It was sad watching the Tigers in Omaha.

• Sad watching a team that dedicated its entire season to getting to Omaha try so hard that they disrupted their own rhythm and played out of character.
• Sad watching the team that was second among the World Series partici­pants in runs score only 3 in 18 innings, leaving 18 on base.
• Sad watching the team that was first among the eight in fielding percent­age lose to UCLA on two unearned runs.
• Sad watching Alex Bregman play so poorly he should send back his Fresh­man of the Year award. In addition to his costly error that let in the winning run Sunday night, he was 0-for-8 with a walk and two strikeouts. His strike­out at-bats, one in each game, were pitiful. He took two strikes down the middle, then swung at a sucker ball in the dirt.
• Sad watching Raph Rhymes, National Player of the Year in 2011, go 0-for-9 with 10 men left on base to close out his LSU career.
• Sad watching Christian Ibarra, who had been Steady Eddie all season, end the NCAA tournament 0-for-22. Some of it was bad luck, hitting the ball on the ground or in the air but right at 'em. But his last at-bat epitomized LSU's performance - swung and missed on two pitches in the dirt to end the sea­son.
• Sad watching Paul Manieri make so many moves that turned out poorly. Some examples: Taking the bunt sign off of Rhymes in the 9th against UCLA with a 2-0 count and Katz on first only to have Raph hit into a double play that cut the heart out of the rally.
  Starting Cody Glenn in Game 2 because UNC had so many left-handed bat­ters. But it's tough asking a freshman who hasn't pitched in competition in three weeks to be sharp on the biggest stage. In restrospect, Bonvillain, a senior who pitched 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball, would have been a better choice.
• Most of all, sad watching a team that won more games overall and more SEC games than any other LSU team in history end its season the way the Tiger gridders ended theirs in 2011 when they won 13 games - with a very poor performance in the biggest game(s) that will be their permanent legacy.

On the positive side, four players acquitted themselves well.

• Aaron Nola, who should have won the opener 1-0. If he had, the pressure would have been lessened on the next starter, Glenn or Eades, because they wouldn't have to pitch in an elimination game.
• Mason Katz, who drove in two of LSU's three runs and reached base eight times. He was one of the few Tigers who played as he had all season.
• Mark Laird, who went 5-for-9 to finish the season hitting over .300 and also made a terrific catch in RF Tuesday. He played better than he had all season.
• Chris Cotton, who threw 2 2/3 innings of one hit ball to keep the Tigers in the game Tuesday. Unfortunately, that hit drove in UNC's fourth run.
  

What a frustrating game! The Tigers played right into the Bruins' hands.

• The two errors gave them their runs.
• But, less obviously, the LSU hitters did not acquit themselves well. They constantly swung at Adam Plutko's rising fastball. You'd think by their third AB the Tiger batsmen would adjust, but they didn't even with the umpire calling low strikes but not high ones.
• When you swing at the rising fastball, all you do is pop it up. So we weren't putting pressure on the defense. All the fielders had to do was camp under the ball and catch it.
• And you don't force the P to get the ball down into the strike zone where it is much more hittable.

Several Tiger mainstays had poor games.

• SS Alex Bregman played like a freshman, not like the Freshman of the Year. In addition to his crucial error on the two-out grounder that allowed the go-ahead runner to score, he went 0-for-4, including a strike out in the 1st on a pitch low and outside - nowhere near the strike zone.
• C Ty Ross not only threw wildly on the bunt but also failed to block two pitches in the dirt that allowed runners to advance. On the wild throw, Katz should have come off the bag to catch it and keep the runner at 1st.
• LF Raph Rhymes grounded into a DP and at a crucial time - ninth inning. When the count went to 2-0, I wanted Manieri to give the take sign or, better still, have Rhymes lean over the plate as if to bunt but take as he did on the first two pitches. Instead, coach gave the hit sign and Raph bounced to 3B for his 14th GDP of the season - 6 more than any other Tiger (Bregman has 8).

Much has been made the last two days about how big TD Ameritrade Park is. Here's the comparison to LSU's home field.

• As you can see, there's only a 5' difference in each dimension except for CF, which is only 3' shorter at Alex Box. So the park shouldn't feel that much larger to LSU's players.
• However, there's the question of how far the ball carries in the park.
• But I would say that, when you have the best eight teams in the country and they hit only one HR in the first four games, that's not showcasing college baseball at its best.
• In other words, the park favors the "small ball" clubs. A perfect example is Christian Ibarra's first AB Sunday night. He smashed a long, high drive to LF that was caught on the warning track. That ball is out of almost every college park in the country.
• UCLA prides itself on taking advantage of the other team's mistakes. But here's a case where the Bruin P made a mistake, and Ibarra nailed it. But the park erased the miscue.

Post-game commentary added in RED.

This is written an hour before LSU takes the field against UCLA.

• I feel as confident as anyone can in the game of baseball, the most unpredictable of all.
• I will be surprised if Aaron Nola doesn't pitch well. But he could be terrific and lose 2-1. THIS IS ONE PREDICTION THAT I WISH I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN WRONG.
• However, the table below shows that the Tigers' rankings in three NCAA categories - one for hitting, one for pitching, and one for fielding - are by far the best of the octet.

Here are the rankings of the eight teams among themselves in Omaha in the national statistics.

It is not surprising that seven of the eight teams are in the top 14 in ERA with N. C. State not so far down at 27th.

To show what these statistics are worth, the team that is higher in the ranking has lost all three games played so far! This is why baseball is so volatile. MAKE IT ALL FOUR FIRST ROUND GAMES IN WHICH THE VISITING TEAM (I.E., THE LOWER SEEDED TEAM) WON.

• The team ERA reflects the work of the entire staff. But if your #1 starter, presumably the guy with the lowest ERA, is on his game, as Indiana's was against Louisville and N. C. State's was against UNC, you win.
• Similarly, the team with higher batting average can smack line drives right at the fielders while the other team gets bloop hits.
• Or you can commit an error at a crucial time and lose on unearned runs. THIS IS WHAT STRUCK THE TIGERS.

So I repeat: I feel the Tigers will acquit themselves well. If "baseball fortune," to use Skip Bertman's phrase, smiles on them, they may do it.

The Cardinals lost only two series in their first 22 this season.

• St. Louis lost the opening series at Arizona 1-2.
• They lost two-of-three at home to the Pirates April 15-17.
• And now they've lost two-of-three to the Marlins, the team with the fewest wins in baseball, 21, by four.
• With 44 wins, the Redbirds still have the most in the majors by two over the surprising Red Sox and the Reds.
• Another NL Central team, Pittsburgh, is tied for the next spot with 41.