It’s the College World Series Finals Round – LSU vs. Texas – in the bottom of the ninth tied 6-6 (LSU scored two runs in the top of the ninth to tie the game) and I’m still a little bitter that Arkansas didn’t put up a better effort against LSU in the second game after it’s enormous rally against Virginia to beat them in the 12th.
The game took 4 hours and 56 minutes – so let’s just call it an even 5, shall we? Dallas Keuchel on the mound to stop the bleeding pitching staff in the ninth inning and for the next 3 innings he masterfully tugged the strings of every Razorback Nation member’s hearts; pushing all fresh quitters of a smoking addiction off the wagon with every thrown ball (one of which was really close – no, probably – no….absolutely, POSITIVELY a Base on Balls to walk in the walk-off run from third, you know which one I’m talking about). The jams in the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and the final twelve innings made you laugh, cry, throw your remote at the T.V. and Keuchel was able to come out a winner in the end. The 2nd of 3 games. And he didn’t let a run cross homeplate with runners in scoring position in every last half inning. This has to canonize Keuchel in the Razorbacks Pantheon of Heroes. Along with Matt Jones for the Miracle on Markham. And Scotty Thurman’s three-pointer with 50.7 seconds left in the 1994 National Championship game.
Arkansas fans wanted this to be a sign. A sign that we weren’t going away easily and that we want this championship. That we belong in the national spotlight and we know what to do with it. No longer are the Hogs going to be the clean door mat of the SEC! A SIGN that there was a different road ahead. But two days later the Razorbacks went to their formula that has been a staple of Razorback Athletics for as long as I can remember: play your heart out to win a meaningless game (in retrospect) only to make your fans THINK that you have what it takes to take down an opponent like LSU or Texas. That passion of a team and a state riding behind you can overcome an, on paper, more talented team. After a couple of days and the chaos and excitement simmered we still forgot that Virginia just gave us too many opportunities to win that game; plus the home-plate umpire. And look at the Finals round.
It’s the top of the 10th, still tied with three bases occupied by Tiger runners and Texas looks calm. As if they know they’ll be starting the last half-inning with the score maintained. So I ask myself if Arkansas was in this position, would we have been able to climb out of the two-run deficit to tie the game in the ninth? And I know, you’re yelling through your screen to me that, ‘Hello! We did it against Virginia! You just wrote it!’ True. But we ARE the doormat of LSU and Texas. You can add a colon after Arkansas Razorbacks followed by “Property of Every SEC Team Except if You’re from Mississippi” and Texas (plus, USC). So we can’t have swagger against anyone that owns us. Andy Dufresne never looked looked like he wasn’t going to get taken to an isolated room somewhere in Shawshank when the Sisters came looking to work him over. No, the Hogs will do what they have always done. Get romped. Routed. Reamed. From a purely sports fan perspective, these two teams deserve to be playing this game because Arkansas wouldn’t hold up. Not make it as interesting and exciting as it is now at the bottom of the 1oth, still tied.
I just hate these teams.
Top of the 11th, 7-6 LSU.
Can we just crawl through the 500 yards of excrement now?
