‘Eaters to take on red-hot LSU

After winning the Lincoln Regional by sweeping three games, keyed by season-best pitching performances from sophomore lefthander Danny Bibona and sophomore right-hander Bryce Stowell, the No. 8-ranked UC Irvine baseball team was back on the practice field Tuesday, preparing for a best-of-three Super Regional to begin Saturday at 3 p.m. at LSU.

UCI All-American pitcher Scott Gorgen and Coach Mike Gillespie said they are still formulating their scouting report on No. 5-ranked LSU (46-16-1), which extended its NCAA-best winning streak to 23 games to sweep through its own regional Sunday at LSU.

The Tigers, the No. 7 national seed, will play host to the Anteaters (41-16) at 7,760-seat Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

Game 2 is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday, with Game 3, if necessary, set for Monday at 4 p.m. Game 1 is scheduled to be televised on ESPNU, Game 2 on ESPN and Game 3 on ESPN2.

The winners of the eight Super Regionals will comprise the field for the College World Series, June 14-25 at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb.

Gillespie said he has not formulated a pitching plan, other than the fact that Gorgen will start Game 1.

?The Tigers, coached by Paul Mainieri, play before, arguably, the most loyal fans in college baseball at Alex Box Stadium, where a corrugated tin roof extending from the press box magnifies the sound the fans produce.

“I imagine it’s much like it was, which is beyond crazy,” said Gillespie, who coached USC teams that lost in regionals at LSU in 1990 and 1994.

“It’s going to be an exciting place to play, I don’t think there’s any debate about that.

They turn out in full force and they’re enthusiastic to the max. It’s too loud to be able to hear yourself think, let alone have anybody communicate with each other, You’ve got to play the game without anybody being able to talk.”

Gillespie said the LSU fans will be different from those UCI encountered at Nebraska.

“That was pretty electric,” Gillespie said of Saturday night’s crowd of 8,646 at Haymarket Park that witnessed UCI’s 3-2 win over the host Cornhuskers. “It was a sea of red, but they’re not a hostile group,” Gillespie said of the Nebraska faithful.

“They’re not on you, and they’re not rude and they’re not vicious and they know the Civil War is over and they know how to act,” Gillespie said, before backtracking somewhat. “Now, I don’t mean to suggest [that is the case at LSU] I really don’t.”

LSU, where 7,164 turned out in 91-degree heat to watch Sunday’s regional championship game, has led Division I baseball in total attendance for 12 straight years, through 2007.

?As hot as the Tigers are, they played their regional with extra emotion, after LSU Athletic Director and former baseball coach Skip Bertman was hospitalized Saturday with symptoms of a heart attack.

Bertman, 70, who left the hospital Tuesday in good condition, coached LSU to five national championships. He is retiring as athletic director after this season.

“We won this regional for the Skipper,” Mainieri told reporters after Sunday’s 11-4 championship-game win over Southern Mississippi.

?One possible distraction for every super regional team is the Major League Baseball first-year player draft, scheduled for Thursday.

Gillespie said there is a general consensus that Gorgen and junior center fielder Ollie Linton will be drafted and sign, making this their last season with the Anteaters.

Stowell, who threw so hard while posting a career-high 13 strikeouts Sunday that he broke catcher Francis Larson’s glove [Larson said Tuesday he had to have a lace replaced, after Stowell consistently popped his mitt], is also expected to be drafted. But, unless he is drafted in an early round, where the money will be enticing, Gillespie said Stowell and his parents understand there could be much to be gained by pitching another year at UCI, then testing the draft in 2009.

“We’re anxious to see where [Stowell] goes,” Gillespie said. “If he gets taken high and they want to pay him, then, yeah, he’s probably gone.”

Gillespie said the other UCI player who figures to generate consideration is junior shortstop Ben Orloff.

“Orloff is a perfect college player, but he doesn’t grade out as a prospect,” Gillespie said. “He’s going to get to play professional baseball, because he’d be a senior sign [in 2009]. But there might be somebody laying in the weeds out there that loves him and sneaks up and takes him, who knows? So we’re nervous about that, because I’m greedy. I want him back next year.”

?Coach Mike Gillespie is the first to recognize the fact that at 67 years young, he is open to cracks about his age. In fact, he usually beats others to the punch in this regard.

He said Tuesday that he has never lost the motivation, the energy and ability to coach and he roared with laughter when it was pointed out that Alex Box Stadium, on its last legs after 70 seasons [the program will have a new facility next season], was one of the few things in college baseball older than he is.

“That’s harsh,” he said after erupting with laughter and still smiling. “That’s a low blow.”

At least one unnamed player and one unnamed coach also laughed loudly when made aware of the chronological coincidence.

?Much of the local Nebraska media attention last weekend on UCI, which shocked many last season by advancing to the College World Series, revolved around the fact that the Anteaters are no longer taking the college baseball world by surprise.

But UCI’s status as an elite program has obviously yet to permeate some areas of the national landscape.

A story about the impending super regional matchup with UCI on the LSU athletics Web site on Monday identified UCI as the Ant Eaters (two words).

?UCI, a No. 2 seed in its regional, is one of only three teams not seeded No.1 at one of the four-team regionals, to survive the first weekend of postseason play.

Wichita State defeated top-seeded Oklahoma State to advance from the Stillwater Regional, while No 4-seeded Fresno State, with former Orange Coast College head man Mike Mayne serving his first season as pitching coach, came out of the Long Beach Regional at Blair Field by topping San Diego Monday.

?Gorgen makes a habit of being the first to hug his starting pitcher colleagues when they enter the dugout, whether it’s between innings or at the end of their outing.

So Gorgen, who along with fellow starter Wes Etheridge formed dueling aces on the Anteaters’ 2007 run to Omaha, was happy to drift into the shadows as the spotlight shone more brightly on Bibona and Stowell, both of whom pitched what they called the best starts of the season in beating Nebraska and Oral Roberts, respectively, at the Lincoln Regional, completed Sunday in Nebraska.

“To see the way Bibs and Stowelly came up big in clutch situations was fun,” said Gorgen, who earned the win in the opening game against Oral Roberts, despite giving up a season-worst six earned runs on nine hits in five innings. “Coming off not one of my best outings, it was fun for me, because it felt like we kind of started this thing together with the three of us [in the weekend rotation]. To see them go out there and actually take it for themselves in a big game, because they didn’t have that opportunity last year like I did … To see them go out there and do exactly what I was able to do last year was amazing. I was so happy for them, I couldn’t even put it into words.

“Stowelly threw the game of his life Sunday and Bibs pitched in what was like a Texas regional crowd. That crowd [8,646 most of whom wearing red] was fired up, because I think they knew that if they didn’t win that game, their season was pretty much done. It was exciting to see.”

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].