guess the thing that gets me the most is winning is one thing, but winning with class is another.

When LSU or any Louisiana state college or university wins I am glad for that school and its fans.

However, if the fans of a school behave improperly after a win, I really wonder what message is being sent by the school for allowing such improper behavior at its sporting events.

LSU goes to Houston this weekend. I wish the Tiger baseball team the best of luck, and I'm glad I don't have to back to Alex Box Stadium anytime soon.

Lucky for me the Indian Creek Triathlon is Sunday and I won't have to watch any more college baseball this weekend, because hopefully I'll be seeing you at the race and on the roads!