Momentum is so important in sports. At the beginning of the game, one team tries to seize it. Then they try to keep it, while the other team tries to take it away. In baseball, one can watch a team score runs to seize momentum, only to see the pitcher or the defense or both give it right back in the next at-bat.
But sometimes, momentum is decided by outside sources.
In the Sun Belt Conference tournament, Troy seized the momentum late in the game against New Orleans. They had tied the score at 6-6, bottom of the ninth, and had loaded the bases with one out. The winning run 90 feet away, and the Sun Belt's hottest hitter, Bryan Miller, at the plate. A sacrifice fly away from getting the win, eliminating the Privateers and, in retrospect, probably costing New Orleans a bid to the NCAA regionals. All you had to do was look at the Privateers' body language. Losers of six straight. Already 0-1 in the tournament. They were done. Stick a fork in em.
Then lightning struck. Literally.
The umpires immediately stopped the game. And, five inches of rain later, the game was rescheduled for 9am the following morning.
There were plenty of jokes going around the next morning. Troy showed up at the field a half hour before UNO. When the bus pulled up, several speculated whether UNO would even take their bats off the bus. After all, Troy was the home team and the Privateers probably wouldn't get another at-bat. But the body language of the Privateers was different. They had talked at the hotel about how they would get out of a near-impossible situation and come back and win the game.
Ryan O'Shea then struck out Bryan Miller and got Beau Brooks to pop up. Inning over. An eleventh-hour stay of execution. Josh Vander Hey's homer in the tenth won it for UNO.
I thought of that last night watching the first inning unfold as LSU met North Carolina in an elimination game. The Tar Heels came out ready. And LSU starter Blake Martin, pitching on his 22nd birthday, did not. Hit. Hit batsman. Hit. One to nothing. Hit batsman. Walk. Two to nothing. Bases loaded, one out. North Carolina a hit away from 4-0, one in the gap away from 5-0 and a big fly away from 6-0. Paul Manieri was ready to go to the bullpen.
And then lightning struck. Literally
And, plenty of rain later, a suspension until tonight.
Now, this happened in the first inning, not the ninth. It's possible that Manieri's pitching change would have worked and the Tigers would have gotten out of the inning without further damange. And, to be sure, this LSU team certainly wasn't ready to panic. Not after all they've done this year. But there is no question that the storm took whatever momentum North Carolina had and put it back up for grabs.
Both coaches now have some decisions to make. Who comes in for LSU? Manieri can now act as though the game is just starting and pitch Ryan Verdugo, who would have been tonight's starting pitcher had LSU won the game last night. Or, he could backwards-pitch and bring in Louis Coleman to get the Tigers out of the jam, use him for an inning or two and then use the rest of the pen to piece things together and even use Verdugo in relief.
Who does Mike Fox throw? Freshman Mike Harvey had warmed up prior to the game, but didn't throw a singe pitch. He's available. But so now, is Alex White, who cut up the Tigers back on Sunday. He's now had four days' rest.
No question now that the scenario has changed for both of these teams. Whoever wins has to beat Fresno both Saturday and Sunday, and then go into the championship series without a day off. That could mean playing six straight days to win the national championship. That part of it won't be easy regardless of who wins this game.
Now, both coaches are going to say that what happened last night was no big deal. It happened early, there was still a lot of baseball to play and yada yada yada. That, my friends is coachspeak.
Know this. The last thing Mike Fox wanted to see was a postponement when his team had two runs and all the momentum in the world.
And for Paul Manieri, well, he now has a girlfriend on the side.
Her name is Mother Nature.