The World Series between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies brought up some major player match-ups. One of these was between the Astros' Alex Bregman and the Phillies' Aaron Nola. Interestingly, as fans found out, both these impressive talents were teammates at Louisiana State University and played for the Tigers. Even more than just teammates, they shared a room together.
"He was a good roommate, he really was. Always high energy. When you were just chilling, he'd always put the music up on high, just a kind of guy like that." -Aaron via chron.com,2018
Both players shared the LSU Tiger's jersey in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Before going to college, both Nola and Bregman had different career paths. Nola is a hometown boy from Baton Rouge who found a lot of comfort in representing LSU, with the coaches having already noticed him during practice. While Alex Bregman is from Albuquerque, New Meixco, and has experience with the US National Team, but was an outsider at LSU.
In 2013, the Tigers had a wonderful season. They were 57-9 at the start of the College World Series and looked on track to win the trophy. Nola was pitching with the game tied and almost on the verge of completing the inning before a mistake by Bregman allowed an unearned run to be scored by the opposition. The Tigers lost, 2-1.
Alex Bregman and Aaron Nola: 'The odd couple'
Alex Bregman and Aaron Nola were completely different. They were called the 'odd couple' for their alternate personalities, with Nola being the quieter, calmer one and Bregman the more flamboyant and always excited one.
Bregman was so over-energetic that he wanted to hit whenever he got a chance. Although Nola was different in this regard, he did share the same work ethic as Bregman. Keeping their differences, the shared commonality was their hunger to grow and achieve more. Quite simply, both of them represented the elite at LSU.
Quite expectedly, both the LSU graduates were in the top 10 picks in their MLB Drafts. Aaron Nola was the seventh overall pick by the Phillies in the 2014 Draft and Alex Bregman was picked by the Astros as the second overall pick the following year. Since then, they have shared three All-Star appearances and a competitive World Series match-up between them.