Forget the summer of love, that memorable 2000 College World Series in which the LSU Tigers won their fifth national championship and University of Louisiana at Lafayette fans were also LSU fans -- and vice versa.
The 2002 NCAA Division I Baseball Baton Rouge Regional ended peacefully on this hot, muggy Sunday, but not before it seemed on the verge of becoming a loser-leaves-town steel-cage match.
Long before LSU won the championship with a 12-2 victory over the Ragin' Cajuns -- in the second game of a doubleheader made necessary by LSU's 12-2 victory over the same team earlier in the afternoon -- the regional ran out of sportsmanship before it ran out of pitching.
Until it ended, it seemed the Tigers might never run out of timely hits, knockout home runs and quality pitching. They settled on 30 hits and 24 runs against a UL team that had limited LSU to 21 hits -- and one run -- in three previous games this season.
When the second game ended, nearly seven hours after the first began, the Tigers celebrated with their trademark conga line, a five-minute victory lap around their home park. In some years, the trek around Alex Box Stadium was a send-off to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., but this one propelled LSU into next weekend's Super Regional at Houston against Rice.
LSU's Brian Wilson threw a complete game in clinching the regional championship in the second game Sunday against University of Louisiana.
Senior center fielder David Raymer, one of seven LSU players on the all-regional team, was beaming.
"I really wish we didn't have to go to Houston to play," Raymer said, "because this is the best place to play in the country. Coming from North Carolina, I never even dreamed of something like this.
"When I see 'Field of Dreams' now, that movie, this is what I think about now. This is like heaven to me when it comes to baseball."
LSU (44-20) will play Rice (50-12) in a best-of-three series beginning Friday at Rice's Reckling Park. Game times and other details will be announced today.
Rice, the No. 4 seed overall in the NCAA Tournament, won its regional with a 14-2 victory over Washington in the second game of a similar doubleheader in Houston.
LSU third baseman Wally Pontiff, the team captain and a pivotal player in much of the controversy during the regional, looked weary but happy.
"We have guys beaten and bruised up," Pontiff said. "Raymer's hip is bruised black and blue. We are the epitome of a team that is beaten down right now. But our guys have had a dream from the beginning, since they set foot at 6 a.m. (in the fall) to lift weights, and that is to go to Omaha."
After losing to UL 5-0 Saturday, the Tigers needed two wins over the Cajuns to advance to the super regional, but Pontiff said he never doubted.
"I don't think a little fatigue was going to stop us," he said. "I just tried to do my best and realize that UL was just a stepping stone to go to Omaha. I think we can go to Omaha now."
Against a UL team that was pitching by committee -- and perhaps a prayer or two -- the Tigers reasserted the program's ability to play with its back against the wall. For the sixth time in 14 years, LSU won two games in the championship round to claim a regional, the fifth time in Baton Rouge.
Tigers closer Jake Tompkins, who'd pitched five innings Friday in relief, started the first game and allowed only an unearned run on seven hits in 61/3 innings.
The media voted Tompkins the Most Outstanding Player of the regional.
Relievers Clay Harris and Lukas Guidroz closed the door, and LSU got off to its hot start with two home runs in the first inning.
The Tigers added two more home runs, including a two-run shot by Matt Heath in the seventh inning that set in motion a series of events that nearly turned the day on its side. Louisiana Lŕ freshman pitcher Donnie Bair beaned Heath in the ninth inning, leading to three ejections from the game -- Bair, Cajuns coach Tony Robichaux and, later, LSU shortstop Aaron Hill.
Hill swung at a pitch in the ninth inning, and the bat slipped from his hands and flew into the UL dugout. Hill later said his batting gloves were drenched with (water), but umpires ejected him, ruling the incident an intentional use of equipment "in a combative manner."
The Tigers played the second game without him, and they duplicated their 12-2 pasting of the Cajuns.
"I told the guys we didn't have Aaron Hill for 12 games and won eight of them, so why not this one?" LSU coach Smoke Laval said. "This was competitiveness coming out. I told them to play with emotion but don't get caught up in it.
"They did an outstanding job of refocusing, and it was great."
Brian Wilson, pitching on one day of rest as well, pitched a complete game in the second game, limiting the Cajuns to two runs on eight hits and three walks. He struck out seven.
Heath hit his second home run of the day in a four-run fourth inning, and J.C. Holt went 4-for-6 with three runs batted in and three runs scored. Raymer and senior catcher Chris Phillips each went 3-for-5, and when they came to the plate in the eighth inning for their final at-bats at Alex Box, the crowd chanted their names -- before and after each lined a run-scoring single for good measure.
In the end, LSU battered 10 pitchers, burying the Cajuns after being handcuffed a day earlier by UL pitcher Jason Gros. He and teammate Justin Gabriel combined to limit the Tigers to one run in three earlier games this season, but the Cajuns pitching staff was running on fumes by Sunday.
"We've thrown well, two arms deep, all year, so we knew any third game was going to give us some trouble," Robichaux said. "We knew we'd have to hit for more than two games."
They didn't. LSU held the Cajuns to nine hits in the first game, eight in the second.
"They were better than us two times," Robichaux said.
"LSU came out swinging," said UL freshman Kevin Ardoin, who started the second game. "They swung the bats today. Their players were picked up by the momentum from the crowd."
LSU's fourth straight trip to a super regional denied the Cajuns their third trip in four years.
"Our team battled all year long to come down to the championship," Ardoin said. "It's tough to see us go down this way, but we will be back."
Heath tipped his hat to the Cajuns, with a footnote.
"They're a good team," Heath said. "I just knew today was our day."
All-tournament team
2002 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional All-Tournament Team:
C -- Chris Phillips, LSU
1B -- Rocky Scelfo, LSU
2B -- J.C. Holt, LSU
3B -- Anthony Giarratano, Tulane
SS -- Fernando Puebla, Southern;
SS -- Chase Lambin, University of Louisiana
OF -- Sean Barker, LSU
OF -- Bryan Sneed, LSU
OF -- Matt Heath, LSU
DH -- David Raymer, LSU
P -- Andy Gros, University of Louisiana
P -- Jake Tompkins, LSU
Most Outstanding Player -- Jake Tompkins, LSU
Story Link broken
By CARL DUBOIS
cdubois@theadvocate.com
Advocate sportswriter
Review: The 2002 UL Baseball Post Season
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