On Friday afternoon at the College World Series, the number one ranked Tigers, beat Arkansas for the second time this week by eight runs or more, winning 14-5. After a 9-1 win on Monday and collected their fourth win out of five against the Razorbacks this season.

The Arkansas football team has held the Boot, a huge bronzed trophy in the shape of Arkansas and Louisiana, for two seasons now with wins over the Tigers in 2007 and 2008, but the baseball team should be "Boot eligible" as it owns the Hogs as well as this cow town.

LSU, which leads the nation with fifty four wins against sixteen losses, is two more wins away from the ultimate trophy the national championship trophy, which is much more attractive. The Tigers will play either Texas or Arizona State in a best-of-three series beginning at 6:00 p.m. Monday on ESPN.

"Wouldn't surprise me if they win it," said Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, who has lost his four games to LSU by a 32-9 count.

"You look at them physically, and they've got some really good baseball players," he said. "And a couple of good football players. They've probably got a couple of good basketball players, too. They have people coming off the bench that could start at a lot of places. They come in and they're hitting them off the wall. They beat us four out of five."

LSU coach Paul Mainieri emptied his bench, using sixteen position players and five pitchers, as his team opened up an 11-0 lead in a five-run seventh inning when it batted around. The Tigers collected sixteen hits off eight pitchers in all, which tied the CWS record, and homered four times, including one by former wide receiver Jared Mitchell. Twelve of fourteen batters hit safely, including four non-starters who combined for two extra-base hits.

Chad Jones, who doubles as safety on the football team, added an RBI single for a 14-2 lead in the top of the ninth.

Ryan Schimpf finished 3-for-5 with a solo home run in the seventh for a 7-0 lead. Blake Dean was 2-for-4 with an RBI double for a 1-0 lead in the first and a solo home run in the fifth for a 5-0 lead. Mitchell hit a solo home run in the sixth off former teammate T.J. Forrest for 6-0 lead, and Tyler Hanover came off the bench to double in a run for the 11-0 lead in the seventh and added a two-run home run in the ninth for a 13-2 lead.

"It's really kind of a dream come true to be playing for the national championship," said coach Paul Mainieri, who in only his third year is nearing LSU's first baseball national title since former coach Skip Bertman's last of five in 2000, he then added, "But I very much expected us to be in this position quite frankly."

The Tigers won their 13th straight game and third here at the CWS to advance to the best-of-three national championship series against the Bracket Two winner. Texas and Arizona State were playing late Friday night as LSU's 1 p.m. start was delayed by rain until 3:38 p.m.

A Texas loss would force an elimination game Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. The second game of the national title series will be at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday with a third game, if necessary, at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday.

LSU will have ace Louis Coleman (14-2, 2.68 ERA) for the first game of the series on a weeks rest as he last pitched on Monday when he beat Arkansas.

Ace "1A" Anthony Ranaudo was flawless for most of the game Friday as he held Arkansas to zero runs on four hits and no walks with five strikeouts in six innings to improve to 11-3 on the season. He may be able to start the Tuesday game on short rest since he only went six, or he could start the Wednesday game if necessary with Austin Ross (6-7, 4.93 ERA) on Tuesday.

"It couldn't have worked out more perfectly for us," Mainieri said. "Back in my deep conscious thoughts, I figured that if we got a good lead, I would be able to take Anthony out early."

Ranaudo threw only seventy five pitches and Ross, Ryan Byrd, Matty Ott and Paul Bertuccini finished the Hogs (41-24) off.

"LSU was just too strong today," Van Horn said. "Ranaudo was on the inside half of the plate for the first three innings. Then he went the second three on the outside. He threw a lot better today."

Ranaudo pitched poorly in LSU's opener on Saturday and left in the fourth. He also lost at Arkansas in May. He was vastly different this time.

"The first game he was wild," Arkansas' Brett Eibner said. "Today he was getting all the plate. He was just painting the black."

Without a championship series starting Monday, Ranaudo could have finished the game.

"I just flushed the previous game out," Ranaudo said.

"He was absolutely dominant," Mainieri said. "He had a great downward slope to his pitches. What he did today was beautiful. He looked like a Major League pitcher. He looked like champion."

At the moment, that was just Bracket One champion. It doesn't give a trophy, but the next one does.

"We'll see if we can seize it," Mainieri said.

Lefty hitters tend to have a little more difficulty with lefty pitchers than with right-handed pitchers, and so do right-handed hitters to an extent because lefty pitchers are rare.

Particularly at mid-season, this strategy seemed to make sense. The Tigers were struggling more than normal against lefties and fell below .500 or hovered around .500 against lefty starters. This became a hot topic in Baton Rouge.

The 53-16 Tigers, who next play in the College World Series at 1 p.m. Friday against the winner of Wednesday's night game between Arkansas and Virginia, have reversed the curse of the left ... if there ever was one.

"I think it was great that everybody thought we were weak against lefties and were talking about it," LSU coach Paul Mainieri said at practice Wednesday. "It helped me lure other teams into pitching left-handers. We were more confident against them than everyone else was."

LSU is 18-13 against southpaw starters with three straight wins against left-handed starters and five straight wins overall against lefties as two relievers got decisions. LSU has not lost to a lefty since May 20 when Vanderbilt ace Mike Minor threw nine innings of six-hit ball for a 4-1 victory. That was the opening game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

LSU has also not lost since against any pitcher—right or left. Here's the breakdown of victories against left-handers:

The problem with tradition is sometimes people can never let it go.

Take college baseball for instance. LSU won five national championships from 1991-2000, and in really only one of those years (1997) did the Tigers do it with "Gorilla Ball," which was a really cool phrase that became associated with LSU's monstrous home run power.

The Tigers set an NCAA record that season that will truly never be broken—188 home runs. Shortstop Brandon Larson hit 40.

Gorilla Ball was a lot of fun. LSU won big and bold and beautifully.

It got more people interested in baseball. It hit the football button.

It was entertaining. But it was not real baseball.

Gorilla Ball also became associated with the 1998 national championship game in which USC beat Arizona State 21-14 in a game that took as long as a BCS national championship game, which also began that year.

LSU was not the only bash team in baseball. In the opening weekend of that World Series, LSU beat USC 12-10, Arizona State beat Florida State 11-10, and Mississippi State went for two to beat Florida 14-13.

Later on, USC defeated Mississippi State 12-10, LSU beat Mississippi State 10-8, and Arizona State bashed Long Beach State 14-4. An average of 16.1 runs were scored per game.

A record 62 home runs were hit in that World Series. Sometimes too much of a good thing can get boring.

Check ESPN's family of networks to be sure. An average of 16.1 runs was scored a game.

"I remember I almost felt embarrassed for baseball," David Keilitz of the American College Baseball Coaches Association said.

So they made the bats smaller, eliminated the trampoline effect, and the scores went down in 1999, and LSU did not make it to the College World Series. But LSU coach Skip Bertman, who at his heart is a pitching coach, won another national championship with just 96 homers in 2000.

He won his five every which way—6-3 in 1991, 8-0 in 1993, 9-8 in 1996, 13-6 in 1997 and 6-5 in 2000. And usually, great pitching got him there.

It's 2009 and LSU is on its way to perhaps another national title. With a win Friday in a 1 p.m. game against the winner of tonight's Virginia-Arkansas game, LSU will zoom to the best-of-three national championship series beginning at 6 p.m. Monday.

The Tigers beat Virginia 9-5 on Saturday and Arkansas 9-1 on Monday. They hit two home runs in the first game and three in the second one.

And LSU can't hit a few home runs anymore without everyone saying, "Gorilla Ball is Back."

In the pressbox Monday night, a reporter hurriedly checked on the 1997 record. After all, LSU is only 89 away from it.

Gorilla Ball? They said the same thing in 2000 when it wasn't true, and they're doing it now when it isn't true.

Only three Tigers have double-figure homers this season with Ryan Schimpf leading with 20. In 1997, there were nine in double digits.

"Gorilla Ball is a great phrase, but I'm afraid Gorilla ball is done for with the way the new bats perform," LSU coach Paul Mainieri said to a Gorilla Question Tuesday. "I mean I know Gorilla Ball is a very sentimental term in the history of LSU baseball, but I don't think you can live and die with the home run any more. I think it's important to have balance."

LSU has more home runs than any team here and will likely continue to hit them, but it's not its overwhelming strength. Balance is along with pitching, timely hitting and knowing how to win.

The Tigers often win ugly, which has happened often during their current 12-game winning streak. LSU can also play Small Ball.

It has 25 sacrifice bunts on the season, including one by home run leader Schimpf against Virginia. Schimpf is third on the team with four sacrifices, which is the same number the 1997 team had all year.

"The home run right now is really playing into our offense," said Blake Dean, who hit his 16th Monday night. "But it hasn't always. We can beat you in a lot of ways."

Mikie Mahtook's wide shoulders and muscular build give him the look of a Gorilla Ballplayer. His three-run homer in the first Monday put LSU up and started the Gorilla Call.

Asked if Gorilla Ball was back Tuesday, he said, "Maybe in a small stage, but 188 home runs? That will never happen again. What we do is hit the big home run."

And just about everything else.

LSU started slow against their former teammate now pitching for Arkansas, then exploded with two home runs on its way to a 9-1 victory in a College World Series winners' bracket final Monday night in front of 23,417 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

The Tigers (53-16) now get three days off and will next play at 1 p.m. Friday against the winner of a losers' bracket game Wednesday between Arkansas and Virginia.

Forrest, a junior right-hander from Bossier City who pitched regularly at LSU in 2007 before transferring to Bossier Parish Community College in 2008 and to Arkansas in 2009, was motivated going into the game. He lost to LSU on May 2 after allowing four earned runs on seven hits and three walks.

"They're my worst enemy," Forrest said last week to Arkansas reporters with LSU in the same bracket as the Razorbacks. "I'm here now, and I have a job to do. I know what they can do and they're looking for. I spent a whole year with them. Little things like that could make a difference."

They did for awhile. Forrest relieved starter Brett Eibner with two outs and two on in the second inning and struck out Micah Gibbs looking to end the inning and keep the Hogs within 4-1.

Forrest retired 11 of the first 13 batters he faced before running into trouble in the sixth inning. After one out, ninth batter Austin Nola hit a solo home run to left field for a 5-1 lead. After two outs, Forrest walked Ryan Schimpf. Then Blake Dean stroked a two-run home run to right field for a 7-1 lead, chasing Forrest.

"Two out hits is how you win ball games," said Dean, who hit his 16th home run. "To finally settle in and get the big hits was great. We had trouble with T.J. at first, but once we went through the lineup we got to him."

Forrest was able to avoid any interviews after the game. He allowed three earned runs on four hits with two strikeouts, a walk and a hit batsman. His ERA in two games against his old team is 6.92.

LSU added two more runs for the 9-1 lead on an RBI single by Jared Mitchell off reliever Sam Murphy and a throwing error. The last thing on LSU coach Paul Mainieri's mind was losing Forrest two years ago.

"It's hard to find much to be upset about in the ballgame," he said. "When we're clicking it can be a pretty good offense one through nine. These kids are focused. They're balancing focus and energy. It's a coach's dream right now - their vision of the game, their demeanor. They're just very confident right now."

LSU took a 3-0 lead in the first inning off Eibner on a three-run home run by Mikie Mahtook. DJ LeMahieu singled to start the game and Eibner walked Ryan Schimpf before Dean flied out, bringing up Mahtook.

"He left a slider up and I put a good swing on it," said Mahtook, who hit his seventh home run.

"I thought Mikie really gave us a big lift there," Mainieri said. "And it was off to the races for us."

Arkansas cut it to 3-1 in the bottom of the first on a double by Ben Tschepikow and a sacrifice fly by Andy Wilkins. But Eibner, who took the loss to fall to 5-5, was still tired after throwing 38 pitches in the first inning. He gave up another single to LeMahieu in the second and an RBI double to Schimpf to fall behind 4-1, and Forrest replaced him.

LSU starter Louis Coleman allowed six hits and one run in six innings to go to 14-2 on the season. He struck out seven with three walks.

"When you get nine runs for Louis, it's going to be hard to lose the ballgame," Dean said.

The Tigers will practice amid mild temperatures the next three days, and not do much else but enjoy Omaha.

"This makes the road a lot easier," Coleman said. "Now we get to go to the zoo."

Coleman, a senior from Schlater, Miss., who is LSU's ace at 13-2 with a 2.74 ERA, will lead the No. 1 Tigers against Arkansas in the winner's bracket final of Bracket One at 6 p.m. tonight on ESPN in Rosenblatt Stadium.

The game carries huge consequences. The winner advances to within a win of reaching the national championship best-of-three series and doesn't play again until Friday against a team from the loser's bracket. The loser tonight must win Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday to reach the national championship series that starts a week from today.

"Louis just overflows with confidence, and consequently, everybody has confidence in him," LSU coach Paul Mainieri said Sunday after pitching Coleman in a critical eighth inning Saturday night with a 6-5 lead. The No. 1 Tigers (52-16) won 9-5 to advance.

No. 7 Arkansas (40-22), meanwhile, upset No. 2 seed Cal State Fullerton, 10-6, Saturday afternoon and will start sophomore right-hander Brett Eibner (5-4, 4.61 ERA) tonight.

Coleman, a 6' 4" right-hander who has won five of his last six starts and pitched seven or more innings in seven of his last eight starts, was named a first team All-American on Sunday by Baseball America after receiving the same honor from Collegiate Baseball and Rivals.com in recent weeks. He was drafted in the fifth round by Kansas City last week.

"I'll definitely be ready to go on Monday," said Coleman, who threw just 17 pitches in his inning Saturday, facing the minimum with a strikeout. "I'm definitely good to go."

Yet, just two years ago, Coleman was a project not sure if he should throw overhand, submarine style or with a three-quarters delivery.

A 28th round pick by Atlanta out of Pillow Academy in the Mississippi Delta in 2005, Coleman made LSU's SEC rotation as a freshman in 2006 and went 5-6 with a 6.14 ERA in 13 starts and 80.2 innings. But in 2007 in Mainieri's first year with the new delivery, Coleman submarined to a 2-3 record with four saves and a 5.59 ERA in 46.2 innings in just four starts.

"The low point was my sophomore year in 2007 when I had to drop underneath," Coleman said. "It was frustrating. I wasn't having success over the top, where I felt most comfortable. I started off in the weekend rotation the first two weekends, and after that I went to the pen. Then I went to closing. Then I went to middle relief. I just bounced around. At first, the submarine wasn't too bad, because I had some velocity."

When Coleman returned for his junior year, though, he was sinking.

"My velocity was way down. I just wasn't locating, and it was easy to hit," he said.

So Mainieri and then-pitching coach Terry Rooney moved him to a three-quarters delivery.

"We were really trying to salvage the kid's career," Mainieri said. "He really went through an evolution."

Mainieri didn't expect much out of Coleman last season, but halfway through Mainieri gave him another chance and he started to dominate with a moving fastball in the high 80s and a nasty slider. From Apr. 15 through the College World Series last season, Coleman was as deceptive as his delivery as he went 7-1 with two saves, a 1.91 ERA, a .217 batting average allowed and 45 strikeouts in 42 innings in 16 appearances.

He has picked up where he left off last season and is tied for third nationally in victories with San Diego State's Stephen Strasburg, the first player selected in the Major League Draft. He leads LSU with 114 innings.

"Now, it's like a low three-quarter delivery," Coleman said. "I think just being able to get more movement on the fastball helped a lot. Now, I can throw it a lot more often. Before my junior year started, I worked a lot with grips and with making the ball move. And Jared Bradford (LSU's ace in 2007-08) gave me a sinker grip to work with. Really, it was just getting the mental approach and saying I can still do this. I had a pretty good season last year, but I didn't throw near as much (55.1 innings). To be able to do it for this long, I'd say this is more of a successful season."

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn would agree. Coleman allowed two hits in nine innings at Arkansas for a 5-0 win on May 2, and Van Horn can still see that unorthodox delivery.

"Hitters would probably call him filthy, especially the right-handers with that cross-fire action," Van Horn said Sunday. "It looks like he's throwing it behind them, and he tries to locate it away. Very few guys can do that as consistently as he can throwing that fastball and the slider on the outer half to the right-handers. The lefties see it a little better, but he tries to get under their hands a little bit with the slider. He's just a good pitcher. I wouldn't say I'm glad to have another crack at him."

Coleman was glad to help with the win Saturday, but he sees that as only an appetizer.

"I think it will help because the more I throw the better my arm feels," said Coleman, who twice relieved in SEC games on Friday nights this season and started and won two days later against Kentucky and Georgia.

"I would have thrown a bullpen anyway. I got to throw 100 percent and threw 100 pitches. That was perfect," he said. "If we can get the job done and get a couple days off, it will be wonderful."

The No. 1-ranked Tigers used six pitchers and 14 hits to come from behind and hold off No. 5 Virginia for a 9-5 victory in front of 24,904 in the second game of the CWS at Rosenblatt Stadium. Arkansas upset No. 2 national seed Cal State Fullerton, 10-6, in the first game, setting up a Southeastern Conference winner's bracket final.

The Tigers, 52-16 and winners of 11 straight, play the Razorbacks (40-22) at 6 p.m. Monday with the winner getting the next three days off. LSU won two out of three at Arkansas during the regular season.

"I can't remember the last time we had a starting pitcher not able to get through the fourth inning," LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. "It was really pretty amazing that we were able to piece it together with the bullpen. And then our offense came to life. I'm extremely proud the way we kept battling. It's nice to win a first game of the College World Series. I know it's been a long time since LSU has done that."

LSU last won a CWS opener in 2000 and it went on to win the national championship.

Virginia (48-14-1), which will play Cal State Fullerton (47-15) at 1 p.m. Monday in a loser's bracket game, allowed one less run to LSU in one game than it did in six previous NCAA postseason games.

Trailing 4-3 going into the bottom of the fifth, LSU took the lead for good at 6-4 on a three-run homer by Sean Ochinko off Virginia reliever Matt Packer. Virginia cut it to 6-5 in the seventh on a solo home run by Franco Valdes off Austin Ross.

The Tigers put it away in the eighth with an RBI single by DJ LeMahieu and a two-run homer by Ryan Schimpf for the 9-5 lead. Louis Coleman, who will start Monday's game, pitched the eighth with no trouble and Matty Ott closed the game after allowing a double.

Ross, who was LSU's third pitcher, earned the victory with two innings of relief to improve to 6-7 on the season. The sophomore from Shreveport entered with two on and two out in the fifth inning and LSU trailing 4-3. He struck out lead-off batter and top hitter Jarrett Parker to end the inning.

"I don't think I've ever used three starting pitchers in one game," Mainieri said. "But our pitching will be fine. Everyone will be available but Ranaudo."

Four of LSU's pitchers threw one inning and a third or less.

Ranaudo, Coleman and Ross are LSU's weekend starters. Coleman threw only 17 pitches.

"I don't think it's going to affect him at all," Mainieri said of Coleman. "What he threw was basically a glorified bullpen."

Coleman agreed.

"I just want to win a national championship," he said. "If I have to throw six times, that will be fine."

Paul Bertuccini relieved Ranaudo with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning and LSU up 3-2. He struck out No. 2 batter Phil Gosselin to end the inning.

Ranaudo, who had won his last five starts and had gone seven innings or more in those games, retired Virginia in order in the first and allowed no runs in the second.

"He just didn't have any rhythm tonight," Mainieri said. "But hey, everybody's allowed to have one of those days."

LSU took a 1-0 lead in the first inning after two outs on a double by Blake Dean and an RBI single by Micah Gibbs, who finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs. LeMahieu also went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Mikie Mahtook was 3-for-4.

Virginia tied it 1-1 in the third on a lead-off double by No. 9 hitter Keith Werman, a walk by Parker and an RBI groundout by Danny Hultzen. LSU took a 3-1 lead in the third as LeMahieu singled and Schimpf doubled to start the inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Blake Dean and an RBI single by Gibbs.

Ranaudo started to struggle in the fourth as Tyler Cannon tripled to lead off and scored on an RBI single by Valdes, cutting LSU's lead to 3-2. After Werman singled on a bunt, Ranaudo walked Parker and Bertuccini replaced him.

"I really felt like we had a chance after we got Ranaudo out of the game," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. "They made us pay with that three-run home run. When you play a team like LSU that hits one through nine, they're going to burn you."

Virginia also lost its starter as LSU collected seven hits and three runs off left-hander Hultzen. Packer gave up five hits and three runs in taking the loss and fell to 3-5.

"They're a very talented group," Hultzen said. "Some of the good pitches I threw, they were able to get hits off of anyway. They're just very talented."