Jones, Mitchell get second title

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jun 25, 2009

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OMAHA, Neb. — LSU’s baseball national championship had a football flavor to it.

Jared Mitchell, a wide receiver, was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after hitting a three-run first inning home run.

Chad Jones, a safety on the football team, pitched 1 2/3 innings of shutout baseball in relief of starter Anthony Ranaudo.

LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri said the assist from the football players was a key to the season.

“A lot of credit for this championship should go to Les Miles, our football coach,” Mainieri said. “If Les wasn’t so cooperative to work with to allow Jared to concentrate on baseball this spring and to let Chad play, I don’t know if we’d be here. Those two guys were critical players for us.”

When Jones entered the game to pitch in the sixth inning, ESPN’s cameras focused on Miles, who attended his second straight game.

Miles also came to Tuesday’s 5-1 loss, along with basketball coach Trent Johnson. He flew home, but flew back Wednesday with his two sons.

Jones struck out the last two Longhorns in the sixth inning in relief of Ranaudo. When he struck out Brandon Belt with a nasty curveball, the TV cameras were fixed on Miles, who let out a loud cheer on the strikeout.

Three-run homers

Against the team that has mastered the solo home run, LSU pulled out its specialty Wednesday — the early three-run home run.

Mitchell yanked a 2-2 Cole Green pitch down the right-field line for a three-run homer and the early 3-0 Tigers lead, getting the Tigers off to a familiar fast start.

LSU also got a three-run first inning home run by Mikie Mahtook against Brett Eibner of Arkansas in the 9-1 win over Arkansas on June 15. That also gave the Tigers the early 3-0 lead.

The Tigers hit three, three-run home runs in the series. The other was by Sean Ochinko’s three-run shot off Virginia’s Matt Packer in the fifth inning of LSU’s 9-5 win Jun