2023 War Tigers

[Kaos]

I know this wasn't Auburn, but...

I watched the deciding game in the LSU-Wake series just to see the two pitchers.  One with a weird moustache, one with weird hair.  Both likely to be in the top 5 draft picks.  Both were as good as advertised. Two really, really good pitchers flat out bringing it.  Only eight total hits in 11 innings, and a combined 21 strikeouts between starters and relievers who were equally solid. Neither team had an error. Just good solid baseball.

The game went to extras and Wake's closer lost it in the eleventh when the first pitch he threw was launched into the left field seats by a chubby, hairy LSU dude.  That's the play everybody wants to talk about. That he bombed the first pitch from a guy who'd said two days prior that Wake Forest was "pretty much unbeatable" was pretty decent karma.   

That never happens, though, without a play in the eighth inning turned in by LSU's first baseman Tre Morgan. I'd kill to have that guy or somebody like him at AU.  He's probably the best defensive first baseman I've ever seen.

Situation:  Wake gets a runner on, moves him to second and then he takes third on a REALLY shitty effort by the LSU catcher on a ball in the dirt that should have been a strikeout. Runners first and third, one out.  Wake tries to squeeze the runner home. 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-ux133Ofo38

It's as good a play as I've seen from a first baseman in a while.  In a weird twist it comes just days after Morgan was thrown out at the plate in the 8th in a game LSU lost 3-2 to Wake, in a very close call.  If Morgan doesn't make that play (and the catcher doesn't atone for his awful effort in letting the ball get away on what should have been the second out of the inning on a K)?  LSU's season is over, a 1-0 loss in nine in the books. Instead they'll play Florida for the title.

Didn't really have a horse in the race at all, but it was kind of restorative to watch two decent teams and a couple of great pitchers duke it out.  Ask me?  The real hero of that game - and in effect, LSU's entire season -  was the first baseman.  He's really, really good.