By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Contributor
BATON ROUGE, La. ““ In the week leading up to the UCLA
baseball team’s Super Regional matchup against second-seeded
Louisiana State, the Bruins sounded eager to play in front of the
Tigers’ notoriously hostile fans.
“This is the kind of stuff we look forward to,” UCLA
leftfielder Bill Scott said, noting that he and his teammates
usually drew 500 or less at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
“We like having a lot of people there, whether
they’re with us or against us,” Scott added.
The crowd, it turned out, would be a major factor against UCLA.
Although the Bruins claimed the noise created by the Tigers’
fans did not hinder their performance, the home team was certainly
helped by it. The continuous roars in the stands carried LSU to a
two-game sweep of UCLA in the best-of-three series and helped the
Tigers earn a trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
In Friday’s opener, 7,467 fans filled Alex Box Stadium,
setting an all-time attendance record for an LSU baseball game.
That day, no one took more verbal abuse than Bruin relief
pitcher Scott Arrasmith. As starter Rob Henkel got into trouble in
the early innings, Arrasmith started warming up in the bullpen
along the right field line.
Immediately, the fans seated in the section in front of him
jeered.
One fan yelled, “Hey, Scott ““ Omaha: it’s on
CBS!”
When LSU catcher Brad Cresse hit a home run off of Henkel in the
fifth inning, another Tiger aficionado screamed, “Scott, are
you sure you want to go in now?”
Arrasmith couldn’t help but smile.
The heckling continued until Arrasmith finally entered the
contest in the eighth inning.
“The fans here will talk a mean game,” said police
officer Russell Ruge, who was stationed along the right field line.
“But when it’s all said and done, they’ll shake
your hand. They’re just having a good time.”
Ruge used to attend games at Alex Box Stadium as a teenager.
Now, as a 42-year old officer on duty, he was pumping his right
fist and joining the fans in their chants of “LSU! LSU!
LSU!”
Like Ruge, a majority of the fans in attendance had been
following the Tigers for quite some time.
“It’s a family sport,” said Gale Seenfield,
the operator of the souvenir stand for the last 13 years.
“I’ve seen kids grow up here.”
Seenfield pointed at the numerous toddlers walking around with
their parents. In the stands, children barely old enough to talk
were cheering alongside their mothers and fathers. Almost everyone
was clad in LSU purple and gold.
The crowd frequently rose to its feet, erupting in deafening
cheers each time the Tigers managed to do anything remotely
positive.
“The fans possibly gave me too much adrenaline,”
said Henkel, who uncharacteristically gave up leadoff walks in two
different innings.
After the Bruins dropped game one 8-2, the second day was no
quieter. As the Tigers scored a few early runs off of Bruin
starting pitcher Josh Karp, the left field side of the stadium
began bellowing, “Go!” while the fans in right replied,
“Tigers!”
The crowd did, however, have some compassion for UCLA. In the
third inning, Karp was nailed in the ankle with a line drive hit by
Tiger second baseman Mike Fontenot. When Karp, having walked off
the pain, appeared to be fit to continue, the crowd gave him a warm
applause.
The LSU supporters had plenty more to cheer about as the Tigers
were aided by a horde of UCLA fielding mistakes that led to a 14-8
butchering.
Despite the rush it may have given the opposing team, UCLA head
coach Gary Adams was left with a favorable impression of the
crowd.
“I think it was great,” he said. “The noise is
great. That’s what college baseball should be
about.”
Adams may have found the crowd even more affable in the hours
following the second contest as the fans invited him and his
players to party with them in the parking lots. The Bruins
conversed with and were fed by the same people that had been
indirectly responsible for their elimination.
The crowd may be one of the few aspects of the Super Regional
matchups that Adams will be able to reflect on positively. Unlike
the fans, the Bruins, for the most part, were kept quiet during the
games. And unlike the fans, they won’t be going to Omaha.