Relocated to new regional enclosure

Published 9:55 pm Friday, June 1, 2018

Scooter Hobbs

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Well, now this is different.

Click your heels, Tigers, but do tell. What was the tip-off that you’re not in Louisiana anymore? What gave it away that, for the first time since 2010, the NCAA baseball postseason is upon us again and LSU is on the road?

Maybe it was the weather.

But this is definitely not Louisiana.

Not in June anyhow.

NCAA regionals in Baton Rouge have become so presumed and accepted that they’ve become part of the social calendar, something to set your watches by and seasons to.

You can book it. It happens every year. Whenever spring may have started in Louisiana, the start of LSU’s Baton Rouge NCAA regional would traditionally be the signal for Ms. Nature to kick it up a notch and get on with the scalding, scorching dog days of summer.

It marks the time you can start to actually see the heat, as well as feel it, before your eyes, like amoeba gurgling up out of the ground.

So Thursday, on the eve of another baseball postseason, LSU went out and got in one final practice at Oregon State’s Goss Stadium — in 58-degree weather.

And that was after it had warmed up a spell. It was down to 48 earlier in the morning.

By comparison to Baton Rouge, they may bring relief pitchers in from the bullpen by dogsled.

Head coach Paul Mainieri was talking about wearing long johns and hand mittens ­— and he once coached the Air Force Academy in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Oh, my Boudreaux, this ain’t like any NCAA regional LSU has seen lately.

That artificial turf looks a little strange, too.

So, yes, this is going to be a culture shock for the Tigers, this longest road trip in LSU baseball history.

And not just for the weather.

Or the scenery.

This is somebody else’s big stage.

Spoiled as LSU is by getting a regional almost every year, the Tigers’ teams and fans alike get into a natural rhythm with it.

Regional time? Everybody knows the drill.

That’s all out of whack now.

Well, except for one thing.

Maybe it was force of habit, but the tournament selection committee is so used to sending Louisiana schools to LSU’s regional, that perhaps they instinctively shipped Northwestern State out west, too.

Two Louisiana schools and they both end up in Oregon. What’s the odds on that one?

You just hope neither team is expecting a crawfish boil.

Mainly, it’s a little cozier in Corvallis than what Baton Rouge and Alex Box would be dishing out.

The dimensions of host Oregon State’s field won’t stump them. Looks about right. The size is nearly identical to The Box back home — the same down the lines (330) and power alleys (365) and just 5 feet shorter to dead center (400).

Goss Stadium/Coleman Field holds 3,300 fans, less than a third of what Alex Box can handle.

Nice place with a few quirks, just not as big.

But here’s the catch: The Tigers are used to being stars of the show at these affairs, the darlings of the overflowing crowds.

This year LSU gets to see how the other half lives.

Just a reminder, but LSU isn’t even playing the hosts today in the opening round.

Northwestern gets that honor while LSU fights it out with San Diego State.

But, as LSU well knows, that probably means a lot of Beaver fans just became big San Diego State fans.

LSU fans have been doing that in The Box years. They’ll adopt whoever is playing the team seen as the biggest obstacle to the home team.

The Tigers might not even be better than the Aztecs.

But OSU fans would love to see LSU go down.

Or maybe not.

A big cheer went up at the Beavers’ selection show party when LSU was announced as the last team in the regional field and headed to Corvallis.

Oregon State, which returns last year’s team almost intact, must feel like it owes the Tigers one. Last year the Beavers were the No. 1 seed in Omaha and the odds-on favorites to win the national championship — they were one win from the championship round when LSU won two straight to steal the spot.

It almost looks like a setup that the Tigers got sent to Corvallis.

So far Mainieri is handling things the right way. He has promised not to make these postseason sidetrips a habit, but for now is embracing the notion that, if nothing else, it’s something different from the standard-issue Alex Box regional.

Hey, he seems to be saying, it’s going to be fun.

And for a team that two weeks ago didn’t even know if it would be in the tournament, that’s about all you can ask for.

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.combaseball fieldMGNonline