By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

OMAHA, Neb. – Call it perspiration overcoming desperation.

Or a flair for the dramatic.

Or simply the ultimate gut check, reaching deep within to rise to the enormity of the moment.

Any way you slice it, the two-out Tigers are two wins away from an eighth national title.

No. 6 national seed LSU overcame deficits of 1-0, 3-2, and finally 5-3 in a 6-5 College World Series semifinal walkoff victory over No. 3 national seed Arkansas on Wednesday night to advance to Saturday’s championship series opener vs. Coastal Carolina

All of the Tigers’ runs, including three in the bottom of the ninth, came with two outs. Dating back to the fourth inning of its 9-5 win over UCLA on Tuesday, LSU (51-15) has scored 11 consecutive runs with two outs.

Both of LSU’s run-producing hits in its last at-bats – senior catcher Luis Hernandez’s game-tying two-run double followed by junior first baseman Jared Jones’ game-winning walkoff single, glanced off the head of Arkansas’ diving left fielder Charlas Davalan and off the top of leaping second baseman Cam Kozeal’s glove respectively.

“Probably two years ago to the day,” said LSU fourth-year head coach Jay Johnson, “the walk-off homer – Tommy (White) against Wake Forest (in a 11^th inning 2-0 victory that sent the eventual national champions Tigers to the CWS finals) – I felt something in my body I’ve never felt before. Greatest moment in my life.

“It now has a tie for first, with the ninth inning Jared Jones’ line drive over the second baseman’s head. And Luis Hernandez, hustling around (from) second base.”

Jones, who began this CWS striking out five times in the Tigers’ 4-1 opening win over the Razorbacks, is 5 for 9 in his last two games with two homers and six RBI, including three with two outs.

“We’ve had a lot of these games throughout the season, whether we’ve had to fight back from being down or a team ties it up late, we’ve kind of stuck with it no matter what,” said Jones, whose 3 for 5 effort vs. the Higs included his game-tying eighth-inning solo homer on the first pitch offered by Arkansas’ ace reliever Gabe Gaeckle. “There’s no clock in baseball. There’s 27 outs. With our offense, it’s a tough ask to do.”

LSU never trailed by more than two runs against the best offensive team in the SEC, thanks to a superb hold-the-rope pitching effort by junior starter Zac Cowan and redshirt sophomore relievers Jaden Noot and Chase Shores, and junior Jacob Meyers.

Propelled by Wofford transfer Cowan’s clutch performance in his second straight start as a Tiger – he allowed one run and four hits in 5.1 while striking out six and walking none – LSU’s flinging foursome finished with 11 strikeouts and walked none.

“It means the world when I have the trust from the coaching staff like I do and the defense behind me,” said Cowan, an All-SEC first-team honoree who had given up seven hits and eight runs in a combined three innings in his last two outings. “And, yeah, like the last half of the season didn’t go as planned, but it’s going out there and competing every time I’m out there.”

Cowan and company had to be on point. Arkansas’ four hurlers – starter Landon Beidelschies and relievers Gaeckle, Cole Gibler and Aiden Jiminez – were almost equal to the task combining for 14 strikeouts and four walks.

“There’s so many plays throughout the game where you could get a hit here, make a pitch there, a play there,” said Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn, who came away again empty-handed on his eighth CWS trip with the Razorbacks. “The game changes. Then we got down to the end of the game, you know, they got the big hit. We got a couple of big hits. They got a couple big hits.”

A first-pitch solo homer off Cowan by Razorbacks’ catcher Ryder Helfrick provided Arkansas a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning.

LSU jumped ahead 2-1 in the sixth when pinch-hitter sophomore Jake Brown stroked a two-out, two-RBI single. It scored designated hitter Ethan Frey (who led off the inning with a double) and shortstop Steven Milam (who was hit by the last of starter Beidelschies’ 78 pitches).

The Hogs regained the lead in the top of the eighth at 3-2 on a botched LSU double-play attempt to end the inning. Helfrick’s fielders’ choice RBI grounder to LSU third baseman Michael Braswell III scored Davalan. Braswell’s throw to LSU second baseman Daniel Dickinson forced out Hogs’ right fielder Logan Maxwell, who got on base after being hit by a Shores’ pitch.

Dickinson pivoted and fired a sinking throw to Jones at first, but Jones couldn’t successfully scoop the ball. It trickled away as SEC Player of the Year shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, who had singled, scored the go-ahead run from second base.

Jones promptly atoned for his error in the bottom of the eighth by hammering a solo homer to tie the game at 3-3.

Arkansas countered in the top of the ninth. First baseman Reese Robinett singled followed by third baseman Brent Iredale’s double, ending Shores’ two innings of relief.

Arkansas nine-hole hitter centerfielder Justin Thomas Jr. greeted new LSU reliever Meyers by punching his first pitch into left field for an RBI single and a 5-3 lead. Meyers then struck out Davalan and Aloy to end the threat.

LSU got a huge break before it got its swings in the bottom of the ninth. Van Horn pulled Gaeckle after he allowed just one run in 52 pitches over three innings and replaced him with Gibler.

Gibler struck out Tigers’ pinch-hitter freshman John Peason for the first out. Freshman left fielder Derek Curiel singled and kept running to second base after a throwing error by Robinett.

After Frey walked, Milam hit a potential game-ending double play grounder to shortstop Aloy. Instead of throwing to second base to start the double play, Aloy threw to third base to force out Curiel.

Now needing only one out, Gibler served a 1-0 pitch that Hernandez lined into left field where Davalan momentarily misjudged ball direction. He then spun his wheels and slipped as the ball dipped down, bounced off his head and caromed in the left field corner. Frey and Milam scored to tie the game.

Then, when Jones’ single was barely tipped by second baseman and Omaha native Kozeal as Hernandez roared home with the winning run, Arkansas fans felt a familiar pain from the past.

The Razorbacks needed just one out to secure a 3-2 victory over Oregon State to win the 2018 national championship.

A trio of Arkansas defenders allowed a potential game-ending foul ball pop-up to fall between them. OSU then singled in the tying run, and immediately followed with a walk-off two-run homer to force a winner-take-all Game 3 won 5-0 by the Beavers.

This time as Davalan was consoled by his teammates – “We wouldn’t be here today without him,” Helfrick said – LSU and a giddy Johnson were  celebrating a CWS walk off win for the second time in the last three seasons that again moved the Tigers to the finals.

“I think about the walk-off wins we had at home (this season) against these guys, against Tennessee,” Johnson said. “And they (his team) just stay with it. The mental toughness is really like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

There’s an aura about the College World Series that makes it more fun to watch than a regular season Major League Baseball game. Why so? There are a few reasons.

The games feature the best teams in the sport. The eight teams that qualify deserve to be there. They all traverse some tough roads to get there, clinching the berth with a best-of-three Super Regional playoff against another high caliber team.

Each game is important. Even though it’s a double-elimination tournament, it’s important to win the first game. When LSU is in the CWS, it’s important to win the first game for the city of Omaha, as the Tigers did in fine fashion Saturday night against Arkansas, to ensure their fans stay there for a decent length of time and spend lots of money.

By winning the first game, you give yourself some breathing room in that you can absorb a loss and still have a path to the finals. And you can better manage the pitching staff and potentially rest key players. Also, although it’s not impossible to win after losing the first game, a team that wins the first game has better odds of winning the championship.

Each CWS game is a pressure cooker. it’s a close game, you may find yourself on the edge of your seat in each inning, especially the late innings. In the final inning, you can live or die with each at-bat, even each pitch.

That college teams are competing stirs the “old school spirit” for the college you attended or the university you liked as a kid. Or you might want to pull for a team simply because it is playing against a team you despise.

The folks behind the cameras at this event are top shelf. The broadcasters are usually good, too.

Someone who doesn’t care to watch the CWS recently told me all that matters is whether the team wins or loses and you can wait until the game is over to find out the answer. So why watch for hours?

That’s like asking, why sit in vigil with a sick patient? All that matters is whether he/she lives or dies. Or why spend days, weeks or longer reading  a book, when you can just get the CliffsNotes?

To appreciate going around the block, you cannot cut corners. Life is a journey. It’s about caring for one another over the long haul. The finish line – in life and in sports — is the reward for the sweat, the struggles, the pains. It is the prize for “keeping your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,” as Rudyard Kipling wrote in “If.”

There are exceptions for not watching an entire game. During those times when your team is losing and playing poorly, it helps to step out and take a break, take a deep breath, walk off the steam, fire up the weed eater. Do whatever it takes to maintain your sanity and avoid kicking the furniture or the cat.

I unreservedly made an exception last Saturday afternoon for a dear soul I know – a beautiful woman who is confined to her room in an assisted living center. She is confined to her bed, her comfortable chair or, to get around, her wheelchair. She is 100 years old and is scheduled to hit 101 late next month.

Note I wrote “hit 101,” because that’s what she’ll do – with fists clenched — if she makes it to that age. It’s not a goal. She asked me why God doesn’t take her “and let me ascend.” She’s ready. More than ready. And, as she admitted, “I’m tired.”

How do you answer that?

I said, “I understand God’s preparing a mansion for you, and He’s not finished with it yet.”

She smiled weakly, and I said, ”As long as you’re down here …” and gestured as if preparing a bear hug, and she asked, “Hold on?”

I nodded, and, thinking of something she might like to do, I told her she could watch the Tigers play in the College World Series that started that evening at 6 o’clock. She is a big LSU fan.

“I might watch the first part but not the whole game,” she said. “Heck, I’m already ready for bed. But the first thing in the morning, I’ll check to see the score.”

“Sounds good,” I said, giving her a hug before leaving her room.

When you’re 100 and tired, the game is not the thing. It’s the final score that counts.

Contact Bob at btompkins1225@gmail.com

By JAKE MARTIN, Written for the LSWA

Don’t ask Andrew Whitworth to catalogue binge-worthy Netflix series.

Chances are he hasn’t seen it. In order to contribute to the conversation, one would have to actually sit down to, you know, watch. And if you know anything about this year’s Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee, well, that ain’t happening.

“No, I don’t binge shows,” Whitworth said. “I love to be active. Right now, I just walked seven or eight miles hitting golf balls. I’m always outside. That’s my version of a great day. I wake up, get my coffee, hike a mountain, hit 6,000 golf balls and then go hang out at the beach with my kids. I don’t like to sit down.”

Makes sense when you think about it. Longevity in the NFL doesn’t accompany an All-Pro career by happenstance. Laziness isn’t exactly a common trait for 16-year NFL veterans either. 

The former West Monroe High School and LSU standout, who helped teams at all three levels win championships, headlines the LSHOF’s Class of 2025 being enshrined June 26-28 in Natchitoches. Event information is at LaSportsHall.com.

The never-idle Whitworth actively participated in sports growing up, like tennis, basketball, baseball, golf and powerlifting. Heck, he even threw the shot put in track and field. But each had its importance. Every sport taught the future Los Angeles Ram something that indirectly contributed to retiring as the oldest offensive lineman to win a Super Bowl. In some ways, Whitworth’s activity was his greatest gift.

“Play multiple sports,” said Whitworth with passion. “I grew to be 6’7” 330 pounds. I was going to be able to push people around with my God-given ability. But playing tennis and baseball and track and all those other things taught me a skill.

“Basketball, for example, helped me with my pass protection. What does playing defense look like in basketball? It’s like trying to slide protect. If you want to be a great blocker, you have to keep the defender between yourself and the quarterback. That’s just like in basketball, using your body to stay between them and the goal. A lot of things carry over.”

For a man who prides himself on being mobile, the irony isn’t lost on Whitworth that his most viral moment involved him sitting on the floor of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. His career peaked with the Rams’ Super Bowl LVI victory against (of all teams, the one he spent his first 11 NFL seasons with) the Cincinnati Bengals just days removed from Whitworth being named the 2021 Walter Payton Man of the Year. Talk about a whirlwind. Amongst all the confetti on the turf, the West Monroe native sat with his family and told his children that it was “Daddy’s last ballgame.”

“It will forever be special,” Whitworth said. “You’ll meet somebody, and you can tell they’re trying to explain to their wife who you are. Then they’ll say you probably saw him on the ground with his family at the Super Bowl. And that’s immediately when they recognize me. I don’t ever sit down and take a breath, and that was the moment for me to do it with my kids. It was one of the calmest moments of my career. I knew it was over.”

Perhaps the saddest person to see Whitworth go was his head coach Sean McVay, who didn’t mince words when it came to Whitworth’s importance to the franchise.

It was a master stroke to acquire a left tackle who finished his career with 250 NFL starts, meaning McVay was protecting quarterback Matthew Stafford’s blindside with an experienced All-Pro, sure. But it also provided leadership for a first-year head coach on the job.

“When we lost him, I thought I appreciated how valuable he was in terms of his leadership and giving me the ability to hear what I needed to hear and not what I wanted to,” McVay said. “I thought I valued it a whole lot, but since he retired, I realized what a unique human being he is. You can’t say enough good things about him. I can’t describe what he means to me. I think he has to go down as one of the greatest free agent signings of all time.”

A storybook ending for a career that featured multiple first-team All-Pro accolades (2015, 2017) and four Pro Bowl selections is quite the contrast to Whitworth’s rocky start. Put it this way — no confetti fell during Whitworth’s first live rep of middle school football at Ouachita Christian School. Not when he stood opposite of the coach’s daughter, Molly Harper, during his first practice. What happened next would be told time and again over the next three decades.

“I get in line and realize I’m going against a person with really long hair, and I’m like, ‘This is the ‘90s… There aren’t too many boys with long hair.’ Other players are like, ‘Hey dude, you better lock in,’” Whitworth remembered. “I’m thinking I don’t know how hard I want to hit her because she’s a girl, and she pancaked me and knocked me down.

“I remember thinking, ‘Maybe football isn’t for me,’ because I was a basketball kid at the time. I love to tell that story because if you have a totem pole of where you career is, near the bottom has to be what people think of when the coach’s daughter trucks you. But it’s not about that. I didn’t quit. I made a commitment to finish something, and I ended up falling in love with it.”

Redemption followed. Whitworth quickly ascended to one of the top prep players in Louisiana with the West Monroe Rebels and played a part in two national championship teams in 1998 and 2000, arguably the peak of that prestigious football program.

Before Whitworth completed the trifecta of winning a ring at every level, he was a valued member of an LSU football team that broke through and won the 2003 national championship.

“We were freaking rock stars,” Whitworth said. “Every single day, going back-and-forth to practice, we felt like we were a part of Guns N’ Roses or Aerosmith. Fans were outside our hotel. They were shaking and hitting the busses. Playing in New Orleans for the national championship when it’s been almost 50 years since you won it, that’s hard to replicate. Yeah, they’ve had talented teams since, but what that one meant, it was really special.”

Football remains a focal point of Whitworth’s life, even though it’s in a different capacity. His work now consists of breaking down the game in front of a camera, rather than taking on many hall of fame pass rushers he’s faced through the decades.

Evolution was a big part of Whitworth’s game, as he slimmed down and embraced flexibility exercises to counter the speedy pass rushers that flooded the league in the latter stages of his career. And here he is parlaying retirement to evolve once more.

Surprisingly, Whitworth admitted this new venture is a little more nerve-wracking too. Some might think he’s making a fashion statement with the hoodie under his suit on Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football telecast, but it actually has little to do with that. 

“When you get feedback from people who say they love seeing you on T.V., it makes you feel good because you just don’t know,” Whitworth said. “I’m not super confident in it. That’s why I wear my hoodie. It makes me feel comfortable to be myself. I’m just trying to be me.”

Traveling from one NFL city to the next as part of a broadcast crew is a fitting “retirement” for the Louisiana legend. Nope, you won’t catch Whitworth slowing down any time soon. For a man who is seemingly always on the move, it’s a lifestyle well earned.

Contact Jake at jakemartinsec@gmail.com

NATCHITOCHES — Longtime, legendary Northwestern State track and field coach Leon Johnson, who led the Demons and Lady Demons to national prominence and tutored a pair of USA Olympians before retiring in 2013, died Tuesday in Natchitoches after a brief illness.

Funeral arrangements will be announced soon for Johnson, 86, whose decades-long career at Northwestern made him a nationally recognized name in track and field. He is survived by his wife, Elaine, and his son, Dean, a former NSU assistant, another son, Kendon, and daughters Darla and Molly, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

“I’ve known Leon Johnson for many years, since he was coaching and teaching at Opelousas High School, and he has always been an exceptional person, mentor, educator, coach, neighbor, and family man,” Northwestern State President James T. Genovese said. “He brought out the best in people, not just his athletes. What he did in his coaching career in high school and then for 33 years at Northwestern is remarkable not only for the championships won, the records broken, but for the tremendously positive, nurturing influence he had on the young people around him along with his coaches and colleagues.

“As a coach and as a man, he made impact in the communities where he lived for generations of people whose lives are better because of him.”

The second-longest serving head coach in Northwestern State athletics history, Johnson’s impact on both the Demons program and the Southland Conference is indelible.

Johnson’s 31-year head coaching career at Northwestern ranks second in school history only to H. Lee Prather’s 36-year run as the Demons basketball coach. Like Prather, Johnson’s name resonates across campus.

Track and field fans enter the Walter Ledet Track Complex by walking or driving down Leon Johnson Lane. Northwestern’s annual track and field meet was renamed the Leon Johnson Invitational in 2011, making Johnson the exceedingly rare coach who led a team in a competition that bears his or her name.

A high school basketball coach in Colorado before moving to Louisiana and becoming a state champion high school track and field coach at Opelousas and DeRidder, Johnson took the reins of the Northwestern track and field program in 1982.

For the next 31 years, he presided over 57 All-Americans, nearly 100 NCAA championship qualifiers, including national champions and a pair of Olympian triple jumpers – LaMark Carter (2000 Sydney Games) and Kenta Bell (2004 Athens Games and 2008 Beijing Games).

He helped Brian Brown develop into one of the world’s best high jumpers in the early 1990s after he won the 1989 USA Outdoors and the 1990 NCAA Indoors, setting a meet record with a 7-8 clearance. Brown went on to earn his doctorate and is the deputy director of athletics for student-athlete development, integrated healthcare and inclusion at Missouri.

“All of us at Northwestern are saddened by the loss of Leon Johnson,” Director of Athletics Kevin Bostian said. “Coach Johnson’s impact on our track and field program is both tangible and intangible. His standout career helped cement the foundation for a tremendous stretch of competitive success that is reflected in the current state of our program – especially our women’s program that has captured five of the past six Southland championships. Coach Johnson earned the respect of so many of his contemporaries as evidenced by the Southland Conference’s Leon Johnson Coach of the Year Award. He was in a class by himself and we are grateful for all he poured into Northwestern State track and field, the university and our community.”

In 1986, Johnson was tasked with starting the Lady Demons track and field program. Under Johnson’s direction, and with his protégé and former competitor Mike Heimerman coaching her, Trecey Rew became Northwestern’s first female track and field national champion, capturing the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Discus championship.

Student-athletes like Carter, Bell and Rew – and a slew of other All-Americans — flourished under the tutelage of Johnson, a 1999 N-Club Hall of Fame inductee.

His Northwestern teams were fixtures near the top of the Southland Conference, capturing conference titles in 1993, 1999 and 2002 while finishing in the upper half of the conference standings each year from 1989-2005.

Johnson’s Northwestern squads collected top-20 team finishes in both the NCAA Division I Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

That extended run of success landed Johnson in the Southland Conference Hall of Honor in April 2017. Since 2014, the Southland presents the Leon Johnson Coach of the Year award to the top men’s track and field coach in the conference each season.

“Coach Johnson was one of the nation’s best mentors in his sport, and made a meaningful impact on his university, the league, and certainly the championship student-athletes he led in his program,” Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett said upon Johnson’s receipt of the Southland’s top individual honor.

Johnson’s impact stretched far beyond the track, throwing areas, and jump pits where he spent most of his career – especially as it pertained to the student-athletes he coached.

He was the driving force behind bringing the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s Cross Country State Championships to Natchitoches and keeping it here for more than 30 years, making it a staple of the city’s athletic calendar.

An active volunteer, Johnson gave his time to the Louisiana chapter of the Special Olympics, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society.

Following his retirement from coaching track and field, Johnson became a volunteer assistant and advisor to former Mike McConathy’s Northwestern State men’s basketball team, providing insight on flexibility and conditioning for student-athletes while also imparting his vision to McConathy and his staff.

JOURNAL SPORTS

For the second straight season, LSU Shreveport can boast a top 10 program nationally in the final Association of Collegiate Anglers Bass Pro Shops School of the Year standings.

The Pilots finished seventh in the final team standings, it’s second-best finish ever after coming in sixth this past season.

It’s a statement that says LSUS isn’t leaving the national stage anytime soon.

“That’s the norm now,” said LSUS Fishing coach Charles Thompson, who completed his sixth season at LSUS. “We should be Top 10 every year.

“If we do what we’re supposed to do, and that’s a mouthful that isn’t easy to do with 300-plus schools now, but that’s where we should finish.”

Three LSUS boats finished in the top 100 of the ACA Collegiate Bass Fishing Championships on Lake Hartwell (Ala.) this May led by the tandem of junior Ian Carter and sophomore Mason McCormick (No. 57). Juniors Levi Thibodaux and Miles Smith checked in at No. 69 with Triston Richardson and Johnny Hudson taking No. 84.

While LSUS may be accustomed to a boat chasing the top 10 or top 20 at a national event, the finish was strong enough to solidify the solid ranking.

Nine of the 10 anglers that qualified for the ACA nationals are returning to the program.

Mix that in with a robust incoming class of eight freshmen and one transfer, and LSUS is aiming to crack the top five in coming years.

“We had a pretty strong foundation with guys who got us to this point from my first class, and most of those guys will be gone with the exception of William Tew, who will be back for a fifth season,” Thompson said. “If we didn’t have those quality guys that set the foundation of how this program runs and what life as an LSUS angler is like, then we don’t score like we do now.

“We’ll see what we look like now that most of that first core class is gone, but the future is extremely bright.

Brother Martin, Tripp Bowman and Brayden Nichols were cornerstones of Thompson’s first full class, helping the program rise from a 73rd place finish in 2021 to 20th, 15th, sixth, and now seventh in the ACA standings. Now those guys will be part of the history pages with other members of that class like Luke Batts and Matthew Nesbit.

LSUS fishes at a disadvantage from other elite programs in terms of resources and roster size in a sport where numbers matter. Teams can travel as many boats as they can afford to put on the water, and programs earn points by the number of high finishes – more boats mean more chances.

National champion Montevallo (Ala.) fields a roster of around 70 anglers, and most elite teams have 25-30 anglers or more.

LSUS fielded a 15-angler roster this season with plans to expand to 20 with this incoming class.

“We’re trying to get closer to those competitive roster sizes,” Thompson said. “I think 20 will be a sweet spot for us as long as we can continue to bring in quality anglers.

“The ones coming in are accomplished guys. We’ve got the Angler of the Year in both Louisiana and Texas coming in and two of the top four from Arkansas. It’ll take some time to get adjusted, but the guys that are already here certainly aren’t going to lay down for these new guys either. They’ll have to fight upstream to get our spots on the water.”

Teams like Montevallo, No. 2 North Alabama and No. 3 Carson-Newman (Tenn.) are smack dab in the middle of the nation’s top fishing grounds, and big-name schools like No. 13 Auburn and No. 22 Tennessee are starting to pour more into the sport.

But LSUS, with its expanded roster and new Doc’s Boathouse, will make its cast to push even higher among the nation’s elite programs.

Why? What makes a normal law-abiding person do some incredibly stupid things when it comes to wildlife?

I can’t point a finger at anybody else until I confess a crime I committed as a pre-teen on a beautiful oriole. This handsome black and orange bird was singing its heart out from atop a big oak in my grandparent’s yard in north Natchitoches Parish when I raised my Daisy Red Ryder to my left shoulder – I shoot right-handed – didn’t even aim, and fired off a pellet. I was mortified when the oriole tumbled out and hit the ground dead at my feet.

Why did I do it? To this day seven decades later, I still don’t know. How was I able to put a pellet into the little bird so high in the tree from my left shoulder without aiming? Maybe it was allowed to happen to teach me a lesson; songbirds must never be shot even by 10-year-old boys with BB guns. It was a lesson that stuck because I never shot another songbird. That, however, didn’t bring the oriole back to life.

There are some people today who do stupid things when it relates to wildlife, and they’re not 10-year-olds.

I think of a good friend who lived outside Monroe, a dedicated hunter although he was confined to a wheelchair by a degenerative disease that later took his life. Jimmy had been granted approval to keep deer in a pen next to his house. One night, someone slipped up to the fence, shot his prized buck with an arrow, cut the fence and hauled the buck away, undoubtedly boasting to his friends about the fine buck he had taken. Why? How in Heaven’s name could he brag about bagging a big buck when he knew in his heart the dastardly circumstances under which the deer was slain?

The shooter was later arrested and had to make restitution for his act. That was little solace, however, for Jimmy and his pet buck.

Retired NBA great Karl Malone, a Ruston resident, had something similar happen to him. On his big buck sanctuary in Union Parish, he has deer with superior blood lines, capable of producing Boone and Crockett antlers. Someone shot one of his prized bucks, cutting the fence and making off with the deer. He, too, was caught and had to make restitution. Again … why?

If you have read many of my articles, you know of my love for hunting wild turkeys. I was literally thrilled to my soul one morning when driving by a woodlot a mile from my house, I saw something that caused me to stop and back up for a closer look. At the back of the woodlot on private property with “No Hunting” signs, a gobbler in full strut was displaying for two hens. Right here close to my house … I couldn’t believe it. Two granddaughters came for a visit a few days later and I was able to show them the gobbler and hens as they were on display just about every morning.

As much as I enjoyed watching the turkeys, a gnawing feeling began creeping in because the turkeys were so visible. Folks would stop and watch the turkeys that were undisturbed by vehicle traffic. I hoped that nobody with the stupidity of a 10-year-old boy with a BB gun would do as I had done years ago. My fears escalated when the gobbler suddenly disappeared. He had been there every day for a week or more and abruptly vanished.

I was talking with a neighbor later who mentioned that during the time the turkeys were so visible, he heard a gunshot one morning. After the shot, the turkeys simply vanished not to be seen again. I don’t know what happened but I can hazard a guess. Some opportunistic person with the stupidity of a 10-year-old with a BB gun probably saw the gobbler, rolled down his window, shot and made off with his prize.

We have plenty of wild game to be hunted during legal hunting seasons so the question as to why some people resort to cheating begs for an answer……why?

Contact Glynn at glynnharris37@gmail.com

It’s about to get hot up in here, and heat means tempers might flare faster than normal. Even the food can get testy.

Please be advised…

Our friend was walking across the grocery store’s parking lot during the heat of Louisiana’s summertime when she saw a woman’s head slumped onto the steering wheel of a modest automobile.

“It looked like she was resting, waiting on someone,” our friend said. No big deal.

So she continued inside. Did her shopping. Would have taken her about 45 minutes but instead it took her an hour because she couldn’t find the squeeze cheese. It’s always something.

As she headed for her car, she saw the same woman she’d seen when she’d walked inside, still slumped over the steering wheel of the car. It was more than 100 degrees outside most every day that week; who knows how hit it was inside a car parked for more than an hour on a paved parking lot.

The shopper left her cart of groceries by her car and hurried back inside the store, found the manager, and the pair approached the car containing the slumped, unmoving woman.

The manager tapped the window. The woman inside didn’t move, but the manager did hear a voice from inside the car. And this is what it said, muffled:

“I’ve been shot!”

The voice came from the slumped woman.

The manager grabbed the door and pulled it open. Carefully, he touched the woman’s shoulder. She opened her eyes. No blood.

“My neck!” she said. “They got me in my neck!”

The store manager looked at her neck. And that’s where he found it, hugging hard on the back of her head.

A canned biscuit.

You know it’s hot outside when even the biscuits are getting angry and firing themselves, kamikaze-like, at consumers.

What happened was the biscuit had shot out of the hit-on-the-side-to-open can and struck the woman in the neck. Everyone was relieved that no one had been injured and that the lady had bought small canned biscuits and not the extra-large kind or, have mercy, a French bread, which could have been fatal.

The way the story was told to me, cooler heads prevailed and everyone then went their separate ways. But tell me, how could any of their lives ever be the same?

They’ve learned what some of us already knew: there are some conniving, dishonest, really mean foods out there. A woman once told me she was shopping in a Springhill grocery and dropped a frozen turkey on her foot.

“Near ’bout broke my toe,” she told me, teary eyed at the memory of a turkey who, despite being a corpse, AND frozen, nearly ruined a family Thanksgiving.

I know this one guy who was trying to open a can of Butternuts as he left a County Market, and he almost walked right into a moving car.

Very sneaky and stealthy, those Butternuts. Crafty.

Another friend was driving his car while reaching across the seat into a bucket of fried chicken, digging around for an easy-to-eat leg or thigh, and he crashed his car into a tree. He survived but the car was totaled, as was most of the chicken which — and I guess this was a blessing in disguise — was dead anyway.

Do you see a pattern here? There are some killer foods on the loose, and they don’t care who they hurt or how they do it.

It’s time to fight back. I hope the woman who thought she’d been shot took the offending biscuit home, cooked it right then, and left it on a saucer on the stove, uncovered, to die a slow and stale death.

Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu

The Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University will present the program “A Life of Zydeco: A Musical Informance with Chubby Carrier” on June 21 at 1pm at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum at 800 Front Street in Natchitoches. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Shane Rasmussen, professor of English and director of the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern, will interview Carrier about the cultural significance of zydeco in Louisiana. Their discussion will include songs performed by Carrier on his accordion. Carrier will headline the 45th annual Natchitoches-NSU Louisiana Folklife Festival on July 19 in air-conditioned Prather Coliseum on the NSU campus.

A third-generation zydeco musician, Carrier began his music career in Louisiana dance halls playing accordion and drums in his father’s zydeco band from the age of 12. Carrier played drums with Terrance Simien from 1986 to 1989, and then formed his own band, Chubby Carrier and the Zydeco Swamp Band. The band has released a total of 11 albums since 1989. Carrier has performed at the Chicago Blues Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Utrecht Blues Festival in Amsterdam, and has played with Santana, B.B. King, Travis Tritt and Buddy Guy. Carrier’s most recent album, “Zydeco Junkie,” was the 2010 Grammy winner for best zydeco or Cajun album.

Carrier was among the musicians recently featured on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” in a segment on Cajun and zydeco music.

The event is sponsored by the Louisiana Folklife Center. Support for the Festival is provided by grants from the Cane River National Heritage Area, Inc., the City of Natchitoches, Cleco, the Louisiana Division of the Arts Decentralized Arts Fund Program, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana Office of Tourism, the Natchitoches Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council and the State of Louisiana.

The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

For more information, call the Louisiana Folklife Center at 318-357-4332, email folklife@nsula.edu, or go to nsula.edu/folklife.

By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

OMAHA, Neb. – It was the type of baseball game LSU head coach Jay Johnson loves when his team follows his preferred victory recipe.

Scoring a steady stream of runs powered by clutch hitting, combined with shutdown pitching and flawless fielding.

In a resumption of a College World Series winners bracket game that started and stopped Monday night because of a weather delay, the Tigers scored in five of eight innings with reliever Casan Evans delivering four flawless innings as LSU’s re-start starter in a 9-5 victory here Tuesday afternoon over UCLA before a Charles Schwab Field crowd of 24,623.

“That’s what this tournament is at times,” Johnson said the adjustment to restarting the game 14 hours and 43 minutes after it was stopped. “Had delays here, night games that ended up being day games the next day. I’m just really proud of the way the team handled that.”

LSU (50-15), which reached the 50th win mark for the 15th time (all in the last 40 years), now needs one victory to advance to the best two-of-three championship series starting Saturday.

Arkansas (50-14), which lost 4-1 to LSU in Saturday’s CWS opener, eliminated UCLA 7-3 on Tuesday night to earn a rematch with the Tigers in tonight’s 6 p.m. semifinals. Arkansas has to beat LSU twice (if a Thursday game is required) to advance to the finals vs. either Coastal Carolina or Louisville.

LSU’s bats, which produced five hits in taking a 5-3 lead over the Bruins in the first three innings before Monday’s delay leading to the postponement, scored five two-out runs in Tuesday’s restart.

Except for designated hitter Ethan Frey, Johnson re-shuffled his entire batting order used in Saturday’s win over Arkansas.

LSU struck out 16 times vs. the Razorbacks with its first four hitters in the lineup going 2 for 17 (.118) with 10 strikeouts and one RBI and one run, and its last five in the back half of the order going 4 of 16 (.250) with three RBI and three runs.

Freshman left fielder Derek Curiel, who entered the UCLA game hitting a team-best .458 in the NCAA tournament, was moved from his Saturday 6-hole spot to leadoff hitter vs. the Bruins. First baseman Jared Jones, who struck out five times against the Razorbacks when he batted third, was moved to fifth.

The result was 12 LSU hits off eight UCLA pitchers. The Tigers’ first four in the batting order were 7 for 15 (.467) with three RBI and seven runs, and the last five (plus two pinch hitters) were 5 of 21 (.238) with six RBI and two runs.

“Offensively, we just wanted to start the game on the right note,” said Jones, who slammed a three-run homer to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead in the first inning Monday and capped LSU’s scoring on Tuesday with an eighth-inning RBI single. “We talk about winning every inning. We got off to a good start, took quality at-bats all game long. And it led to a lot of success and a lot of runs on the board.”

The Tigers eventually scored four runs on the five walks they drew. LSU’s plate discipline ran UCLA’s pitch total to 186, a good sign since the Tigers are now 21-0 this season when opposing teams throw 180 or more pitches. LSU drew eight three-ball counts, including six full counts.

“At this level, it’s hard to get three outs in any inning,” UCLA head John Savage said. “But they’re (LSU) just a little bit higher level. We didn’t make enough pitches, and they’re a really good team. And that’s a bad combo sometimes, right? At the end of the day, they had a really good approach.”

On Monday night, LSU starting pitcher Anthony Eyanson gave up three runs in the first inning to the Bruins. Then, he found his rhythm and retired UCLA’s next six of seven batters before a weather delay stopped the game after the first 92 minutes.

Evans, a fabulous freshman, picked up where Eyanson left off. He threw 4.1 innings, struck out five, walked none, didn’t allow a runner past second base, and was credited for giving up two runs in the eighth when Tigers’ freshman reliever Cooper Williams allowed two UCLA runners that Evans left on base to score.

“Coach Johnson had told me that once we got out of the delay (on Monday night), that I would be on the mound, and then it got rolled over to today,” Evans said. “The mindset stays the same no matter when I come into the game, if I start or if I close. I was just going out there and doing my best to help my team win.”

UCLA freshman reliever Wylan Moss, the Bruins’ pitching choice to open the restart, lasted six batters in the bottom of the fourth before he was replaced by Cal Randall after LSU scored two runs for a 7-3 advantage.

Following two LSU groundouts, Moss gave up a single to Curiel, walked Frey, and was tagged for back-to-back RBI singles by shortstop Steven Milam and right fielder Jake Brown.

In the bottom of the seventh, Tigers’ second baseman Daniel Dickinson then delivered a two-out bloop RBI single to shallow right field that scored Jones (who had walked) for an 8-3 cushion.

The Tigers’ relaxed state of mind changed to a red alert in the top of the eighth when Evans departed after giving up a one-out walk and hitting a batter.

Williams entered, faced four batters, and bookended a pair of walks with a fielder’s choice RBI grounder by center fielder Peyton Brennan and a two-out RBI single to designated hitter Blake Balsz.

After Williams walked catcher Cashel Dugger to load the bases, Tigers’ reliever Chase Shores entered and immediately induced a first-pitch force-out ground ball to Milam to kill the rally to preserve an 8-5 lead. 

LSU got a run back in the bottom of the eighth when UCLA used its sixth and seventh relievers of the game. Jones’ two-out RBI single pushed the lead to four runs.

Shores retired UCLA in the bottom of the ninth on three straight ground balls to Dickinson to end the game.

Johnson, who became the first LSU baseball coach to record 50 wins twice in his first four seasons, has advanced to the CWS finals twice, but both were through the losers’ bracket. His 2016 Arizona squad lost in the finals to Coastal Carolina two games to one, but his 2023 Tigers beat Florida two games to one to win LSU’s seventh national championship.,

The Tigers have won the national title six of seven times when starting 2-0 in the CWS.

“I think never look too far down the road in this tournament,” Johnson said. “You can get yourself in trouble with that.”

Up next:

No. 6 national seed LSU (50-15) vs. No. 3 national seed Arkansas (50-14), Charles Schwab Field, CWS semifinals, Omaha, tonight, 6 p.m. (ESPN)

2025 NCAA tourney roadmaps

LSU

Baton Rouge Regional: Beat Arkansas-Little Rock 7-0, beat Dallas Baptist 12-0, lost to Arkansas-Rock 10-4, beat Arkansas-Little Rock 10-6. Baton Rouge Super Regional: Beat West Virginia 16-9 and 12-5. College World Series: Beat Arkansas 4-1, beat UCLA 9-5.

Arkansas

Fayetteville Regional: Beat North Dakota State 6-2, beat Creighton 12-1 and 8-3. Fayetteville Super Regional: Beat Tennessee 4-3 and 11-4. College World Series: Lost 4-1 to LSU, beat Murray State 3-0, beat UCLA 7-3.

CWS stats

LSU CWS stats (2 games)

Batting

Overall average: 260 (18 of 69), 13 runs, 24 runners left on base.

Pitching

3.00 ERA in 18 innings by five pitchers, 16 strikeouts, 4 walks, 13 hits allowed, 173 strikes in 267 pitches (64.8 percent).

Fielding

No errors, three double plays

Arkansas CWS stats (3 games)

Batting

Overall average: .229 (24 for 105), 11 runs, 12 runners left on base.

Pitching

2.33 ERA in 27 innings by seven pitchers, 43 strikeouts, 4 walks, 12 hits allowed, 288 strikes in 436 pitches (66 percent).

Fielding

One error, one double play

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

By RON HIGGINS, Written for the LSWA

When Nick Saban arrived by private plane in Tuscaloosa in early January 2007 after agreeing to become Alabama’s head football coach, he was mobbed by adoring fans.

But when he appeared in Baton Rouge in late November 1999 at his introductory press conference announcing him as LSU’s coach, the reception was “Who’s Nick Saban and why is LSU paying him $1.2 million a year?”

“I couldn’t believe the response and the attitude people had toward me,” Saban said.

“I was shocked. I was thinking, ‘Maybe I ought to go back where I came from.’”

Thankfully for LSU, he didn’t, and now he’ll be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame – at last. The Class of 2025 Induction Celebration in Natchitoches is June 26-28, with information available at LaSportsHall.com.

Saban was initially elected to the LSHOF’s Class of 2020, but that spring’s global pandemic postponed ceremonies. It also altered the NCAA football recruiting calendar, which prevented then-Alabama head coach Saban from being inducted until after his retirement in January 2024.

“It’s an honor I’m really excited about,” Saban said of his upcoming induction. “I never thought I’d be considered. I know there’s a lot of great sports folks in Louisiana.”

All Saban did in five seasons from 2000-04 was save the Tigers’ program with a national championship, two SEC titles, and a 48-16 record (.750) before chasing an NFL dream as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

He came to Baton Rouge at a time when LSU was thirsting for success, stability, and a coach with a vision, including the elements required to build and sustain a national power.

After LSU had just two head football coaches (Paul Dietzel and Charles McClendon) in 25 years from 1955-1979, the Tigers had six coaches in 20 seasons from 1980-1999.

In that period, LSU won SEC championships in 1986 and 1988, but after the ’88 title, the Tigers had eight losing seasons in 11 years.

When LSU fired Gerry DiNardo with one game left in 1999, it already had a list of coaching candidates it wanted to pursue.

But Saban wasn’t originally on it. Saban didn’t know about the situation until he did some research.

“One of the things that piqued my interest was that when I was in the NFL, somebody did a study, probably (Bill) Belichick because he was notorious for this kind of detail,” Saban said. “The study revealed per capita which state had the most players from its colleges playing in the NFL. Louisiana was always ranked third or fourth. I always remembered that.”

It wasn’t long in Baton Rouge and especially at LSU that Saban became a force of nature.

For instance, LSU had one of the worst graduation rates in the SEC when he arrived, so his priority was obtaining a new academic center for athletes. He was told it would take two to three years for LSU to procure the money from the state legislature for such a project.”

“I told (then-new LSU athletic director) Skip (Bertman) `Let’s go raise the money,”’ Saban recalled. “Then, we were told `You’ve only got to raise $8 million for the academic center, but we want to redo this other thing here and make a big auditorium because we don’t have a big auditorium at the university, and that’s going to cost another $7 million.’

“I told Skip, `Let’s just raise $15 million and build the damn thing.’ And we raised it about three months. I kind of tricked them, though. I gave about $50,000 to start it off, so everybody I asked almost had to do that.”

Saban also noticed there wasn’t much revenue available for capital improvements. He suggested LSU finally start seat licensing, but met stern resistance.

“I was told we had loyal fans that had the same seats for years and years,” Saban said. I said, `Look, a lot of schools have done this.’  They said, `If you don’t win, we’ll get crucified for doing that.’ I said, `Put it on me then because if we don’t do it, we’re never going to have the kind of program we’re going to need to compete with all these other people.’”

Saban immediately upheld his end of the bargain.

Saban never won fewer than eight games in all of his LSU seasons. He had three bowl wins, including the BCS national title game victory in the Sugar Bowl over Oklahoma. His SEC championship game victories came against Tennessee and Georgia.

After a pair of superb recruiting classes, in 2003 Saban’s 13-1 Tigers delivered the school’s first national championship since 1958 by beating Oklahoma 21-14.

“The 2003 team had so much character that it didn’t need a leader. They thought they would win the championship long before I did.”

At the end of the 2004 season, given a $5 million per year contract and assured he’d have control of player personnel decisions, Saban became head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

But Saban and the NFL was not a good fit. He had a 15-17 record in two seasons with the Dolphins, and began looking at college vacancies.

“The best job that was available was Alabama, which happened to be a rival to the place (LSU) in which I had a tremendous amount of pride in terms of what we were able to accomplish, what we were able to do and a lot of the relationships we made,” Saban said.

Because of that, Saban became public enemy No. 1 to a segment of LSU fans who forgot how he rescued the Tigers’ program from the garbage heap.

It didn’t help Saban’s relationship with the Tigers’ faithful that he won six national titles with the Crimson Tide in 17 seasons and had a 13-5 record vs. LSU.

Upon his retirement, he joined ESPN’s College GameDay before the start of the 2024 season. He’s also had time to reflect on his career move from LSU with a tinge of regret.

“You live and learn, do things, and you find out about yourself,” Saban said. “LSU has a great atmosphere, the people are so supportive, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for that program. It’s one of the greatest places athletically in the country right now. 

“Terry and I still have as many good relationships in Louisiana as any place in the world, great friends and good people. We cherish those relationships.”

It’s why Saban is genuinely touched to become the fourth LSU head football coach in the LSHOF.

“I’m very grateful to many people who contributed to the success we had when we were at LSU,” Saban said. “We had a lot of really good players and people.”

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

JOURNAL SPORTS

Sam Burns and Philip Barbaree Jr. weren’t the only local golf standouts making waves last weekend.

While they drew national headlines at the U.S. Open, Loyola alumnus Jack Smith was a dramatic winner in Endless Summer, the world’s biggest long drive event, at Trillium Wood Golf Club in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.

Saturday’s men’s and women’s finals took place under the lights, with packed stands roaring after every drive.

In the men’s final, Smith, a 2018 Loyola graduate, stunned the field with a 421-yard rocket to defeat 2024 champion Scottie Pearman and take home the Endless Summer crown.

In the women’s division, Canadian Kelly Rudney launched a 347-yard bomb to defeat crowd-favorite Cassandra Meyer and capture her first Endless Summer title.

Nearly 1,500 fans from across Canada and the U.S. packed the venue over two days.

The event kicked off Friday night with the first-ever Military Hitters Showdown, held in partnership with 8 Wing/CFB Trenton. Fans were treated to a dramatic Hercules flypast, a thrilling Skyhawks parachute demonstration, and the main event: Team Canada vs. Team USA.

Smith has won World Long Drive Tour titles in each of the past two years.