Mitchell, LSU take control early

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

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OMAHA, Neb.  — For the first two games of the College World Series championship series, Texas kept the pressure on LSU.

In the first game, Texas took the lead and LSU had to rally late to win in extra innings. In the second game, the Longhorns jumped to the lead and starting pitcher Taylor Jungmann never let the Tigers back in the game.

With one swing of the bat early in LSU’s 11-4 win Wednesday in the game that decided the national championship, Jared Mitchell changed that trend.

The junior right fielder’s three-run home run in the first inning against Texas starter Cole Green got the Tigers off to the fast start they had lacked throughout the series and put the pressure on the Longhorns that never let up the rest of the night.

LSU had two on and two out when Mitchell got an inside fastball on a 2-2 pitch and pulled the pitch down the right field line, just inside the foul pole.

Texas did come back to tie the game in the fifth inning, but LSU responded with a five-run sixth inning sparked by a Mikie Mahtook’s RBI double and a two-run single by Sean Ochinko.

With Mitchell’s homer and the big sixth inning, LSU was able to take deep breaths. The tension never left the Longhorns dugout.

“This game was played on a lot of emotion,” said Mitchell, who was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Starting fast, that was able to help us throughout the game.”

It was an emotional lift LSU was not able to enjoy for much of the first two games. A three-run fourth inning got the Longhorns out to a 3-1 start on Monday, and LSU trailed by two runs three times before rallying for a 7-6, 11-inning win. In the second game, Texas scored in the first three innings en route to a 5-1 win.

This time, there was some cushion.

“From a starting pitcher standpoint, a three-run first gives you a lot of room to get a sigh of relief to go out there and compete and try to throw strikes,” LSU pitcher Anthony Ranaudo said. “I didn’t have my best stuff today, but what these guys did was special.”

LSU’s 4-0 lead was eventually turned into a 4-4 tie in the fifth inning as Ranaudo struggled with control in a two-run Texas third, then a two-run home run by Kevin Keyes tied the game in the fifth.

“We were excited to tie the game up,” Longhorn second baseman Travis Tucker said. “We came back, and we just thought we’d keep rolling.”