Baton Rouge Super Regional: LSU vs. Stony Brook

The team knows they are in for a battle since they played with and against several of their players. They are good. The reason some of us are spreading the word is so the fans don't go to the expecting to win. Everyone has to be fired up to win this series.

 

the Cape Cod League an elite 10-team league where the best of the best from college baseball go to compete against each other every summer in a season that runs from June to August

Stony Brook had 6 guys play there last summer, and LSU had at least 6 guys there: Katz, Eades, Nola, Jones, Ross, Gausman (after two starts, left for play for the US National Team), etc

so the LSU players got to know the Stony Brook players pretty well (for ex, Eades' catcher was the Stony Brook catcher, and Katz, Eades, and 3 Stony Brook players all played in the Cape Cod All-Star game together)

Austin Nola on Stony Brook:

“I hope the fans know that these guys are good. This is not going to be what they think it is.”

Katz on Stony Brook:

"For us, we understand who is coming in here. They are an SEC-caliber team. They really are. A lot of people do not understand that."

Katz pointed to a certain "swagger" that Stony Brook possesses. “They don’t get down. Their spirits are always high,” Katz said. “If Gausman goes out there and strikes out ten, they’re going to be the same as if he doesn’t get anyone out.”

"They’re not going to be intimidated by the atmosphere or the crowds," Katz said.

Mainieri echoed Katz’s sentiment, saying he’s prepared the team for the possibility of a loud Seawolf dugout and some actions that could be perceived as "cocky."

Stony Brook's best player Travis Jankowski:

“We’re not trying to get under anyone’s skin or start fights, but things can escalate, emotions run high in any competition,” outfielder Travis Jankowski said. “I think we do carry a bit of a burden representing the smaller schools, the no-names, even the 4 seeds, and the America East. But we play like we have nothing to lose.”

"[If LSU has] a hostile environment...we're eager to embrace it," Jankowski said.

Stony Brook pitcher Brandon McNitt:

"We look forward to coming out and playing in front of a big crowd."

 

"If we could decide, we'd love to play at night," said LSU ace pitcher Kevin Gausman

"The only thing that I'm concerned about with the game times is for our fans," Mainieri said.

“I’d like to be governor for a day and declare a state holiday for everybody to come out,” he said. “I don’t think I have the authority to do that.”

 

Katz:

“On the outside is it difficult because everyone watching the game across the country who are not fans of either team are going to cheer for the underdog."

Stony Brook's best player Travis Jankowski:

"We are the underdogs for sure. I feel like a lot of people cheer for the underdog, they want to see a good story.”"

article on how LSU is the bad guy and the whole nation will be cheering for Stony Brook:
http://www.americanpress.com/Hobbs-6-6-12

 

They can play up the underdog role all they want. Having more players drafted than LSU really puts the lie to being an underdog. Lack of respect for the school as a traditional baseball power is more like it. But this is no underdog.

 

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What?

 

Dr. Evil isn't appropriate in a discussion about LSU being the bad guy?

 

well, I guess our guys are in bed now, probably together in a hotel, trying to block out all the excitement pumping through their veins so they can get some sleep

for everybody not named Austin Nola, Hanover, Dozar, or Didier, tomorrow morning is the biggest game of their young lives

 

One of my LSU friends asked me...."Are Seawolves good to eat ???"