Quote:
Originally Posted by Tigercat
What errors really cost Texas? I think the superhuman efforts at the plate far and away canceled out any bad fielding. How many good pitches did Texas foul off at the plate? Almost anytime a LSU pitcher made a bad pitch, and a few times they didn't, Texas jacked it.
Again, I have been watching CWS action since the late 80s, even when LSU wasn't there, and I have never seen a more disciplined group of hitters and pitchers.
If anyone/anything "gave away the series" it was the managerial decision to overplay the bullpen and make too many defensive subs in the first game. If Texas didn't play a good series against LSU, I have never seen a good team against a LSU championship team in Omaha.
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Well, a passed ball and an error set up the 5-run inning last night to name two.
I'm not saying Texas played badly overall. But they didn't play close to their best within the defensive half of the game. Jungmann rescued terrible fielding the previous night, for example. It's just a little disappointing. I'm certainly not saying that Texas would have won if they had played to their standard in the field, it just was frustrating to watch.
And if you expected Texas to play worse than that then you simply didn't know how good Texas was, to be honest. Offensively, okay, I'll grant you that. But that was far from the standard Texas set defensively this year. Not just in the field, but pitching as well (other than Jungmann on Tuesday night). Lots of control issues that didn't exist previously, although these plagued LSU some as well. I don't think either team played their best overall, to be honest. There were some exciting games but I don't think they were that well-played by both teams. I think when Texas got swept by Fullerton in 2004 it was a much better example of both teams playing well. And Fullerton threw in some pitching performances of a lifetime to finish Texas off.
edit - By the way, this isn't meant to take anything away from LSU's championship. For example, Texas won a very sloppy championship game against South Carolina in 2002. Didn't bother me a bit then and doesn't now. A national title is a national title.