Dubois: Tigers in hole again

• By CARL DUBOIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jun 20, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:20 a.m.

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OMAHA, Neb. — Paul Mainieri began with a joke.

Mainieri said North Carolina coach Mike Fox agreed to give LSU a mulligan and restart the game tonight from the beginning, with a 0-0 score.

After chuckles subsided, Mainieri acknowledged the Tigers will have a serious challenge when play resumes where it left off Thursday night: with North Carolina up 2-0 and on the verge of blowing it open

in the top of the first inning.

“It was a rough start for us, obviously, and it’ll be a long night sleeping knowing that the bases are loaded and there’s one out and we’re already in a 2-0 hole,” Mainieri said.

The Tigers fell into that hole when Blake Martin lacked command of his pitches.

He gave up a single, a one-out double, hit two consecutive batters and walked the next one.

He threw a strike to Garrett Gore before lightning halted play and rain extended the delay past the three-hour mark.

Mainieri said Martin was going to come out of the game — Nolan Cain was throwing in the bullpen — so someone asked if the weather was a Godsend.

“It doesn’t matter,” Mainieri said. “We’re going to sleep on it all night and still have the bases loaded tomorrow at 6 o’clock. They’ll still have the bases loaded with one out.

“There’s nothing God-sent about that,” Mainieri said, laughing. “If Mike would agree to hit into a double play to start off the game (today), I think that would be awfully kind of him.”

Fox joked that he’d be willing to consider it if LSU agreed not to score more than eight runs.

There’s a lot of baseball left to be played — 26 more outs for North Carolina’s batters to work with, and at least 24 outs for LSU’s batters — but you’ve got to like the position the Tar Heels are in.