College World Series: Travis' shot that almost changed the game

OMAHA, Neb. -- Five or so feet higher, and they might still be playing.

Sam Travis’ drive to left-center was easily the hardest-hit ball of the game, and yet even a ball hit that well and that deep didn’t leave the yard.

With one out in the bottom of the ninth and IU trailing by two runs, Travis creamed a ball off Mississippi State’s Chad Girodo that hit at least halfway up the eight-foot wall in left-center.

The hit resulted in a double, but Travis would be left on base as the tying run in IU’s 5-4 loss to Mississippi State Monday at TD Ameritrade Park.

“I hit it pretty hard,” he said. “I hit it too much on a line for it to go out, I knew that right away, so I was just running as fast as I could. I was gonna try to get three, but there was someone in front of me.”

That “someone” was sophomore outfielder Chris Sujka, who led off the inning with a soft single to right.

Sujka looked destined to score as the ball found a jet stream in the alley before Bulldogs’ center fielder C.T. Bradford got to it quickly and hit the relay man with just as much urgency.

Unfortunately for Sujka and the Hoosiers, the ball caromed right to Bradford.

“I definitely for sure didn’t think Sam’s was gone,” Sujka said,  “so I was taking off as soon as I saw it I saw it hit four feet up the wall, and unfortunately it bounced right to the center fielder.

“I was rounding third hard and Skip said hold up, and I was kind of surprised when he did that. I didn’t think that ball would bounce like that back to him.”

Sophomore designated hitter Scott Donley was on deck and had a field-level view of Travis’ shot as well. He said he didn’t think the ball was a home run off the bat, either.

“I just saw him hit it and put a real good piece on it, and I thought it was going to be a double but then it kept carrying,” Donley said. “It was more of a line drive. He smoked that ball.”

Donley drove in Sujka with a groundout to second before senior shortstop Michael Basil ended the game on a weak grounder back to the mound.

It was the home run that wasn’t, the almost shot, the close-but-no-cigar drive.

The Hoosiers (49-15) might feel the same way about their offensive production against the Bulldogs. IU left 10 men on base, including seven in scoring position while striking out 14 times.

Had Travis’ rope cleared the fence, it might have relaxed IU’s hitters, who also struggled against Louisville on Saturday, when they left 10 men on base and struck out 13 times.

Had Travis’ laser cleared the fence, IU might not be playing the rest of its games in Omaha on the brink of elimination.

Instead, a blast to left by LSU’s Mason Katz stands as the only home run through six College World Series games at spacious, pitcher-friendly TD Ameritrade Park.

Field dimensions aside, Travis recognizes that IU’s bats will have to come around for IU to keep its season alive.

“We haven’t really connected on any balls that should have been going out of the park,” he said. “So we just got to swing at better pitches is what we gotta start doing, and eliminate the strike outs.”