LSU football players help baseball team go over the top

OMAHA, Neb. -- It wasn't quite Death Valley. Not in a geographical sense. Rosenblatt Stadium is on a rise in this town that overlooks Iowa. Technically, it wasn't Tiger Stadium, either. LSU had to share the joint with Texas fans.

But the sights, the sounds, the purple, the gold bursting from the home of the College World Series on Wednesday night? All the deciding game of the CWS needed was a bit more humidity, some Spanish Moss in the trees and an RV armada, and we would have ourselves a fall Saturday night in Baton Rouge.

A summer Wednesday evening in Omaha will do for those involved in LSU's hostile takeover of The 'Blatt. The Tigers prevailed over the Longhorns 11-4 in the deciding third game of the championship series, once again making the creaky, cramped stadium their own personal playground.

•  Game 3: Recap | Bracket | NCAA.com blog

All six of LSU's baseball national championships have occurred here since 1991. The latest tied Texas for second on the all-time list. But it has been a while for the Tigers. Nine long years passed since the last LSU dog pile.

No wonder that on Wednesday, it seemed like shoulder pads were optional.

LSU backup receiver Jared Mitchell smashed a three-run homer in the first to get the party started. This year's starting safety in that other sport, Chad Jones, pitched a career-high 1 2/3 innings after the Tigers Gorilla Balled the 'Horns back to Austin.

Mikie Mahtook, the son of a former LSU football player, had the game-winning hit, breaking a 4-4 tie in the sixth.

"I play [with a] football mentality," he said.

If they had showed Les Miles on TV in the stands one more time, he was going to have to grab a whistle. They came to watch the conclusion of the College World Series, and an LSU-Florida football game broke out. All the Tigers fans needed was a Tebow piñata and a flask of bourbon to make the scene complete.

And it seemed that at least one of those items had been snuck into the stadium.

"This right here is one of the best feelings I've had in my lifetime," said Jones, who along with Mitchell now has two championship rings. They were both members of Miles' 2007 national championship team.

"I'd say this is a better championship than football. So many games, such a hard sport."

Mitchell, a right fielder, was a baseball prospect who played football. Jones could be one of the SEC's best defenders in the fall. He started the baseball season as a hard-hitting outfielder, then went to spring football practice for five weeks and lost his job. Because of a glut of outfielders, the LSU coaching staff reinvented the 6-3, 220-pound specimen as a situational lefty reliever. Tiger Nation fell in love as Jones mowed 'em down from the mound and, just for fun, hit tape-measure home runs in batting practice.

The smiling pitcher was a plush toy for those adoring fans who lined up for his autograph afterward. A huggable, squeezable two-star hero who earned the baseball nickname "The Dreadlocks of Doom" as LSU made its run.

"You can see the competitiveness that he has," LSU catcher Micah Gibbs said. "He catches punts 300 feet in the air in front of 90,000 people. Throwing a fastball and slider to guys when you have that good of stuff in front of 20,000 ... he made it look real easy."

Mitchell is the unassuming type with more of a baseball personality. It hit him Wednesday he was going from being the CWS' Most Outstanding Player (.363 average, two homers, seven RBI in six games) to a lucrative contract with the Chicago White Sox. The Sox made Mitchell their first-round draft choice earlier this month.

Playing in the CWS would distract other players looking for that first big contract. Baseball America called Mitchell the best athlete and fastest runner among draft-eligible college players. LSU will thank him for his 24 career receptions and contributions to championships in two sports.

"If there is a better story, write it for me," Mitchell said.

•  Notes | History | Game 1 recap | Game 2 | Talk!

LSU's title run included winning 15 of the final 16 and smashing 13 home runs in six CWS games while averaging more than eight runs in the postseason. Those numbers were comparable to those of the fabled LSU teams of the '90s. Former coach Skip Bertman intentionally tailored his teams to hitter-friendly Rosenblatt.

The NCAA finally got wise. After USC beat Arizona State 21-14 in the 1998 championship game, it started limiting the power of aluminum bats. LSU won its fifth title in 2000 before its championship "drought" began.

As an AD, Bertman then hired the impish Paul Mainieri in 2007 to restore the glory. Bertman had pitched to a 9-year-old Mainieri in the Miami area when he was coaching high school. The relationship blossomed because Mainieri's father Demie, a famous junior college coach, was close to Bertman.

"He always wanted to coach here," said Bertman, who won the first titles at LSU. "He always wanted to work for me."

Mainieri knew about the LSU tradition -- and the pressure. Alex Box Stadium annually houses some of the wildest, and biggest, crowds in college baseball. Two years into the job, Mainieri got the Tigers to Omaha. In his third year, he won it all.

"He embraced all the pressure. He embraced all the expectations," Bertman said. "He didn't fight them. You've got to be crazy to try and change what was there and what was working."

Mainieri's master stroke was saving No. 2 starter Anthony Ranaudo for Game 3. Even with four days of rest, Ranaudo was not on his game, tossing 119 pitches in 5 1/3 innings. But he ended as the winner after LSU broke a 4-4 tie with five runs in the sixth.

Texas' staff was falling apart at the same time LSU's was gaining confidence. Texas starter Cole Green lasted two innings. Austin Wood, who pitched 13 innings of relief in one game early in the NCAA tournament, hit two batters and struggled to get the last out in that five-run sixth.

Then, Jones struck out two Longhorns in a row to end the Texas sixth. The big safety ran to the dugout and chest-bumped a couple of teammates like he had just snagged an interception.

"Chad Jones coming at you with a chest bump, that can't be too scary," Gibbs said.

In the postgame, Mainieri took stock of how his career had culminated in this moment. The soft-spoken coach first became aware of the magnitude of the CWS as a player for Ron Maestri at New Orleans in 1979.

"We thought we had the best team in the country that year," Mainieri said. "Ron Maestri said the event is unbelievable. You're going to know what I mean."

The Privateers lost in the regional.

Twenty years ago, Mainieri was driving cross country from Miami to Colorado Springs, Colo., for his first big-time job at Air Force. He stopped off in Omaha and stayed at the house of friend Jim Hendry, then the Creighton coach. Two years later, the Blue Jays were in the CWS themselves.

"I literally had tears running down my cheeks, for him to fulfill a lifetime dream," Mainieri said. "At that point I said, 'That's it. I can't come here again unless I get to bring a team.'"

He finally did in 2002 with Notre Dame. But that was just a taste. When the whole enchilada was served on Wednesday night, Mainieri was surrounded by love. Tommy Lasorda had called to wish him luck. His parents watched him in the postgame. So did his old friend, the Creighton coach. You might know Hendry better these days at the general manager of the Cubs.

Outside, LSU players had planted a championship flag in the outfield. They made a lap of Rosenblatt slapping hands with fans.

It looked like a fall scene from Death Valley, except for the sign draped over the left-field bleachers. Football might rule the landscape in Baton Rouge, but it still hasn't caught up with baseball in the only state that matters.

"LSU FANS LOVE OYSTERS AND CHAMPIONSHIPS," the sign read, "BY THE 1/2 DOZEN."