CWS Notes: Triumph tough for LSU coach

Paul Mainieri and Brian O'Connor are glad that one is over.

The matchup of the coaches of Louisiana State and Virginia, close friends from their days at Notre Dame when O'Connor served under Mainieri as the pitching coach, is one of the bigger off-the-field stories of this College World Series.

After LSU won the game on the field 9-5, the coaches are looking forward to playing someone else.

“As soon as it got to two outs in the ninth inning and we were one out away from winning, as hard as it was to fight the feeling, I started thinking about it quite a bit,” Mainieri said. “You're happy for your kids -— they competed hard for LSU and that's where my loyalty is — but once the last out is made and you know your friend is hurting, you want to console him.

“I'm glad the game is over with and we can move forward and compete against someone I don't have this close of a relationship with — with all due respect to Arkansas.”

The Tigers meet their Southeastern Conference rivals Monday night, after Virginia plays Cal State Fullerton in a 1 p.m. elimination game.

For O'Connor, the Council Bluffs St. Albert graduate who played college baseball at Creighton, there's no doubt about who he'd like to see win each game that day.

“I'm looking forward to locking horns with him again at some point in this tournament,” O'Connor said. “No disrespect to Arkansas and (coach) Dave Van Horn, but after our game Sunday, I'll be rooting for my friend.”

Running down all the details

LSU first baseman Sean Ochinko, was asked in the post-game press conference about the scouting report his club had on Virginia starter Danny Hultzen.

Ochinko was more than happy to provide plenty of insight.

“It was right on,” Ochinko said. “We knew they would double-up pitches — if they threw a fastball the first pitch they would come back with it on the second pitch — and that they would stay away, and that they would only throw sliders to lefties and that's exactly what they did.”

At that point, Mainieri jumped in.

“Would you like to share more?” Mainieri said, laughing. “Maybe you'd like to give them our signs, too.”

Don't blame Ochinko too much for his excitement. His three-run homer off Matt Packer in the fifth inning put the Tigers ahead to stay at 6-4.

“It feels good to help the team and drive in runs,” he said. “I struck out three times, but I'm in here (the press conference) because I hit a three-run homer. I'm just happy I got to drive in those three runs and get the team going, and that's probably the best feeling I've ever had as a baseball player.”

O'Connor doesn't mind second-guessing

Trailing 6-4 in the seventh inning with John Hicks on first base and its hottest hitter, Franco Valdes, at the plate, Virginia had Hicks try to steal second.

He was out.

Valdes deposited the next pitch over the left field wall for a home run that would have tied the game, but instead only brought the Cavaliers within 6-5.

“We're not going to change the style of baseball that has gotten us here,” Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. “The players have confidence in that. Sure, if we had known Franco Valdes was going to hit a home run, yeah, we wouldn't have run him, but you can't change it now.

“That's what I love about baseball. There's so much pressure, so many decisions you have to make.”

Coleman ready for return trip

Louis Coleman pitched the eighth inning for LSU on Saturday, but the right-hander said he'd have no problem as the starter Monday when the Tigers face LSU.

The Tigers have used Coleman (13-2) in relief before on Friday night in the first game of a weekend series and then started him on Sunday, similar to this Saturday-Monday double.

“I'll definitely be ready to go on Monday,” Coleman said. “That's the least amount of pitches I've thrown in that instance.”

In fact, coach Paul Mainieri used the Tigers' top three starters Saturday, with Austin Ross (6-7) working two innings in relief as one of five to come out of the bullpen behind starter Anthony Ranaudo.

“I don't think I've ever thrown three starting pitchers in one game, but that's what we had to do to win the game,” Mainieri said.

Fair or foul? And did it matter?

Television replays appeared to indicate that Virginia's Dan Grovatt was robbed of a second-inning double.

Grovatt lofted a fly ball into the left field corner and LSU's Ryan Schimpf drifted over for it. Schimpf, moving close to the foul line with the wall behind it, appeared to miss the ball completely, with the ball falling fair just inside the line. Third base umpire Darrin Sealey, perhaps shielded by Schimpf, called it foul.

The ball rolled away and, with Schimpf slumping, Grovatt might have had a chance to stretch the play into a triple. Had he reached third, he might have scored, the way the rest of the inning played out. He probably wouldn't have scored from second.

“Those guys (umpires) have challenging jobs like we all do,” O'Connor said. “I don't know if it was right or wrong. Those guys are the best - the eight best in the country have come to work this tournament. Whether it was right or wrong, they're not perfect, none of us are. Nothing like that affected the outcome ball game.”

Grovatt wound up hitting a single past third baseman Derek Helenihi.

Schimpf redeemed himself two innings later, making a sliding catch that caused Virginia to leave the bases loaded.

“I told him he'd really improved since the early innings,” Mainieri said. “He whiffed on that one.”

Arkansas' practice pays off

Who knew that culture shock was part of the College World Series?

Arkansas was ready for it, for the most part, when it faced Cal State Fullerton in Saturday's CWS opener and earned a 10-6 victory.

“We knew they're a West Coast team and they do things differently than we do in the SEC,” Razorbacks first baseman Andy Wilkins said. “They like to throw the ball (outside). So that's what we prepared for the whole week. Defensively we worked against small ball — bunts, hit-and-runs, steals, those type of things.”

Van Horn likes much of what Cal State Fullerton does, mentioning, too, that the Titans have some home run power as well.

“They're exciting to watch, unless you're trying to beat them,” he said.

Two-out magic a win requirement

Arkansas drove in nine of its 10 runs with two outs Saturday, a formula that always means success. After all, the longer an inning goes, the more chances there are to score runs.

“Any team that's playing well is going to drive in runs with two outs,” Van Horn said. “You have to. That's when the runners are in scoring position. You've got two outs to get them there ... walk, base hit, bunt, fly ball ... now you've got to get a big hit. That's just winning baseball.”

His Razorbacks, now 6-0 in NCAA tournament play, are a team riding high in confidence, contributing to the clutch hitting.

“We get a pitch to hit, we hit it,” Van Horn said. “We get a pitcher's pitch, we foul it off to get to the next pitch. Sometimes when it's going, it's going, and it's going.”

Titans pitchers have tough day

Cal State Fullerton had allowed just 11 runs in its five NCAA tournament games before Saturday, then gave up 10 to Arkansas.

Starter Noe Ramirez, 9-1 with a 2.86 ERA coming into the game, was charged with seven runs on five hits and three walks in 3.2 innings. The freshman All-American hadn't allowed more than five runs in any start all season and had won his previous six decisions.

“When Noe gets excited he loses his mechanics and I think it was more mechanical than it was mental,” Fullerton coach Dave Serrano said.

Relievers Tyler Pill and Nick Ramirez, also freshman All-Americans, allowed inherited runners to score when coming into the game.

Pill gave up a two-run, ground-ball single to Scott Lyons before allowing a three-run homer to Wilkins that made it 9-2.

“He jumped ahead against Lyons first pitch and he got the ball through the (shortstop) hole,” Serrano said. “The change up to Wilkins, it looked like he was sitting on that, and I'll take the blame for that because I was the one who suggested it.”

Wilkins hit an RBI single off Nick Ramirez in the eighth.

“I'm in charge of pitching and we didn't pitch very well,” Serrano said. “That's the most runs we've given up in a while.”

UCLA scored 13 runs against the Titans on May 17 — Fullerton had won nine in a row since then.

Short hops

Virginia's home ballpark, Davenport Field, has the same dimensions as Rosenblatt Stadium — 335 feet down the lines, 375 feet to the power alleys and 408 feet to straightaway center field.

Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, a former All-American third baseman at Virginia recently donated $250,000 to help fund an expansion project at Davenport Field. The improvements include a team meeting room, weight room, indoor batting cages, training room, a hall of fame area, umpires' locker room and visiting locker room.

Arkansas, Cal State Fullerton, Louisiana State and Virginia — the teams that played Saturday on the opening day of the College World Series — are tying to make the first day of the series relevant.

No team that has played — not lost, but played — on the first day of the CWS has won the national championship since Miami did in 1999.

LSU won its opening game in the College World Series for the first time since 2000, the last time it won the national championship. The Tigers had started 0-1 in their last three CWS appearances. — Rob White

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