Rally Possum perishes, but went down clawing, fighting
BATON ROUGE - The Rally Possum was dying a slow and painful death, only to resurrect at the 11th hour like a Honey Badger, but then death came quickly.
"You feel like you're going to win right until the very end, and then all of a sudden it's over," a despondent coach Paul Mainieri said after Anthony Marks' walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth gave Coastal Carolina a 4-3 win, eliminating the No. 8 nationally seeded Tigers from the Super Regional and ending their season. ... Just like that. LSU had scored one in the top of the ninth to tie it 3-3 after scoring one in the possum seventh to get within 3-2.
"It's like a punch in the gut," Mainieri said.
And LSU's marsupial month of mayhem was over, leaving packed Alex Box Stadium crowd of 10,326 stunned. The Tigers' baby possum-inspired late season run of late night victories struck midnight Sunday just 15 minutes before actual midnight as the Chanticleers beat the Tigers two games to one in the best-of-three series to advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, for the first time in school history.
"They get the trip to Omaha, and we get to put the bats away," Mainieri said. "It's obviously a very painful thing for the season to come to an end. The finality of it is almost unbearable. I've been doing this a lot of years, and it doesn't get any easier I can tell you that."
The Tigers, who lost the Super Regional opener 11-8 late Saturday night, finished the season at 45-21 after rallying late to a 17-3 record over their last 20 games before the Super Regional to capture the national top eight seed. Coastal Carolina (48-16) became just the second school in history to eliminate LSU in a Super Regional at the Box. The Tigers have won seven of nine Super Regionals since 2000. The only other team it lost to at a home Super Regional was upstart Stony Brook and its No. 51 ranking in the Ratings Percentage Index in 2012. Coastal Carolina came in as the highest ranked No. 2 seed in the nation at No. 11 in the Collegiate Baseball poll and with a No. 12 RPI. It left leading the nation in home runs with 94 after clubbing three Saturday.
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But LSU out-hit the powerful Chanticleers Sunday, 10-7, but left 10 runners in scoring position from the third inning on - a deadly game - and 12 overall, including three in the ninth and eighth.
"You know, it stinks," said LSU junior center fielder Jake Fraley, whose well-placed bunt in the ninth helped get the tying, unearned run in when second baseman Cameron Pearcey mishandled the throw at first base during a cinematic collision with the flipping Fraley. But usually clutch Kramer Robertson grounded out to the pitcher and pinch-hitter Brody Wofford struck out to end the inning and leave them loaded.
"It stinks to put ourselves in that type of a situation, and then it end the way that it did," Fraley said.
"They played better than we did. They did everything better than we did," Mainieri said.
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Paez delivered the walk-off RBI single over third base off LSU closer Hunter Newman (1-1) with no outs in the bottom of the ninth inning for the victory with Newman in his third inning of work. Anthony Marks walked to lead off the inning and stole second base.
"The emotions, they are limitless," Marks said. "You can't even describe that when that ball bounced over that third baseman's head. There was no doubt I was getting it home. No offense to anybody on their team, but there was really no stopping me. I was going to get there no matter what."
Facing elimination and trailing 3-2 in the top of the ninth, the Rally Possum rallied one last time. Freeman had led off the inning by reaching first on a throwing error by Pearcey. He later scored from second on Fraley's bunt when Pearcey dropped the ball at first base. But LSU could do nothing more with the bases loaded. The Tigers ended their Saturday night loss with an ill-fated threat and runners in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth.
"We wiggled out of every game you could wiggle out of in the two days we were here," Coastal coach Gary Gilmore said. "I'm at a loss for words to be honest with you."
The Possum rallied in the eighth as well as the Tigers loaded the bases with two outs when reliever Bobby Holmes walked Chris Reid to load the bases. But Michael Papierski bounced into a fielder's choice to end the inning with the score remaining 3-2. Robertson had led off with a single. After Robertson was forced out at second on a Greg Deichmann grounder, Jordan Romero reached on an error that chased Coastal starter Alex Cunningham. Holmes, who got the win with an inning and two-thirds work to go to 6-2, then struck out Beau Jordan for the second out. Cunningham (10-3) allowed 10 hits in seven and one-third innings, but just two runs.
The Rally Possum scored and threatened for more in the LSU lucky seventh - the inning in which all the possum stuff started in a win over Arkansas on May 7 as the Tigers came back from a 9-4 deficit in that inning to win 10-9 in 10 innings. Rally Possum T-Shirts went on sale the next morning at the Box, and stuffed toy possums began multiplying in the Box and on the road.
Trailing 3-1 in the top of the seventh after one out in this one, Reid and Papierski singled in back-to-back at-bats off Cunningham. Following a fly out by Freeman, Antoine Duplantis laced a double down the left field line to get LSU within 3-2. Fraley hit a hard grounder down the first base line, but first baseman Kevin Woodall gathered it in and got the out.
"We didn't put the greatest swings on some balls in certain situations," Fraley said.
The Chanticleers touched up LSU starter Jared Poche for two runs on two hits with a walk and two wild pitches in the bottom of the first inning. Marks reached on an infield single, alertly took second on a fly out to left field by Paez, got to third on a wild pitch and scored on a wild pitch. Poche walked Connor Owings, who got to second on the second wild pitch by Poche and scored on a RBI single by George Young. Poche struck out Billy Cooke to end the inning. Poche walked another batter - No. 9 hitter David Parrett - in the second inning, but he got out of that inning with no damage and started cooking.
Poche, who just threw six innings on Tuesday on three days of rest for the win over Rice to put LSU in the Super Regional round, threw five and one-third innings on four days of rest. He allowed three runs and scattered five hits with three walks and six strikeouts. The junior from Lutcher received a hearty ovation when he left the game in the sixth in what was likely his last LSU appearance as he is expected to go pro after being drafted in the 14th round on Saturday. He finished 9-5 on the season and 27-10 for his career.
"To lose a game to end the season is heartbreaking," Poche said. "It's tough to handle."
George Young singled off Poche to lead off the sixth. After a sacrifice bunt got Young to second, Parker Bugg replaced Poche, but allowed an RBI single to Woodall, giving Coastal a 3-1 lead. Bugg retired the side from there, and Newman came on in the seventh and faced the minimum. The Chanticleers loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning, but Newman got Pearcey to pop up to shortstop, and then the right-hander struck out left-handed pinch-hitter Tyler Chadwick looking to end the inning and give LSU one last chance in the top of the ninth down 3-2.
The Tigers got singles from Fraley and Greg Deichmann in the first and second innings, respectively, but left both runners stranded - starting their dangerous trend.
LSU cut Coastal's lead to 2-1 in the third inning. Cunningham hit Reid to start the inning, and Reid reached second on a balk. After Papierski grounded out to third, Freeman doubled down the left field line to score Reid. Duplantis then hit a deep fly ball to right that Owings could not come up with and Duplantis had a double. Reid did not score on the hit as he correctly waited at second as it appeared Owings would make the catch. Then Reid took third. With runners on second and third, Fraley popped out to shortstop and Kramer Robertson popped out in foul territory behind first base to end the inning with the two runners stranded in scoring position.
"They play with a really hard-nosed attitude," Mainieri said. "They play very fundamentally sound. Well-coached team. They out-coached us. They out-played us. They were just hungrier than we were this weekend. There's nothing more frustrating for me than when we play poor fundamentals, because obviously the coach is responsible for that. We had some miscommunications and two errors. We had some poor base running. If we had played more fundamentally sound, I think we'd be playing Monday. But I'm the one that takes responsibility for that."
LSU did lose to a much more experienced team, and the Tigers overachieved significantly this season as they replaced virtually their entire regular lineup.
"I don't think a lot of people predicted we would even be in this position, but quite frankly, that doesn't give us much solace right now," Mainieri said. "We're just really disappointed. It's just a tough thing, but we'll rise again."