The story all day in Baton Rouge was that it took all day for LSU to play its NCAA super regional opener against Kentucky.
A seven-hour weather delay — seven hours — pushed the first pitch from just after 2 p.m. to just after 9 p.m. All over the ballpark you heard disgruntled voices, even boos, when announcements came of more delays.
Then it rained. Rained unhittable Paul Skenes pitches and LSU home runs. Six of them at all, all pouring down on poor Kentucky like the cold rain of that haunting Elvis Presley song. And at that point the Tigers’ 14-0 victory, with LSU playing as well as it could possibly play or be expected to play in such an important game, became the story.
Even after 9 p.m., the cheers were roaring and deep for the Tigers at Alex Box Stadium. In a symbiotic sporting relationship the Tigers responded in kind. Skenes, the former Air Force cadet who never got to pilot a plane while there, turned on the afterburners from the start. His first pitch split the air (and Hayden Travinski’s glove) at 102 mph, and he was still throwing 100 mph when he came out for what is almost certainly the final time at The Box before he goes first or second in next month’s major league draft.
Tre Morgan followed in kind in the bottom of the first inning, going “oppo” and out with a home run to left field to get the offensive barrage going. He’d hit another, Tommy White hit two more, including one that he launched over the scoreboard in left with something approaching orbital velocity. Gavin Dugas and the nation’s heaviest-hitting nine-hole hitter, Josh Pearson, also went yard.
If the Tigers keep playing like that, they will win at least one of these next two games and go to the College World Series. And they might win it all there, too, if they can get the post-Skenes pitching throughout the staff they need.
If LSU’s players are victory-lapping around Alex Box Sunday night or Monday, the memory of Saturday’s interminable weather delay, one without any obvious weather, will compress and fade. Did LSU coach Jay Johnson lobby for a long enough window to allow Skenes to do what he did, pitching 7 2/3 innings and saving the bullpen until a curtain call in the eighth? I’m sure he made his feelings known, as he said he did after the Tigers went three innings then had a three-hour wait last Sunday before holding off Oregon State 6-5. That said, Kentucky coach Nick Mingione had every chance in the postgame news conference to voice his displeasure and was nothing but accepting of how the day turned out.
Were fans inconvenienced and left in the dark about what was going on? Extremely. While Johnson thanked them for their staying power and stamina, ultimately keeping them happy and informed is far down his list of tasks. First and foremost is getting two super regional wins to get to Omaha. All else for him, and LSU baseball, washes into the background no matter how long the weather delay is.
That said, either LSU or the NCAA or both could and should do more to keep fans in the loop. It’s utterly amazing as many of them came back as they did for a game that was supposed to start seven hours earlier. As well as Skenes pitched and guys like Morgan and White and Dylan Crews hit, game ball to all those who stuck it out.
Much more than more transparency, they want one more win. In that way, come what may with the weather, the job for Johnson and the Tigers isn’t any different that it was Saturday. Indeed, it’s even more laser focused. Sunday’s story line is already set.