OMAHA, Neb. — Senior Brad Cresse hit an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth break up a tie game and give LSU its fifth National Championship ring, 6-5, over the Stanford Cardinal Saturday afternoon in front of 24,282 in Rosenblatt Stadium in Ohama.
Four Tiger seniors — Cresse, Trey Hodges, Blair Barbier and Jeremy Witten — were the heroes of this miraculous comeback against Stanford ace Justin Wayne. Senior reliever Trey Hodges (5-2), the College World Series Most Valuable Player, put forth the pitching performance of his career and earned his second CWS victory to go along with a save. He pitched four scoreless innings while allowing only two hits and striking out four.
Seniors Blair Barbier and Jeremy Witten hit a pair of eighth-inning homers to bring LSU back from a 5-2 deficit and tie the game, 5-5, and set up the ninth-inning heroics.
And, finally, senior catcher Brad Cresse broke out of a 1-for-12 CWS slump to hit a 1-0 offering through the hole and into left field to score Ryan Theriot from second for LSU?s winning run. LSU ended an amazing 2000 season at 52-17 overall while Stanford fell to 50-16.
?The Program of the Decade? in the 90?s added to its 1991, ?93, ?96 and ?97 championships with this come-from-behind victory. LSU was undefeated in the 2000 postseason with a perfect 9-0 record including 4-0 in the College World Series.
The LSU baseball team returns to Baton Rouge for a celebration at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center honoring the 12-time Women’s Track and Field National Champions along with the five-time baseball National Champions.
Fans are asked to greet the baseball Tigers at the PMAC at noon Sunday rather than meeting the team at the airport.
Stanford reliever Justin Wayne, who shut down the Tigers in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, received the loss and fell to 15-4 on the season. At one point in the eighth inning, 23 straight Tigers came to the plate and left without a hit.
After both Tallet and Young worked their way out of two-on, one-out jams in the first inning without allowing a run, LSU notched the first run on the game in the bottom of the second.
Wally Pontiff led off the second with a double off the right-center field wall and then scored on a one-handed single to right by Cedrick Harris. Harris was hit on the right index finger on the previous pitch after squaring to bunt. Later in the game, his index finger and middle finger were taped together.
Jeremy Witten then earned the third consecutive hit off of Young with a single to left. After a perfectly-executed sacrifice bunt by Ray Wright, Ryan Theriot grounded out to second to drive in Harris for a 2-0 lead.
After the third straight leadoff hit allowed by Tallet, Ray Wright robbed Stanford?s Edmund Muth ? and a happy-go-lucky fan ? of his 23rd home run of the season with a leaping catch over the right field wall. Tallet once again got out of a two-on, two-out predicament unscathed.
Stanford continued its success against Tallet in the top of the fourth with back-to-back hits by Chris O-Riordan and Topham to open the inning. After Damien Alvarado was hit by a pitch to load the bases, leadoff hitter Craig Thompson lined a grand slam over the left field wall for a 4-2 lead.
A Skip Bertman visit to the mound after another Cardinal single against Tallet resulted in a strikeout of Muth for the second out of the inning and a fly out by Gall on Tallet?s 91st pitch.
Justin Wayne entered in relief of Young to start the bottom of the fifth inning. Young exited after pitching four innings and allowing two runs on four hits while walking one and striking out two.
Tallet opened the top of the sixth by allowing the fifth hit to leadoff an inning. After throwing one pitch to Thompson, Tallet was lifted in favor of Trey Hodges. Tallet pitched five innings and allowed four runs on 11 hits while striking out four and walking one.
Before Hodges could make his first pitch to the plate, he balked the runner on first, Damien Alvarado, to second. Thompson grounded out to move Alvarado third with one out and Eric Bruntless bunted foul on a 2-2 count for the second out.
However, after Muth walked to put runners on first and third, John Gall hit an RBI single to right to extend the lead to 5-2.
LSU got out of the inning when Blair Barbier stabbed a ground ball down the third-base line with the bases loaded and threw out O?Riordan to end the inning.
Wayne retired the Tigers in order in the bottom of the fifth before walking Hawpe and hitting Barbier to begin the sixth. However, Wayne struckout Pontiff, Harris and Witten to end the inning. Although he gave up another hit batsman in the seventh, he struckout Theriot and Cresse as the 21st and 22nd straight Tigers to come to the plate without a hit.
For the first time in the game, LSU retired the Cardinal in order in the top of the eighth, setting up the comeback attempt in the bottom of the inning.
With one out, Barbier lined his ninth homer of the season and fifth of the CWS into the left field bleachers to cut the lead to 5-3. After Pontiff walked and Harris flew out to right, Witten hit another line drive home run over the left field wall on a 1-2 count to tie the game at 5-5.
In the bottom of the ninth, Theriot singled to open the inning and Mike Fontenot walked to bring Cresse to the plate for his second hit in 13 CWS at bats.
The 24,282 fans who watched the game comprised the third-highest Championship game total in College World Series history. There were 200,917 to watch the entire 2000 CWS, the fourth-highest attendance total in the 54-year history.