LSU wins seventh MCWS championship in dominant performance

If there were any questions about which program was the most dominant college baseball team in the modern era, LSU put all that to rest Monday night, as they won their seventh national title in an 18-4 blowout of SEC rival Florida in the decisive Game 3 of the College World Series.

Just 24 hours earlier, the Tigers had to be doubting themselves after suffering an astonishing 24-4 loss to the Gators in Game 2. If any game would suck the confidence and momentum out of a winner-take-all championship matchup, a 20-run drubbing would usually do the trick.

But LSU is no stranger to this moment, having won six titles in the last 33 years coming into Monday's title game. So even when they immediately went down 2-0 in the bottom of the first, they never seemed fazed. 

In fact, the early deficit acted as a wakeup call, and they quickly answered in the top of the second inning with a six-run explosion that set the tone for the rest of the evening.

By the time Josh Pearson went deep in the top of the third to make the score 10-2, the mood in the stadium was one of jubilation for the Tigers and one of deflation and acceptance for the Gators, who were the SEC regular-season champs, but couldn't overcome the barrage fed to them by their arch rivals when it mattered most.