Going Back To Lafayette, Louisiana

TigerBlog just finished a series on Amazon called "Keeping Faith."

The title character is a lawyer in Wales whose blissful life sort of falls apart around her. The three seasons are about how she deals with all of the adversity tossed her way. 

It's a really good show, with some pretty good villains and some interesting gray areas and moral dilemmas. The only downside is Faith's insistence on wagging her index finger and yelling "No!!" way too often.

TB finished the series the other night. Since then, he's bounced around a bit looking for a new one. He's also watched some of the NCAA baseball and softball tournaments. 

He was rooting for James Madison in the softball tournament. The Dukes made a great run, making it to one of the last four spots. 

On the baseball side, he was rooting for Fairfield. When he was at the NCAA men's lacrosse championships Memorial Day weekend, Fairfield was the host school. The Stags baseball team had recently lost in the MAAC tournament to Rider, who had the league's automatic bid.

Fairfield was 37-3 though. Would the school get the league's first at-large bid? The baseball selection show was on just before the men's lacrosse final. The brackets began to be announced, and the Fairfield people were holding their breaths. Eventually it came up - Fairfield was in.

And once in, the team gave a good account of itself, as Pete Carril often said. TB watched some of their games, including their win over Arizona State, who had beaten Fairfield in the first game of the regional. Fairfield made it to the regional final before falling to Texas, ending the season at 39-5.

The best game he's seen was Monday night. It was the winner-take-all game between No. 1 Arkansas and No. 19 Nebraska. 

The game was 2-2 into the bottom of the eighth. After loading the bases on a single and two walks, Arkansas brought a pinch-hitter named Charlie Welch to the plate. A graphic said Welch was 7 for 11 as a pinch-hitter. The announcers said he was "Arkansas' best pinch-hitter."

Arkansas' best? How about everyone's best. Anyway, before TB could do the match on what 7 for 11 makes you (.636), there was a wild pitch (the 11th straight ball between two Nebraska pitchers) and then just about the most massive home run you ever saw (6-2 Arkansas, which was the final). 

Welch is now 8 for 12 as a pinch-hitter (.667). In his post-game interview, he said that he asked the coach for the green light and that "I hit it pretty well."

Uh, yeah. 

One thing that really came through was just how much fun the Arkansas fans were having. It was a huge party. This was from the home run, which landed behind the people in the video.

A view from the @RazorbackTrough pic.twitter.com/FULAAO5wB2

— Tim welch (@timwelch85) June 8, 2021

The entire thing took TB back to his own experiences with Princeton's baseball team at the 2016 NCAA regional in Lafayette, Louisiana. It seems like the Arkansas fans and the Louisiana fans have a lot in common.

TB went back and re-read the game stories he wrote about the Tigers' games in the regional. Here's what he had to say after the opening game 5-3 loss to the Ragin' Cajuns.

If Scott Bradley wanted his Princeton baseball team to get the full NCAA tournament experience, then he couldn't have come to a better place than the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

There are four things that TB remembers most about that regional.

First, there was the weather. It rained a lot, and that messed up the schedule. Princeton would end up playing past midnight in its first game, which started about 28 hours later than it was supposed to.

Second, there was the Louisiana-Lafayette game night experience. It started with crazy tailgates, including one group that saw TB's Princeton stuff, leading one fan to say this: "we're going to kick your a-----, but first come eat with us." And TB had been warned about the seventh-inning stretch and how the crowd would sing and dance to John Fogarty's "Centerfield," and it was as wild as described

Third, there was the ball that Andrew Christie hit in the second inning of the second game, against Sam Houston, which itself was delayed seven hours by rain. Had it not been so hazy and humid, that ball would have been out easily, instead of caught against the wall, and Princeton's night would have been different. 

Fourth, and most of all, there was the game that Chad Powers pitched against Louisiana-Lafayette. Powers, the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, went into the eighth, striking out eight and walking none. Only some timely ULL hits did him and the Tigers in. It was a great performance, and Powers was rewarded with some long applause from the home fans, who recognized a player worthy of their praise.

Anyway, TB was taken back to all of that and more while watching the Arkansas game. As he has said many times before, that trip to Lafayette was one of the best events he's ever seen during all his years with Princeton.

Has it really been five years already?