WARREN MORRIS' walk-off homerun, 1996 College World Series (Tiger Rag file photo)
Today is the 30th anniversary of one of the most iconic moments in LSU baseball and College World Series history. In the 1996 College World Series championship against Miami, the Tigers were down 8-7, with two outs and a runner on third, when second baseman Warren Morris stepped up to the plate. Morris roped a two-run walk-off homer over the right field wall to win the Tigers’ third national championship.
“And I know I hit it pretty well; but I was running hard, trying to get to second and thought it was a double until I saw it inch over that wall in right, and our first base coach Daniel Tomlin jumped higher than I’ve ever seen him,” Morris recalled.
The walk-off home run is still the only one in a College World Series Championship game. Morris was batting ninth in the lineup after returning from a wrist surgery just over two weeks before the NCAA tournament. Morris hadn’t hit a home run all season, but he says he told coach Skip Bertman something was different that day.
“I guess it was just meant to be that day. I vividly recall telling him, in batting practice before the game, ‘This is as close to 100% as I’ve been all year,'” Morris noted.
LSU trailed 7-3 in the game before tying it in the eighth. The Hurricanes took back the lead in the top of the ninth and were three outs away from a national title. Down again, with wind blowing in and Miami All-American closer Robbie Morrison on the mound, things were looking bleak for the Tigers, but Morris says he never wavered.
“After the top of the ninth, whenever Miami went ahead, I just, somehow; I didn’t definitely think it was me, but I felt like somehow, some way, we were going to find, get a way to win that game. I just felt like we were a team of destiny,” Morris said.
The walk-off capped off an 8-0 postseason run to a College World Series title.
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