They were the No. 1 team in the nation when the season began, and they are now the No. 1 team in the nation at the end.
LSU won its six national championship in school history on Wednesday night, with an 11-4 win over the Texas Longhorns.
Tigers starter Anthony Ranaudo wasn't his sharpest in his fifth postseason start but he was effective enough in his 5.1 innings of work. He allowed four runs on eight hits while striking out four and walking five to win his 12th game of the season.
Coming off a disappointing loss on Tuesday night in which they only scored one run, CWS Most Outstanding Player Jared Mitchell made sure that wouldn't be the case tonight, when he launched a three-run home run just inside the rightfield foul pole in the top of the first to get the Tigers off and running, and get what had been such hot bats back on track.
And when Texas tied the game on a Kevin Keyes two-run home run in the fifth inning, it felt like this one could be the classic that everyone thought it might be.
But it was a freshman that helped the Tigers put this game away in the top of the sixth, when Mikie Mahtook lined an RBI double into the rightcenter field gap to give the Tigers a 5-4 lead, in an inning in which they put five on the board.
The celebration was on.
The mardis gras beads were flying, and the thousands of LSU fans that made the trip from Cajun Country began dancing in their seats.
LSU head coach Paul Mainieri wins his first national title, tying his legendary father in that category, which is something that Mainieri thought about often during this season. And something that creeped into his mind not only last night when he thought about this game, but also when the game was well in hand in the late innings.
Nothing means more to him than to win this title for his parents. And that's as genuine of a comment as you'll hear from any coach in sports.
And when it was time for Mainieri to fill out his lineup card this afternoon, he made a slight change. Not only was Sean Ochinko in the lineup at first base, he was hitting in the cleanup spot. He promised coach at lunch that he wouldn't disappoint him.
He most certainly didn't.
Ochinko finished the night with four hits and three RBI, helping lead an LSU attack that finished with 12 hits. A Tiger attack that rebounded from their first off night in over a month.
On the other side, Texas will long remember leaving way too many men on base. A problem that plagued them this entire CWS. The power was turned on, but the numbers with runners in scoring position were dreadful.
The 'Horns just ran into a buzzsaw.
Texas starter Cole Green lasted only two innings, allowing five hits and four runs while striking out only one. Brandon Workman came out of the bullpen and got charged with the loss--a tough one at that when he only allowed one earned run in three innings.
It's fitting that LSU's top two starters were apart of winning the national championship game. Anthony Ranaudo started it, and senior Louis Coleman finished things off with two innings of nearly perfect baseball.
LSU is back on top of the college baseball world. Skip Bertman and Les Miles were just a couple of the names that were in town from Baton Rouge. And that's fitting too.
Bertman hired Mainieri three years ago with the dream that he could leave Notre Dame and turn the Tigers program back into what Bertman remembered it being.
And then there's Miles. He needs to get a congratulations as well, mainly for allowing a couple of football players to concentrate on baseball this spring. Wide receiver Jared Mitchell was the best player at this World Series, the media voted. And starting safety Chad Jones was filthy out of the bullpen.
That's a university coming together to win a national championship.
That's a team effort.
One just has the feeling that it won't be the last time we see coach Mainieri hoisting a national championship trophy in Omaha. After all, the Tigers are back.
