Bring on LSU! Texas’ last four baseball national championships have come against SEC opponents, and the Longhorns’ all-time record versus LSU is 22-8-1. We’ll see how the Tigers perform against first-rate pitching. Hook ‘em Horns!
Jim Fletcher, 1997 UT-Austin alumnus

FJ:

I think I’m being pretty objective about the championship series. I’d give the advantage to LSU at this point based on the way they’ve won their games in Omaha. However, if it goes to a third and deciding game on Wednesday, I believe the advantage will shift to Texas, since the Longhorns have 6 good pitchers, and LSU has only 3 good ones. If either team is overconfident at this point, it’s probably LSU. Everyone keeps telling them how great they are.

When this College World Series began, I thought Texas was in the easier of the two brackets. However, after watching Virginia play several games in Omaha, they don’t impress me much at all. I don’t know what happened to Fullerton. I guess they just played in an easy regional and super regional. Arkansas should consider themselves the luckiest team in Omaha. I don’t know how they won two games considering that they only seem to have one good pitcher.

Texas’ side of the bracket seemed better. Southern Mississippi obviously was the worst team in Omaha. However, North Carolina was definitely better than Virginia, and Arizona State was undoubtedly the third best team in Omaha this year.

I’m interested to see how LSU will deal with adversity — they haven’t had to deal with any in a month. If they’re down by 5 runs to Texas or they’re involved in several really close games, how will LSU respond? I don’t know if Texas will win or not, but I think I have some reasons to feel confident. They certainly stand a better chance than Fresno State did against Georgia in 2008. Hook ‘em Horns!

Jim Fletcher, 1997 UT-Austin alumnus