GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson may have tipped his hand last Monday after the NCAA Baseball Tournament selection show.
He was asked about when he would rather play on the first night of the NCAA Regional at Alex Box Stadium Friday night – the afternoon game or the night game. When he was Arizona’s coach and reached the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, out of a home Regional in 2021, he chose the night game.
“I did a lot of research, talked to Skip Bertman about what he preferred, and he had done both. And he had some good advice with the weather here,” Johnson said. “Depends on your location. In Tucson, Arizona, we played the night games, because it was a billion degrees, and you just hope the first two teams MELT, you know, out there in the sun.”
At LSU, Johnson has chosen the 2 p.m. day game on the NCAA Regional opening Friday twice – in 2023 and yesterday – because of the constant threat of rain, particularly afternoon thunderstorms this time of year in these parts. If there is rain at an NCAA Regional, and you’re in the first game, you are the first to get the game in. And the others must wait and likely play very late.
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And that’s exactly what happened Friday as the Tigers beat Arkansas-Little Rock, 7-0, with a 7:36 p.m. start and a 10:20 p.m. finish. And Johnson got to watch the last two teams “MELT, you know, out there in the moonlight,” so to speak.
Then Dallas Baptist beat Rhode Island, 6-2, in a game that didn’t end until 1:43 a.m. Saturday. Dallas Baptist (41-16) now plays at 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPNU against the Tigers (44-14), who could have long been snug in their beds before the Patriots got in theirs.
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So Johnson got the best of both worlds. He chose the day game, but got the night game, while his future opponent and No. 2 seed Dallas Baptist got the red-eye special. Coincidence? Or Bayou Baseball?
“So, yeah, we got the first game, and we played a night game, and it’s awesome. The weather is just better here at night time. I don’t know how to explain it,” Johnson said.
Well, it has something to do with the sun, son. Gosh, he sounded like the late, great Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards when he said that.
“Now, these two teams can experience what we’ve had like five times this year – playing at midnight,” Johnson said, referencing the multitude of times this season that real bad weather pushed his home game past midnight or near 2 a.m. Only difference is there actually was prolonged bad weather on those nights.
This, on the other hand, was a curious, five-and-a-half-hour “weather” delay to say the least from 2 p.m. to 7:36 p.m. Friday, directed by NCAA officials, despite little rain and lightning on site. But there were constant reports that bad weather was “in the area” and “coming this way.” And the four teams at the Baton Rouge Regional waited … and waited … and waited.
The 2 p.m. start for LSU and Arkansas-Little Rock was moved to 5:06 p.m., then pushed back to 7:36, when the game actually began. Meanwhile, the University High baseball team on the LSU campus played without incident within clear view of Alex Box during the NCAA’s phantom weather delays. As LSU fans waited and noticed that other game, they wondered what the Hell was going on. Surely, the Dallas Baptist and Rhode Island teams must have been thinking that, too.
Funny thing is, if the NCAA goofuses would realize what everybody here has known since childhood, they would have scheduled the LSU-UALR opener at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. Friday. Because there are virtually always “afternoon thunderstorms” at about 2 p.m. in South Louisiana every day from April through August. That way, both games would have been done at a decent hour. But they make the same mistake almost every year.
So, with LSU not finishing off Arkansas-Little Rock until 10:20 p.m., the Dallas Baptist-Rhode Island game got pushed back to a 10:59 p.m. start – just two minutes before no NCAA postseason game can start, by NCAA rule. No games can start after 11 p.m.
Just in time. Funny, how that happened. At least, the NCAA (and LSU a bit) didn’t make Dallas Baptist and Rhode Island play later Saturday morning, which would have meant each would have to play two in the sun on Saturday, which is not what Ernie Banks meant.
“I didn’t decide anything,” Johnson said when asked when he and the NCAA and UALR coach Chris Curry decided the start of their game.
That was a pretty quick response by Johnson. Maybe, too quick. You know, kind of like a kid who says, “I didn’t do it,” even before his mom asks him about the mess in the kitchen.
Yes, according to rule, the NCAA takes over NCAA Regional games, but you can’t tell me the home team Tigers with the No. 6 national seed didn’t have a little pull – a little grease on the cleats, so to speak.
Particularly at LSU, which has always been partly defined by the shady politics just down Nicholson Drive at the State Capitol. Yeah, Johnson ain’t from here, but he’s been here long enough, and he’s smart. And he’s a coach. Even the most aboveboard of those folks tend to try to accentuate every possible advantage – whether in the light of day or pushing the outer edge of the envelope’s gray area.
“I got shown the circumstances of lightning within an eight-mile radius,” Johnson continued. “It was popping up a lot really between 2 and 5 p.m., and then we had the storm.”
It wasn’t a “storm,” pal, but I appreciate the effort. Huey Long would’ve been proud. You are becoming a Louisianian, Jay, a chip off the old statue at the front of Alex Box Stadium, if you will. You should’ve seen your mentor, Skip Bertman, work the weather and the umpires and the NCAA officials and anyone else between him and Omaha back in the day.
A “weather event” at the infamous LSU-USC NCAA Regional in 1990 on the Sunday in which the Tigers had to beat the Trojans back-to-back to advance to Omaha pushed the championship game conveniently to Monday at high noon for the Tigers. LSU, facing elimination, won the first game on Sunday. And moving the championship game to Monday just happened to give Bertman ace Paul Byrd (16-5) an extra day off.
Byrd had thrown seven innings on Friday to beat Georgia Tech. He started Monday. He wasn’t going to pitch Sunday. He made it until the seventh on Monday, and LSU won to reach Omaha. But the weather had cleared by that Sunday night, and they could’ve played. But a real storm with 80 mph winds had mangled the right field fence. Could it have been fixed for a Sunday night game? Possibly. It was fine on Monday. Could LSU and UALR played much earlier Friday? Definitely.
“I was really proud of our guys and how they handled the day without knowing when we were going to play, or if we were going to play,” Dallas Baptist coach Dan Heefner said at about 2 a.m. Saturday.
“Pleasant dreams,” I could almost hear Jay Johnson whispering.
“There was a question on if we’d be able to play tonight because it depended on how fast the LSU-Little Rock game went,” Heefner said. “We were watching it on TV, and every time they got an out, our guys were fired up. So we knew they were ready to go.”
But how will the Patriots feel tonight? What will they have left for LSU ace Kade Anderson (8-1, 3.54 ERA, 145 strikeouts)? Dallas Baptist threw ace Ryan Borberg (9-4) Friday for the win. He took the 7-3 loss to LSU back on Feb. 26 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Junior right-hander Micah Bucknam (6-1, 4.37 ERA) will get the start Saturday for Dallas Baptist with sophomore right-hander James Ellwanger (4-2, 3.81) expected to split the game. Bucknam transferred to Dallas Baptist from LSU, where he was 0-0 with a 7.00 ERA last season in eight appearances. Will there be enough pitching to contain the Tigers, who can hit through the lineup and will not be facing the SEC gauntlet of pitching that slowed them?
“If I could control the weather, LSU would never lose a baseball game,” Johnson said. “I can promise you that.”
Johnson may not have controlled the weather, but let’s just say he had a homefield advantage.
“There were a couple of adjustments that when the NCAA people came and told me what was what, I relayed it to the team,” Johnson said. “I think it was handled well.”
I’m sure you do.
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