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LSU pitcher Anthony Eyanson has learned that even the wide world of college baseball can be a small world.
Eyanson spent a lot of his teen years attending UCLA baseball games while growing up in the Los Angeles area. It was a short (or maybe longer than expected because of LA traffic) ride on the freeway from his roots in the Long Beach area to Westwood.
And now?
Well, now the LSU right-hander will be the starting pitcher in Monday night’s winners’ bracket game at the College World Series in Omaha.
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And the opponent?
Well, that will be none other than UCLA, his former beloved program that he’ll be trying hard to beat in the showdown on ESPN that will start at 7 p.m. ET at Charles Schwab Field. With a lot of his youth baseball coaches back home in the Lakewood, Calif., area being Bruins baseball fanatics, it thickens the plot of an already big game between programs desperate to get back to college baseball’s top.
Eyanson was featured on LSU baseball’s social media announcement about Monday’s game:
And on Sunday, after LSU’s team practice at University of Nebraska-Omaha, Eyanson was asked all about the ultimate irony that will take place for him on Monday night in front of a national TV audience. In a typical style that befits his California cool roots, Eyanson played the whole thing off, even if inside it’ll be a different story come that first pitch on Monday night.
“It would mean a lot, growing up going to their games,” said Eyanson before he was officially named the starter on Sunday night. “I’m excited to pitch whenever my name is called here. It’s a really cool accomplishment.”
Then Eyanson was asked about his memories of UCLA’s national title run in 2013, when the Bruins beat — who else? — LSU in their first-round game.
He could only chuckle, which was telling in itself. Here are Eyanson’s post-practice comments from Sunday:
Come Monday night, Eyanson will be put in the ultimate ironic situation, and he couldn’t be any happier about it all.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
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