By Wendell Barnhouse | wendell@big12sports.com
Big 12 Sports.com Correspondent
OMAHA, Neb. - In the top of the second inning, NCAA media helpers handed out a sheet of paper detailing the "post-game on-field celebration." Nothing sinister or precluded about that. It's standard operating procedure to let the media know how to plan its post-game coverage.
At the top of the page were three words in all capital letters: "IF LSU WINS."
Consider the championship ceremonies delayed for a day.
Texas sent those single-sheet updates to the shredder with a tough-minded 5-1 victory over LSU Tuesday night in Game Two of the College World Series championship round. Freshman pitcher Taylor Jungmann, who struggled in his ninth inning relief appearance Monday night, was dominant in limiting the Tigers to five hits. He went the distance, throwing 126 pitches, 78 for strikes.
"I saved it for the end," Jungmann said with a smile when asked about his first complete game. "I was just pounding the zone, throwing strikes and going right at their hitters."
The Longhorns' victory flipped the script that LSU hoped to write after its 7-6, 11-inning Game One victory. UT, facing elimination with a loss, has now forced a Game Three championship Wednesday night.
"The survival instinct is much stronger," Texas coach Augie Garrido said. "When you know you're gonna be eliminated, out of the tournament, you fight harder. (Wednesday night) is the final fight. 288 teams started out, two are left, one's gonna be the champion. That's pretty awesome."
LSU is ranked No. 1 by Baseball America while Texas is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA 64-team tournament (and trying to become the first No. 1 seed to win the title since Miami in 1999). The Longhorns have won six national championships, the Tigers five.
"We'll stay around for another day if it's OK with everybody," LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. "The kid who pitched for them had something to say about that. He was outstanding, we couldn't do much with him."
One night after experiencing what Garrido called the "wrath of baseball," the Longhorns felt the love of the game.
Texas made three errors but only one was costly (LSU's first run scored on the first of shortstop Brandon Loy's two errors). One of those errors put DH Blake Dean at second with no outs. He tagged up and advanced to third on a fly to center but was called out on appeal for leaving early.
LSU's D.J. LeMahieu, Monday night's ninth-inning hero, led off the third with a rocket to right field that missed by inches of being a homer. He wound up with a triple ... but failed to score.
In the ninth, Micah Gibbs led off with a single. With out out, Jared Mitchell hit a checked-swing grounder to third. The throw from UT's Michael Torres just nipped the speedy Mitchell, a first-round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox. It was a bang-bang play but the call went in Texas' favor.
When the Tigers switched from the first to third dugouts to become Game Two's home team, the momentum they left behind belonged to Texas.
"It just wasn't our night," Mainieri said.
The Longhorns scored in the top of the first when Brandon Belt's single scored Michael Torres, who had walked on four pitches, advanced to second on a throwing error and to third on a bunt. In the second, Preston Clark lined a home run to left center to make it 2-0.
The Tigers scored their only run in the bottom of the second. In the top of the third, Mainieri went to his bullpen and brought in lefty Ryan Byrd with the thought he could negate UT's southpaw swingers.
With one out, Russell Moldenhauer tied the CWS record with his fourth homer in his first official at bat against a left-hander. That ignited a three-run inning as Connor Rowe and Clark had run-scoring hits.
"I've been seeing the ball really good and I laid off some sliders," said Moldenhauer, whose four homers have come at Rosenblatt Stadium. "When it was 3-1 I had a hunch he was coming inside with a fast ball. He left it up and I was able to elevate it."
Five runs and four-run lead was enough for Jungmann.
"The best thing for a pitcher's curve ball is a four-run lead," Garrido said.
Garrido made it clear after Game One that he wanted his team to forget about the Game One victory that escaped its grasp and to keep believing. "Anything is possible," he said.
The Longhorns proved that the art of the possible and the magic of the moment has returned to their dugout - at least until Wednesday's last-chance-for-a-championship Game Three.
And for those who like to know these things, the last two teams to force a Game Three - Oregon State in 2006 and Fresno State in 2008 - won the championship.
Extra bases
* Texas will be the home team for Game Three.
* The starting pitchers: Sophomore Cole Green (5-3, 3.07 ERA) for Texas and sophomore Anthony Ranaudo (11-3, 2.87 ERA, 155 strikeouts in 119 innings) for LSU.
* Attendance for Game Two at Rosenblatt Stadium was 21,871. For 14 CWS games, the total attendance of 316,090 is the second-best in CWS history. The average attendance is 22,578.
* The rain delay prior to the first pitch lasted one hour and 34 minutes. Garrido said the cooler conditions helped Jungmann pitch a complete game.
* Texas has hit 13 home runs in five CWS games after hitting 39 in 64 games prior to Omaha. So is Garrido UT's late-season home run coach? "No, that's coach (Tommy) Harmon. I'll give the credit to him and the builders of this fine facility."
* The loss ended LSU's 14-game winning streak. During that run, the Tigers hit .329 and averaged 8.4 runs per game.
How they scored:
Texas 1st: Michael Torres led off with a four-pitch walk. He advanced to second when LSU catcher Micah Gibbs fired a pick-off throw into right field. Travis Tucker bunted Torres to third. Brandon Belt lined a single to right to score Torres. Texas 1, LSU 0.
Texas 2nd: With one out, left fielder Preston Clark lined a 1-0 breaking pitch into the left-center field stands. Texas 2, LSU 0.
LSU 2nd: The Tigers again make hay with two outs. Jared Mitchell singled to left and Leon Landry reached on an infield single. Texas shortstop Brandon Loy couldn't handle Derek Helenihi's hard grounder to his left. The ball skipped into center and Mitchell scored from second. Texas 2, LSU 1.
Texas 3rd: With one out, DH Russell Moldenhauer drilled a 1-1 pitch deep into the stands in right center. His fourth homer ties the CWS record. Cameron Rupp blooped a double to right and moved to third on Kevin Keyes' fly out to the warning track in right. On the first pitch with two outs, Connor Rowe doubled past third to score Rupp. That knocked out LSU reliever Ryan Byrd. Preston Clark greeted reliever Nolan Cain with a ground ball single to left to score Rowe. Texas 5, LSU 1.