Slammed

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jun 21, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Or maybe more accurately, the magic found a place in someone else’s dugout in the ninth inning instead of with the Tigers.

The 2008 season screeched to a halt for LSU on Friday night at Rosenblatt Stadium and it took a Tigers-like effort to turn the feat.

North Carolina cleanup hitter Tim Federowicz blasted a two-out grand slam in the top of the ninth inning to snap a 3-3 tie and propel the Tar Heels past LSU 7-3 in a weather-plagued elimination game at the College World Series.

The slam — the only one allowed by the Tigers all season — came after LSU was unable to push across a run with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the eighth.

Unlike a stirring come-from-behind triumph against Rice three days earlier, the Tigers couldn’t conjure up any magic in the bottom of the ninth as the season ended with a 6-4-3 double play off the bat off Michael Hollander, the only senior starter in LSU’s starting offensive lineup.

“I guess you can say we ran out of miracles,” Tigers coach Paul Mainieri said after a grand slam ended LSU’s season at the College World Series for the first time since Stanford’s Paul Carey did so in the bottom of the ninth versus the Tigers in 1987.

LSU’s season ended at 49-19-1, but only after a series of rallies and comebacks turned the year around.

The Tigers won 26 of their final 29 games, claimed the Southeastern Conference West Division and league tournament championships, breezed through a regional and then stormed back from the dead to clobber UC Irvine in the decisive third game of a super regional — the last game at Alex Box Stadium.

All of those accomplishments will soak in eventually for a team that in late April seemed headed nowhere, but the reality of a season suddenly over was the raw emotion Friday.

“My most overwhelming emotion is that I hurt very badly for my kids,” Mainieri said. “They left it all out on the field and just came up short. … Right now it hurts because these kids really competed.”

As did Carolina (53-13), which will play Fresno State at 6 p.m. today in the semifinal round.

The Bulldogs (44-29) won their first two games here, meaning the Tar Heels must win today and again Sunday to advance to the best-of-three championship series against either Georgia or Stanford.