LSUE poised for title run
By Jamie Anfenson-Comeau
Despite playing 27 innings in 24 hours, the LSU at Eunice Bengals were able to win the Region 23 championship, and their ability to get the job done under pressure and with very little rest is one of the reasons Bengal coach Jeff Willis cited as to why he expects his team to do well in the NJCAA Division II World Series.
Willis told the Eunice Rotary Club Wednesday that this is one of the most confident and disciplined teams he has ever coached, and that those qualities have the potential to carry them far.
“We deserve to win,” Willis said, “We deserve to go into the World Series and we deserve to win. Does that mean we’re going to win? We don’t know that.
“But after the World Series is over we’ve going to be able to stand there and look ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘Either it was meant to be, or it wasn’t meant to be.’”
“Any time you have a bunch of 18-, 19-, and 20-year-old men, they’re not the biggest saints around,” Willis said, “But the most-successful teams I’ve ever been a part of really police themselves, and it happened numerous times this year, of players policing themselves.”
The tournament was a test of his team’s character, Willis said, after the Bengals lost 5-4 to Pearl River in a delayed game that stretched past 1 a.m. Sunday morning.
The three-hour delay in the game’s start time, due to an earlier game going into extra innings, dampened the Bengals’ fire as they waited five hours to take the field.
“We got to bed about 3:30 a.m.,” Willis said, “and I’m thinking to myself, we’re really going to see what we’re made of.”
Willis found out in the first of the Bengals’ two Sunday games, as Meridian took an eight-run lead in the fourth inning.
“Our players never panicked; they never threw a hat or a helmet or a glove, they were just like, ‘We’re going to have to do some work here.’”
As the Bengals began to narrow the point gap, Willis watched from third base as the Meridian team began to lose their cool, despite their lead.
“I hear these F-bombs flying out of the dugout, and I’m saying to myself, ‘These guys are done.’ They still had three runs on us, but they just panicked,” Willis said.
The Bengals eventually reversed Meridian’s original lead, ending the game in the seventh inning with a 19-11 victory.
Immediately afterward, the Bengals had to face a well-rested Pearl River team for the championship title.
Even when Pearl River tied the score 4-4 with a grand slam, Willis said his team didn’t panic.
“They were all like, ‘Alright, we’re just going to have to score another run.’”
“I told them, ‘How sweet is it going to be, when we beat their rear ends on their field, with all their fans watching, after they hit a grand slam to tie it, how sweet is that going to be?’” Willis said.
The Bengals, of course, came back to win 12-9 for the championship.
Willis said that the team’s return to the World Series will prove an even bigger test of his team’s mettle.
“Our guys played 27 innings in less than 24 hours; that’s tremendous,” Willis said.
“I don’t know what we have left in their tank, but I know this: They deserve to win,” Willis said.
“Our guys are pumped up to be back there; they’re pumped up and hopefully we’ll be able to do what we did two years ago.”
LSUE opens the World Series 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Des Moines Area Community College (Northwest Regional champion) at the USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn.