LSU National Champions

By Jorge Bannister
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

For those of you who missed it, the College World Series concluded last night.

The LSU Tigers defeated the Texas Longhorns, 11-4, for the Tigers’ sixth baseball national title.

The Tigers — who I had ranked No. 1 in the country heading into the postseason, and will (obviously) keep the ranking after the title — scored 51 runs in six games, showing their power bats, while their pitching staff only allowed 26 runs.

Pure national champs, indeed.

Jared Mitchell, who hit a three-run homer in the first inning, won the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Mitchell, drafted by the Chicago White Sox in Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft earlier this month, was a member of the 2007 football team which won the BCS Championship.

Somehow, Larry Templeton, the head of the NCAA Division 1 Baseball Committee and Mississippi State’s athletic director, seemed to have gotten the national seeds right — I don’t think anyone can argue a 1-3 matchup in the finals.

CWS Recaps
In Game 1, the Longhorns had a 6-4 lead heading into the top of the ninth before Taylor Jungmann blew the save and LSU went on to win, 7-6, in 11 innings.

Jungmann shrugged everything off for Game 2, though, as the freshman tossed a complete-game in Game 2, allowing an unearned run on five hits.

Trailing, 4-2, early in Game 3, Texas’ Kevin Keyes hit a two-run homer on the fourth pitch of the fifth inning for LSU’s Anthony Ranaudo (win; 5-1/3 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 4 Ks). Without missing a beat, however, the Tigers answered with five runs in the top of the sixth before adding a run in the eighth and ninth innings.