Left for dead after being held hitless by the superb Stanford pitching duo of Jason Young and Justin Wayne for 5 1/3 innings, the LSU Tigers found a way to recapture the magic of the 1990's just in time to claim their fifth national championship and first of a new era.

Senior catcher Brad Cresse, 1-for-12 with eight strikeouts in the 2000 College World Series, singled to left in the bottom of the ninth inning to bring home sophomore shortstop Ryan Theriot with the winning run as LSU rallied for four runs in the final two innings to claim an improbable 6-5 victory over top-ranked Stanford Saturday at Rosenblatt Stadium.

"I’m happy for the seniors. Of all the national championship teams I’ve had, I can honestly say that this is the best one," LSU head coach Skip Bertman said. "They overcame injuries and a lot of other things this season and that’s why I feel this is the best one. These kids stayed with it and they’re believers, I’m telling you they’re believers. And it’s the greatest thing in the world. I’m really happy for the kids. I hate to gush, but it’s great, just great. This one is for them."

Wayne, who came on in relief of Young to start the fifth inning, did not allow a hit and was overpowering until senior third baseman Blair Barbier hit a 2-2 slider on a line just over the left field fence with one out in the eighth for his third home run of the CWS and ninth of the season. That broke Wayne’s aura of invincibility, and freshman designated hitter Wally Pontiff followed with a walk before junior center fielder Cedrick Harris flied out to right field for the second out.

That brought up senior left fielder Jeremy Witten, who has made a habit in his career of coming through in the late innings. Down to his final strike, Witten hit a 1-2 delivery over the 360-foot sign in left field for his seventh homer of the year, tying the game at five against a shell-shocked Cardinal team.

"As a senior you want to make sure that you’re always there, that you’re making the big hit and you’re a solution to any problem and (the team) can count on you and that’s what I did," Witten said. "I just wanted to hit the ball hard somewhere. When I hit it I figured I got it all, and I was just hoping that the guy wouldn’t make a great catch like Ray Wright."

Senior right-hander Trey Hodges (5-2), who was named the CWS Most Valuable Player, pitched four innings of two-hit relief with four strikeouts to keep the Tigers in the game after LSU fell behind 5-2 in the sixth inning. The Cardinal (50-16) had hit LSU starter Brian Tallet hard, with the second-round draft pick allowing 11 hits and five runs in the first five innings. Hodges pitched 2/3 of an inning Thursday against Florida State to close out that game and earn his second save.

"I think everybody believed we could pull it out," Hodges said. "I just wanted to throw strikes and try to get some outs. I just wanted to keep it close as possible and give the offense a chance to come back. We’ve exploded from time to time all year when we were behind in a game and we responded well in that type of situation."

Hodges shut down Stanford in order in the top of the ninth, setting the stage for yet another incredible LSU moment in Omaha. Hodges finished the game by retiring seven in a row and 10 of the last 11 he faced.

Theriot led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to left on the first pitch from Wayne, and then freshman second baseman Mike Fontenot (1-for-3) walked on a close 3-2 call. It didn’t take long for Cresse to finish his amazing LSU career on the highest of notes when he sent a Wayne slider sharply into left field. Theriot raced around third with third base coach Bill Dailey waving him on, then slid into home well ahead of left fielder Andy Topham’s throw.

Somewhere in America, Warren Morris was beaming.

Theriot threw his helmet into the stands, and the Tigers went wild in a mob scene between first and second base. "One for the Thumb" was now a reality, and Cresse said he dreamed the scenario as he went to bed Friday night.

"Before I went to sleep I swear I dreamt I was going to come to the plate with the winning run on base. But I dreamed I hit a home run instead of a single," Cresse said. "But I’ll take the single."

For Stanford, the loss was hard to swallow after dominating the middle innings and holding a three-run lead with six outs left for the victory. But the Tigers, who finished at 52-17, have won games just about every way possible during their 13-game postseason run, and none was more memorable.

"It’s hard to put into words because you’ve got a guy like Justin Wayne, who’s the fifth pick in the first round (to Montreal) and he has absolutely stuffed us in the fifth, six, seventh, and finally the second time through the batting order the guys get it going," LSU assistant coach/hitting instructor Turtle Thomas said. "It’s just absolutely amazing. The eighth and ninth inning was just unbelievable. Unbelievable."

The loss was the first in a championship game for Stanford in three tries after the Cardinal won back-to-back titles in 1987 and 1988. LSU is now a perfect 5-0 in national championship games.

"It was a tough one to lose. It was a great game, unfortunately we came up short," Stanford head coach Mark Marquess said. "We didn’t give it to them, they took it. We had opportunities to add to our lead and didn’t take advantage of them. Sometimes when you lose, you make errors and don’t play well. I thought we played well."

LSU broke on top first against Young with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. Pontiff broke out of a mini-slump when he sent a rocket off the center field wall for a double to lead off the inning, then Harris drove him in with a single to right field one pitch after he was hit on the hand trying to bunt.

Witten (2-for-3, two RBIs) sent the next pitch from Young just over the glove of Stanford shortstop Eric Bruntlett into center field for a single before junior right fielder Ray Wright sacrificed both runners up a base with a bunt. Theriot then gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead with an RBI groundout to second, with Fontenot ending the threat with a popup to short.

Wright etched his name forever in LSU baseball lore in the top of the third with one of the greatest catches in the history of the CWS. With one on and one out, Stanford center fielder Edmund Muth launched a Tallet fastball for what looked to be a game-tying two-run homer. Instead, Wright – a converted second baseman – leaped high over the 7-foot wall in right and brought the ball back from the stands. Of course it helped that there was a huge contingent of LSU fans in that area of the stands, who didn’t interfere with Wright.

After giving up a single to cleanup hitter John Gall, Tallet worked out of yet another jam by getting the massive 6-foot-4, 225-pound Joe Borchard to fly out weakly to right field.

"The ball went up and I knew it wasn’t going to be that deep into the stands and I just got a good jump. I don’t know, the good Lord put that ball in my glove," Wright said of his incredible catch. "There was a lot of good plays and big home runs, and there was never a point in our dugout where we knew we were going to lose. We knew we were the home team, we have the last at-bat and we knew we were going to do something. We weren’t going to lose the game."

Living on the edge of disaster for the first three innings, Tallet’s luck finally ran out in the fourth. Second baseman Chris O’Riordan led off with a hard single to left, the fourth straight inning Stanford put its leadoff hitter on. Left fielder Andy Topham followed with another single to left, then Tallet hurt himself when he hit nine-hole hitter Damien Alvarado to load the bases with one out.

That brought up the top of the order, and the Cardinal finally made Tallet and the Tigers pay. First baseman Craig Thompson lined a 2-1 pitch from Tallet into the left field stands for a grand slam, his 12^th home run of the season. The homer came a pitch after Thompson smashed a ball to deep to left but foul. Tallet gave up another single, his ninth hit allowed, before working out of the inning with a strikeout and fly out.

"I just wanted to hit the ball in the air," Thompson said of his grand slam. "If you do that here in Omaha, there’s a chance to hit it out of the park. Then Hodges came in and really shut us down."

Stanford padded its lead to 5-2 in the top of the sixth with a run on two hits, but it could have been a lot worse for the Tigers. Alvarado (2-for-3) led off with a hard single to center and Tallet threw one pitch to Thompson before Bertman pulled him in favor of Hodges. Hodges balked Alvarado to second, then managed a walk and a strikeout before Gall singled to right for the RBI. Hodges hit Borchard to load the bases, enabling Barbier to make his first critical play of the day.

O’Riordan hit a hard drive down the line that Barbier snared with a dive, got up and fired a bullet to first that Hawpe scooped. The play likely saved two runs, meaning that Wright and Barbier had saved four runs between them by the sixth inning.

"Ray Wright’s catch saved the ballgame for us, it was over the fence. Blair in his four years, he’s done some magnificent things," Bertman said. "He’s brought family to this team."

LSU mounted its only threat against Wayne -- until the eighth -- in the bottom of the sixth when Hawpe walked on a 3-2 pitch and Barbier was hit by a pitch, putting two on with nobody out. But Wayne struck out the side, sending a shudder through the Tigers and looking for all the world like he would be unhittable this day.

"It was real bad. When they got the grand slam and pushed another run across, we just couldn’t get enthusiastic," Barbier said. "But we stuck with it. I thought we could come back and fortunately we did."

Three innings later, Wayne was walking off the mound for the last time as a collegiate player, stunned and amazed at what had happened to him and Stanford.

"They capitalized on the mistakes I made late in the game," Wayne said. "It can’t happen. They were good swings. When they go far, it’s hard to tell if the pitches were breaking or not."

The only things breaking in Palo Alto were hearts, while in Tiger Land, the party was just beginning.

"We came up here to prove we’re the best and we beat the best teams in the country," Hawpe said. "That was the best pitching staff in the country and we beat them. I don’t know how to explain the way I feel. It’s unbelievable. We knew that anybody could do the job one through nine, and today proved it."

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