Omaha’s 60th College World Series is ending with a meeting of the game’s biggest dogs in Texas and Louisiana State.
And big dogs like to eat. With everything that will be at stake at Rosenblatt Stadium during the next two or three days, a dinner check at Lo Sole Mio also might be on the line.
The Italian restaurant is Texas coach Augie Garrido’s favorite Omaha eatery. LSU coach Paul Mainieri discovered it on this trip when he took wife Karen out for a birthday dinner.
“I’m thinking we’re going to have a nice, little private family dinner for her birthday,’’ Mainieri said. “I walk in there and the place is jammed with LSU fans. A dozen of my players are eating there with their families.’’
National champion aside, Garrido was asked whether the best-of-three finals is really about which team gets to have its victory celebration at the central Omaha restaurant.
“We can both eat there,’’ Garrido said, chuckling, “but loser has to buy.’’
The joking stops at 6 tonight as both Garrido and Mainieri coach at places where losing is hardly tolerated. Texas and LSU are two of college baseball’s proudest programs, and that pride is built on success in Omaha.
The Longhorns will be playing for a title for the 12th time in 33 CWS trips. Texas has won six times, with Garrido carting the national championship back to Austin in 2002 and 2005. He also won three national championships at Cal State Fullerton.
“In Texas, second place doesn’t get it,’’ Garrido said. “Finishing second would be another disaster in a long line of disasters.’’
Mainieri knows that LSU fans also have difficulty stomaching a runner-up finish. Since Skip Bertman made the Tigers a player on the national stage in the mid-1980s, LSU has won five national championships in its 14 previous trips to Omaha.
Mainieri’s predecessor, Smoke Laval, was Bertman’s hand-picked successor. When Laval couldn’t get the Tigers to Omaha in back-to-back seasons (2005 and 2006), he was let go.
Mainieri was well aware of the high expectations when he took the job in 2007. He got the Tigers to Omaha last season and knew that inched the bar up even higher for this year’s team.
“Having as many players back, having the preseason No. 1 ranking and having built a brand-new stadium, there were a lot of expectations going into this season,’’ he said. “Our players have handled them with remarkable poise and consistency.’’
Adding spice to this year’s championship match is that LSU comes in as the nation’s No. 1-ranked team in the polls, while Texas started the NCAA tournament three weeks ago branded as the No. 1 seed in the 64-team field.
“Before we came to the World Series, my wife asked me if we’re fortunate enough to win our bracket, who would I like to play in the finals?’’ Mainieri said. “Without hesitation, I answered Texas. I relish the opportunity for our team to play against Texas.”
It’s been well documented that each team has taken different paths in reaching the finals. As Mainieri notes, LSU has demonstrated remarkable consistency, never losing more than two games in a row the entire season. The Tigers won the Southeastern Conference championship and the SEC tournament before sweeping through regional, super regional and CWS bracket play.
Riding a 13-game winning streak, LSU posted wins of 9-5, 9-1 and 14-5 in Omaha. The Tigers have clubbed nine homers and not committed an error at Rosenblatt. Their pitching, for the most part, has been razor sharp.
“We have a lot of confidence,’’ Mainieri said.
So does Texas, but the Longhorns have built theirs in a series of character-testing wins that leaves Garrido joking that he’s added a magician to his coaching staff since NCAA play started.
The Longhorns’ wins in Omaha have come on a walk-off walk, a 10-run rally that erased a 6-0 deficit and a pair of dramatic ninth-inning homers.
“I don’t know if we can keep banking on winning in the ninth inning and rallying for 10 runs,’’ Texas third baseman Michael Torres said.
A casual glance would leave an observer thinking that the playing styles of the two teams also are radically different. LSU’s offense has flashed power and speed, ranking 15th nationally in home runs and 17th in stolen bases prior to the CWS. Only two teams nationally have combined for more than the Tigers’ total of 103 homers and 112 stolen bases.
That offensive might has overshadowed a top 10-ranked pitching staff and a defense that ranks in the top 25 nationally.
Pitching and defense are Texas’ main calling cards. The Longhorns ranked second nationally in ERA and fourth in fielding before the CWS. The offensive numbers weren’t as glossy, as Texas ranked in the bottom half of all Division I teams in eight of the 11 categories that the NCAA charts.
But scratch the surface, and the differences aren’t quite as stark. Just ask Austin native Micah Gibbs, the Tigers’ starting catcher.
“I grew up with a lot of those guys and I know how good they are,’’ Gibbs said. “Everyone talks about their offensive numbers and how they aren’t as good as ours. Hey, they play in a (offensive) graveyard.”
The coaches, too, see similarities in their championship opponent.
“They’ve shown here they can hit the ball out of the park,’’ Mainieri said. “They have outstanding pitching and outstanding defense. I think our team is very balanced also. We’ve both shown the capability of winning high-scoring games and low-scoring games.”
Garrido sees the same kind of intangibles in LSU as he does in his players.
“On the side of most championship rings, there are usually two words,’’ Garrido said. “On one side, it’s attitude and on the other, it’s teamwork. Therein lies the common denominator for both teams.”
Contact the writer:
679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com
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