OMAHA, Neb -- The two teams that will do battle in the finals of the 2009 College World Series took different routes to the best-of-three championship round that starts Monday at Rosenblatt Stadium.
LSU was the No. 1 ranked team in the nation according to the major polls going into the postseason, yet it was Texas that came away as the top-seeded squad in the 64-team tournament earlier this month.
Both LSU and Texas went undefeated in their brackets at the College World Series, but got through their brackets in different styles as well. The Tigers dominated their half of the bracket, averaging 10 runs a game in the process. The Longhorns, on the other hand, had to come from behind in all three games, getting walk-off wins in two of those battles.
The Tigers are riding a 13-game winning streak into the finals, and appear to be playing very well on both sides of the field. Their offense has sprung to life and hit nine home runs so far in this College World Series, while their pitching has been solid throughout the tournament.
Texas has come up big when it needed to every time in an effort to win their seventh College World Series championship. The Longhorns took advantage of seven free passes in the final two innings of their first game, erased a six-run deficit with 12 unanswered runs in their next game, then capped the bracket tournament win by overcoming a ninth-inning deficit with two solo home runs in the bottom of the ninth to reach the finals.
Although they have yet to reach the finals since the onset of the best-of-three format six years ago, the thing working in LSU's favor is that they are a perfect 5-0 in the championship game. Texas, though, has plenty of experience in reaching the finals over the history of the tournament, and with an experienced Augie Garrido and his resume of tournament championships, the Longhorns certainly know what it takes to get it done at this point in the season.
The College World Series best-of-three championship matchup gets underway Monday at 6 p.m. at Rosenblatt Stadium. The second game of the series will be held on Tuesday at 6 p.m., and if the teams need a third game to decide the champion, it wll be held Wednesday at 6 p.m.
You can pick up great seats for the championship finals of the 2009 College World Series now at Ticket Express -- where no College World Series game is ever sold out.
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