Not just the team, but their fans as well. If this series does come down to the last inning (I hope it doesn't, but let's say it does), I wish for LSU to be up by 2 heading to the bottom of the 9th. LSU trots out Skenes, the greatest pitcher to ever grace a mound, to close out his glorious career and the series for LSU. You can imagine the TV announcers just giddy with excitement. LSU fans have internalized victory!! Then Skenes throws 6 unhittable strikes to put down the first two Gators. The LSU crowd can sense it. They are on their feet! Skenes promptly throws three more perfect strikes, but the last one gets past the catcher, and the speedy Gator takes first base. The next batter falls behind 0-2. Skenes then throws three straight PERFECT pitches; each one inexplicably called a "ball" by the umpire. On the next pitch, the batter gets some wood on it, and the ball dribbles out to the first baseman, who gloves it. He dives for the bag and touches it an instant before the Gator foot hits the base. Hold on though-- the ump calls him safe! A tense review ensues. Video evidence shows the runner is out, but it was just close enough that they decide not to overturn the call. The partisan LSU crowd is beside themselves! Skenes, by all accounts, had the batter struck out three times, and now this!!! A loud clamor of Cajun boos and expletives are reverberating throughout the stadium. It does not even begin to quiet down as Skenes throws his next pitch to BT Riopelle (whom LSU fans seem to hate). BT promptly breaks the record for the longest homerun ever launched in World Series history. As BT rounds the bases, he is much more animated than usual, actually pausing to say a word or two to each infielder that is now on the dirt with tears of heartbreak and devastation in their eyes. Anyway, I hope we win convincingly, but if something like that happened, I would still enjoy it immensely.
Stolen bases for the season we are 69-85 and LSU 30-40. Rivera 16-20, Robertson 11-15 and Langford 9-10 lead UF while Thompson (SS) is 7-9 and Crews 6-6 to lead LSU. I was surprised that Morgan (1st base) is 0-1……he looks to have pretty good wheels. Defensively BT has thrown out 8-23 while Milazzo is 4-15 I will say BT has really been gunning guys down lately.
And of course the Tigers are not happy about that 1st sentence....Instead of reading the whole thing.
After living in Florida for my whole life, my wife and I moved to Covington, La to be near our grandsons and watch them grow up. (They live in NOLA) The ten hour drive was killing us from St. Aug to NOLA. I’ll say this, the folks near us are as nice as can be, very southern. (we are in a rural area) Of course, LSU is king, similarly to UF in Florida. I’ve had no issue with them but not sure they are dyed in the wool fans; this is horse and farm territory. I eat breakfast at a cafe INSIDE a Shell service station! The grocery stores here are Winn Dixie and similar ilk. We recently visited south Florida and walked into a Publix store. We looked around and smelled the store and we said, “we are home!” I considered going into the restroom and rolling around the clean floor but I didn’t. GO GATORS!!
