Rice is dangerous

BATON ROUGE - LSU may have a College World Series team that doesn't get to the College World Series. Rice is very capable of beating the Tigers in the best-of-three Super Regional that begins tonight at 6 at Alex Box Stadium and will be televised on ESPN.

This game or series should not be happening now. It should be happening in Omaha, Neb., at the College World Series. But the NCAA Baseball Selection Committee made a gross mistake by including Oklahoma as a top eight seed. Rice should have been there instead, and LSU would be hosting someone else this weekend. As it turns out, Oklahoma was eliminated last week.

The Tigers did have one of the weaker opening regional fields last weekend, so things even out.

This LSU-Rice match-up will be very even. The Tigers will prevail, but they will lose a game and be in danger of losing two other times. It's going to be that kind of Super Regional. Look for some late-inning heroics by LSU.

Both teams have very strong pitching and good enough offenses to hold their own with anyone.

This pairing is destined to be a classic. It will feel like Omaha. The only bad thing is it won't be in Omaha.