East Shreveport Little Leaguer starts for LSU tonight; Daddy, Wiley still on DL

LSU BASEBALL NEWS
Best wishes tonight to Austin Ross and his LSU baseball teammates. Austin is scheduled to be the starting pitcher in a few hours for the Tigers in Game 2 of the best-of-three series against Texas for the College World Series title. LSU won in extra innings last night, 7-6.

Austin was a fun player and a good player at Shreveport Little League. He was at various times a Brave, a Phillie and a Rockie. He was the starting pitcher for the Braves when they beat our team 13-8 for the 9-year-old Minor League title; Casey Allen of the Orioles was the losing pitcher and starter for us, and we'd have won if I'd have coached six runs better and if Austin would have pulled a hamstring. I remember we'd beaten them in a one-run game about 10 days before on an Africa-hot Saturday early afternoon. We were no match for them in the finals. The next year Ross and a bunch of those same Braves beat us -- we were the Cubs, SUCH a fun team -- in a best 2-of-3 series for the American League, 10-year-old title. Dang! They were the better team. That was a lot, lot of fun.......

Hope Austin gets to celebrate tonight. He was always very together on the mound, very natural out there, even as a little boy, quiet and purposeful on the hill. Very respectful of his teammates and coaches and opponents.

HEART NEWS
In other news, Wiley Hilburn and my dad, both heart surgery patients two weeks ago, continue to recover, but neither will see action in tonight's CWS game.

Wiley is at home in Choudrant and has been for more than a week now, reading WWII books: "You can never get too much Mussolini!," he's fond of saying.

Daddy has a private room in the hospital in Atlanta, Ga., but got an infection today. Some sort of "white blood count" issue. He won't go home tomorrow as planned, not until that gets straightened out. So please continue to root for him; he's been in the hospital for nine days now; that's no fun.

Thank you...