Rally cats

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jun 18, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:20 a.m.

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OMAHA, Neb. — Surely at some point Tuesday afternoon, doubt and despair must have quietly crept into the LSU dugout.

It didn’t stick around, though.

A few breaks and the clutch bat of Blake Dean made sure of that with the 2008 season hanging in the balance in a College World Series elimination game.

Dean rifled a bases-clearing double off the left-field wall in the bottom of the ninth inning to propel the Tigers to a stunning and season-extending 6-5 triumph over Rice at Rosenblatt Stadium.

“For us, what a monumental win,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said.

And for Rice, the emotions were understandably at the opposite end of the spectrum.

“If you’re going to play this game, you’re going to be on the other side once in a while and it’s going to be tough,” veteran Owls coach Wayne Graham said. “That’s the way the game is. You just take the good and the bad and you love it, and sometimes it loves you back.”

With the scintillating victory, the resilient Tigers (49-18-1) live to fight another day. They will take on North Carolina at 6 p.m. Thursday in another elimination game.

When Dean banged a 1-and-0 fast ball from Owls star Cole St. Clair off the wall, the crowd of 19,103 seemed to hold its collective breath as pinch-runner Chris McGee, Michael Hollander and Jared Mitchell streaked around the base paths.

The ball caromed far enough away from Rice left fielder Aaron Luna so  there was never a play at the plate, allowing Mitchell to motor around third base with both arms thrust triumphantly in the air as the Tigers dugout erupted and congregated at second base to mob Dean.

“We knew we still had three outs left,” said the speedy Mitchell, who had to slow down to not pass Hollander on the game-winning sequence. “You’ve got to play all 27 outs.

“When Blake hit the ball, I thought ‘Oh my God, this is our chance.’ The game slowed down and as soon as I saw the ball hit the wall, I told myself ‘Gotta score.’ ”

That Dean even got a crack against St. Clair was a microcosm of a Tigers season that has taken on fairy tale status.