GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Remember those television commercials in the 1990s featuring NFL quarterbacks Randall Cunningham and Boomer Esiason literally melting to liquid in the summer heat, and only a Diet Coke could save them.
Well, let’s just say West Virginia starting pitcher Griffin Kirn needed a Diet Coke during an afternoon of 100-degree-plus heat index and 80 percent humidity on Saturday in a 16-9 loss to LSU in a 1 p.m. start at Alex “Hot” Box Stadium.
Particularly during a long call review by umpires in the fourth inning after Kirn hit LSU batter Daniel Dickinson after just hitting Luis Hernandez. Kirn had to just stand out there on the mound as the heat and humidity roasted him. After the review ruled that Dickinson did not try to get hit by the pitch, Kirn gave up a three-run home run to Derek Curiel for a 3-1 deficit. By the next inning, he was out of there.
“It was really hot,” WVU designated hitter Sam White said. “We came into it knowing it was going to be hot. Luckily, I’m a DH. So, I’m not out there very much for those long innings.”
WVU coach was taken aback by the sweat factor as well.
“It was unusual temperatures and heat,” he said on Sunday after losing the second game 12-5 in a night game that still featured swamp temps and humidity in the 80s. “We had no pitcher go more than four innings. That was different, and it was not a lack of effort or not a competitive issue. They ran out of gas. You’d be silly to think that the conditions had nothing to do with that. Our pitchers were constantly in stressful situations.”
They were MELTING.
LSU seemed very cool, throughout, though as the Tigers are used to the torrid heat and humidity. It won’t be nearly as humid in Omaha, which also has cool June nights. Temperatures will be in the low 60s with 51 percent humidity on Tuesday night, for example. There will be 72 percent humidity tonight in Baton Rouge.
LSU GETS PRIME TIME GAME SATURDAY
On Saturday night, when the No. 6 seed Tigers (48-15) play No. 3 seed Arkansas (48-13) at 6 p.m. on ESPN, temperatures will be at a pleasant 69. But if LSU plays a day game, say in game two of the championship series on Sunday, June 22 at 1:30 p.m., temperatures could climb to the mid-to-high 90s in Omaha with high – for there – humidity. And the Tigers will be ready, as if they’re in Alex Box again.
“We had our first practice in the humidity and heat last fall,” LSU junior first baseman Jared Jones said. “We were built in it from day one.”
It takes getting used to, though.
“It was for sure pretty hot out there,” LSU junior pitcher Anthony Eyanson said on Sunday of his first June experience in Baton Rouge after two seasons amid pleasant, beachy temperatures at UC-San Diego. Eyanson allowed four earned runs – the most since four at Auburn in a 4-2 loss on April 12 – on five hits with three walks in five innings. He also had previously not allowed that many combined hits and walks (eight) in a game this season, except for once – against Mississippi State (also eight) on March 28.
LSU starting pitcher Kade Anderson of Madisonville even struggled in the heat on Saturday – not as much as Kirn. But the nine hits he gave up and six earned runs were the most in either category all season.
“It was hot,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson, who grew up amid cooler temperatures in northern California in Oroville and coached at San Diego. “I just stood on the top step, gave signs and talked to players, and I was a little wiped out on Saturday, to be honest with you. So, I started thinking about Luis Hernandez catching two games, what an effort that was. And Kade and Anthony, man, it was not easy.”
Johnson praised strength and conditioning coach Chris Martin.
“I hugged him on the field and said, ‘Dude, difference maker,'” Johnson said.
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