June 8, 1996: Warren Morris’s walk-off homer wins College World Series for Louisiana State

In June 1996 the Louisiana State University Tigers refused to change what they felt was working. They hadn’t lost since switching to gold-colored jerseys on May 23, for the NCAA South II Regional.1 They were about to play the title game of the College World Series, thanks in part to head coach Skip Bertman, who dined at the same steakhouse the night before each of their Omaha games. And when Bertman’s daughter Jodi offered the players a new Easton Reflex bat for their big day – saying it would “make the difference between hitting the wall and going over the wall” – they all chose to stick with their old reliables.2

Everyone but Warren Morris.

In batting practice, the 22-year-old junior second baseman liked how the 28-ounce Reflex’s lighter weight allowed him to swing without refracturing his right hand and wrist, which had already cost him more than half the season. Painted red, white, and blue for that summer’s Olympics, the limited-edition bat shared colors with two teams Morris could play for if his recovery stayed on track: Team USA, coached by Bertman; and the Texas Rangers, who days earlier had selected him in the fifth round of the June amateur draft.

“I’ll use it,” he said.3

The aluminum was his.

The Miami Hurricanes, like many of the Tigers, entered the one-game championship with habits and superstitions. Also like LSU, they had sailed through Omaha’s double-elimination play undefeated; Miami had not so much as trailed in any of that year’s CWS games.4 At a photo shoot days earlier, freshman third baseman Pat “The Bat” Burrell – an NCAA-best .489 hitter whose 181 total bases had already tied his school’s single-season record – refused to swap his well-worn cap for a clean one.5

Minutes into the game, Burrell batted third against LSU starter Kevin Shipp, a junior who had closed out the Tigers’ first two Omaha games.6 On second base stood junior Ryan Grimmett, a center fielder who had led off with a walk and advanced on a groundout.

Burrell wasted no time. He hit the first pitch of his at-bat into left field for a single, adding one more base to his 1996 tally.7 The day’s first hit put runners at the corners.

Both Grimmett and Burrell scored two batters later, on left fielder Michael DeCelle’s bouncing right-field single.

In the third, DeCelle came within inches of his third RBI. He hit a two-out grounder that rolled into shallow right field. Miami second baseman and co-captain Rudy Gomez, who had singled and stolen second, headed home. But Morris dove into the grass, grabbed the ball, and fired to catcher Tim Lanier. Gomez was out – the Hurricanes’ third out.

The bottom of the third gave LSU a comeback opportunity. Miami’s starter and other co-captain, J. D. Arteaga – a junior who had racked up a career-best 12-1 record that season8 – walked Lanier. With the Tigers a home run away from tying, up stepped Morris, at this point LSU’s only starting position player without a round-tripper in ’96.

Morris singled to left, nudging Lanier to second and sparking a three-run rally. Arteaga’s walk to shortstop Jason Williams loaded the bases. Center fielder Mike Koerner’s right-field single brought in Lanier. Third baseman Nathan Dunn’s sacrifice fly sent Morris home. A single by first baseman Eddy Furniss scored Koerner, giving Furniss his 103rd RBI of 1996, a season record for the Southeastern Conference.9 LSU 3, Miami 2.

Miami retook control in the fifth inning – and then some. Gomez singled to right, went to second base on a groundout by Burrell, reached third on a single by right fielder Eddie Rivero, and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly by DeCelle. First baseman T.R. Marcinczyk singled. On a deep drive by shortstop Álex Cora, LSU left fielder Chad Cooley seemed to make a diving catch, but while Cooley tried showing left-field umpire Kevin Gillmore his glove, the ball escaped; Cora barreled to third, scoring Rivero and Marcinczyk. The scorer awarded Cora a triple.10

Miami’s two-run sixth knocked Shipp from the game and allowed the team to stay ahead, 7-5, after the Tigers’ two-run seventh.

But the Hurricanes exhausted their insurance policy in the eighth. Miami closer Robbie Morrison – a freshman right-hander who had collected 14 saves and a 1.11 earned-run average11 – gave up a single to one senior (right fielder Justin Bowles) and walked another (Lanier). After Morris bunted to the front of the mound, Morrison threw to third base late. With two Tigers in scoring position, third baseman Burrell fielded a grounder and nabbed Bowles at home, but Lanier became the new man at third. A flyout by Koerner scored Lanier. Dunn singled, driving in Morris. Miami, 46-2 when up after seven innings,12 had blown what was once a four-run lead. It was a 7-7 game.

Two ninth-inning hits reignited the Hurricanes. With two outs in the Miami half, Marcinczyk doubled down the left-field line, making both teams’ line scores identical: seven runs, 13 hits, two errors. Moments later Cora’s third hit of the game, a slap single to left off reliever Patrick Coogan, tipped the balance. Miami 8, LSU 7.

LSU’s last chance began with a 0-for-4 hitter. Designated hitter Brad Wilson had struck out three times that afternoon, most recently with bases loaded in the seventh. He entered the Tigers’ ninth hitting 1-for-16 in the CWS.13

A hit down the left-field line killed Wilson’s slump. He tested his speed with a backdoor slide into second. Left fielder DeCelle’s crow-hop throw reached second baseman Gomez, but the umpire said the tag was late. Safe with a double, Wilson reached third one at-bat later, on a groundout by Bowles.

Lanier was next. As a freshman in 1993, he had already celebrated one LSU title. Now a team captain, he had a shot to tie – or win – what was to be his final college game. Miami’s infield was in, with the tying run 90 feet from home.

With a full count, Lanier swung. Strike three. Two outs.

The Tigers’ fate rode on Warren Morris.

Viewers in Morris’s home town of Alexandria, Louisiana, refused to look away. A student at Holy Savior Menard Central High School prayed with the TV on. Shoppers at the Alexandria Mall watched on store screens. Barbara Morris, worried that her son’s hand was still hurting him, talked to her living room TV: “Oh, no. He’s going to make the last out.”14

Five seats to the fair side of the right-field foul pole, Omaha resident Richard Dawson leaned toward his son. Either Morris will strike out, he said, “or he’s going to hit a home run.”15

Harsh winds from left field made a home run less likely. Though LSU and Miami had tied the record for hits in a CWS championship game, with 28, nobody had homered that afternoon. “I wasn’t thinking home run,” Morris later said. “I just wanted to keep the inning going.”16

Morris didn’t keep the inning going.

Instead he ended it – in walk-off style. He lined a first-pitch curveball down the right-field line. The ball stayed low enough to avoid hooking foul in the wind, yet high enough to clear the wall. Morris’s first homer for LSU in more than a year won the Tigers their third championship in six years.17

The Miami squad’s two future major leaguers fell to their knees.18 Burrell, who stayed a Hurricane until 1998 but never played in another CWS title game, collapsed near third base.19 Cora – among more than a dozen Miami athletes selected in the 1996 June draft20 – sobbed face-down in the shallow outfield grass, his college career over.

Morrison, the losing pitcher, dropped his head and left the mound.

Morris jumped with both feet and rounded third, raising his once-broken right hand into the air. A dogpile of Tigers, including winning pitcher Coogan, awaited the slugger at home plate.

Once he surfaced from under the gold-colored swarm, Morris told Jodi Bertman, “The bat worked.”21

“Whoever caught the ball up in the stands,” the junior told a reporter, “that’s the greatest play for us all year.”22

The spectator who had made the catch was Dawson. He tracked down someone from LSU to return the ball to Morris. “It’s part of the history of the College World Series,” he said. “He should have this for life.”23

In return, Morris gave Dawson a different ball. This one was autographed.24

“This team is special,” said Bertman, who had caught for the Hurricanes from 1958 to 1960 and coached for LSU since 1984. “We have some tremendous talent, but to win it is a special thing.”25

The coach also credited the wardrobe: “Those awful-looking gold shirts were good luck.”26

The victory bookended the college playing careers of 14 Tigers. Bowles, Cooley, Dunn, outfielder James Hemphill, and future major-league pitchers Brett Laxton and Ed Yarnall joined professional teams later that year.27 Morris won Olympic bronze in Atlanta that summer – with fellow LSU infielder Jason Williams and head coach Bertman – before working toward a five-year big-league career.28

LSU didn’t bring gold jerseys to Omaha in 1997. But with 21 holdover players from ’96, they again returned to Baton Rouge as champions.29

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Keith Thursby. Additional thanks to Gary Belleville, Kurt Blumenau, and John Fredland for reviewing an earlier draft.

Photo credit: Warren Morris, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author consulted a recording of CBS’s game telecast, available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sS-WmX-KD8.

The author also used TheBaseballCube.com and Baseball-Reference.com for player information.

Notes

1 LSU’s previous loss had come against the University of Kentucky on May 18, at the SEC tournament in Hoover, Alabama. The score was 12-11. (See Jimmy Bryan, “Wildcats Stun LSU with 10 Late Runs,” Birmingham News, May 19, 1996: 6B.)

2 Eric Olson, “‘Special Delivery’ Air Mails LSU Win,” Omaha World-Herald, June 9, 1996: CWS-4.

3 Glenn Guilbeau, “Flashback: Warren Morris Hit Most Dramatic HR in College Baseball History on June 8, 1996,” Lafayette (Louisiana) Daily Advertiser online, updated June 8, 2020, https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/sports/college/lsu/2020/06/08/lsus-warren-morris-homered-national-title-24-years-ago-today/5317835002/.

4 Miami’s previous loss had come on May 23, 1996 – in their first game of the NCAA Central I Regional, against Sam Houston State University, in Austin, Texas. (See Bob Rubin, “Top-Seed UM Is Upset, 5-4, by No. 6 Seed,” Miami Herald, May 24, 1996: 1D.)

5 Jeffrey Nixon, “What Will Burrell Do for an Encore?” Alexandria (Louisiana) Daily Town Talk, June 8, 1996: B4.

6 Shipp earned saves on June 1 against Wichita State University, and on June 3 against the University of Florida. See Jeffrey Nixon, “LSU Holds on Over Shockers,” Alexandria Daily Town Talk, June 2, 1996: B-1; Lee Barfknecht, “Tigers Unload on Florida,” Omaha World-Herald, June 4, 1996: CWS-1.

7 Burrell’s school record of 182 total bases in a season proved short-lived. His future Philadelphia Phillies teammate, Jason Michaels, totaled 189 for Miami in 1997. (See Jorge Milian, “Michaels Grows Into UM Star,” Palm Beach Post, June 5, 1997: 5C; “Jason Michaels,” TheBaseballCube.com, https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/player/7564/.)

8 Jeffrey Nixon, “Title Game: LSU Plays Miami Today in College World Series,” Alexandria Daily Town Talk, June 8, 1996: A1.

9 The previous record-holder was Todd Walker, who drove in 102 runs for LSU’s 1993 championship team. (See “Eddy Furniss,” LSUSports.net, https://lsusports.net/sports/bsb/roster/player/eddy-furniss/, accessed June 2026; “Todd Walker,” LSUSports.net, https://lsusports.net/sports/bsb/roster/player/todd-walker/, accessed June 2026.)

10 Mitch Sherman, “Miami’s Cora Fulfilled His Role,” Omaha World-Herald, June 9, 1996: CWS-3.

11 Nixon, “Title Game: LSU Plays Miami Today in College World Series.”

12 Jeffrey Nixon, “LSU Wins It!!!” Alexandria Daily Town Talk, June 9, 1996: B1.

13 Nixon, “LSU Wins It!!!”

14 Guilbeau. “Flashback.”

15 Nixon, “LSU Wins It!!!”

16 Bob Rubin, “Glory Grounded in Ninth: LSU Shocks UM on Two-Out HR,” Miami Herald, June 9, 1996: 1C.

17 The LSU Tigers had previously won two College World Series, defeating Wichita State in 1991 and 1993.

18 Alan Schmadtke (Orlando Sentinel), “UM Falls One Pitch Short in CWS,” Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), June 9, 1996: 1C.

19 Burrell was the first overall pick in the 1998 Major League Baseball draft. He made his major-league debut on May 24, 2000, for the Philadelphia Phillies, and later finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting. He spent another eight seasons in Philadelphia, hitting 20 or more home runs in each. He played with the Tampa Bay Rays from 2009 to May 2010, then the San Francisco Giants from June 2010 through 2011. His big-league statistics include a .253 batting average, 1,393 hits, 976 RBIs, and 292 home runs.

20 Cora, selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the third round of the June 1996 draft, played for six teams over his 14-season major-league career: Dodgers (1998–2004), Indians (2005), Red Sox (2005–08), Mets (2009–10), Rangers (2010), Nationals (2011).

Other University of Miami athletes drafted in 1996 were Arteaga (Pirates, did not sign), DeCelle (Devil Rays, reached Class A), catcher Jim Gargiulo (Cardinals, reached A), Gomez (Yankees, reached AAA), Grimmett (Mariners, did not sign), Marcinczyk (Athletics, reached AAA), outfielder Tris Moore (Tigers, reached Advanced-A), pitcher Denis Pujals (Devil Rays, reached AAA), outfielder Eddie Rivero (Phillies, reached AA), pitcher Clint Weibl (Cardinals, reached AAA), and pitcher Allen Westfall (Mariners, reached AA). In addition, the White Sox selected Kenard Lang, whose stint with the ’96 Hurricanes is noted on Wichita (Kansas) Eagle, May 31, 1996: 2BB; Lang, who did not sign, played in the National Football League as a defensive end from 1997 to 2006.

Including Burrell, six members of the ’96 Hurricanes were drafted in later years: Arteaga (Mets in 1997, reached AAA), Grimmett (Tigers in 1997, reached Advanced-A), pitcher Laz Gutierrez (Tigers in 1998, reached A), pitcher Timothy Burton (Mariners in 1999, reached Advanced-A), and Morrison (Royals in 1998, reached AA). Non-draft signings included pitcher Dave Mastrolonardo (Orioles in 1997, reached Advanced-A), catcher Mike Lopez-Cao (Devil Rays in 1997, reached Orioles’ AAA team), and catcher-first baseman Kevin Nykoluk (Cardinals in 1998, reached Advanced-A).

21 Olson.

22 Nixon, “LSU Wins It!!!”

23 Nixon, “LSU Wins It!!!”

24 Nixon, “LSU Wins It!!!”

25 “In the End, Tigers Are Purrfect,” Omaha World-Herald, June 9, 1996: CWS-1.

26 Associated Press, “LSU Celebration Set Today,” Alexandria Daily Town Talk, June 9, 1996: B5.

27 Yarnall, drafted by the New York Mets in 1996, signed with the club that August, as noted in “Aquinas’ Yarnall Joins Mets,” Miami Herald, August 14, 1996: 4C. He made his major-league debut with the New York Yankees on July 15, 1999. He played five games with the ’99 Yankees and two with the 2000 squad. His major-league statistics include a 1-0 record and a 5.40 ERA. Laxton, selected by the Oakland Athletics in 1996, made his big-league debut on June 21, 1999. He played three games with Oakland (0-1, 7.45 ERA) and six with the 2000 Kansas City Royals (0-1, 8.10 ERA). Bowles played five seasons in the Oakland Athletics organization, peaking at the Class-AA level. Cooley, who had been drafted by the Minnesota Twins in 1992 but did not sign, spent summer 1996 in the independent Prairie League. Dunn played three seasons in the San Diego Padres farm system, reaching Advanced-A. Hemphill played rookie ball in the Milwaukee Brewers organization in 1996, followed by three seasons with independent clubs. Williams spent four seasons in the Cincinnati Reds system, reaching AAA. (The Padres picked Lanier in the 10th round of the ’96 draft, but he did not sign.)

28 Morris made his big-league debut on April 5, 1999, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He closed the season with a .288 average, 73 RBI, and 15 home runs, finishing third in National League Rookie of the Year voting. He stayed with Pittsburgh through 2001, then he split his final two major-league seasons between the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers. His career major-league statistics include a .267 batting average, 399 hits, 164 RBIs, and 26 home runs.

29 To verify who played on both the 1996 and ’97 LSU teams, the author cross-checked the university’s official rosters, available here: https://lsusports.net/sports/bsb/roster/season/1996/; https://lsusports.net/sports/bsb/roster/season/1997/. In 1997 five of LSU’s returning players were drafted: outfielder Tom Bernhardt (Cubs, reached Low-A), Coogan (Cardinals, reached AAA), shortstop Casey Cuntz (Diamondbacks, reached Advanced-A), Koerner (Athletics, reached Advanced-A), and Shipp (Phillies, reached Advanced-A). Another three members of the 1996 championship team were drafted in ’98: pitcher Chris Demouy (Angels, reached AAA), pitcher Jake Esteves (Giants, reached AA), and pitcher Dan Guillory (Indians, reached AA). In addition, Conan Horton, who had been selected by the Chicago White Sox in 1994 as a freshman but did not sign, spent summer 1997 in the Dodgers’ farm system, followed by two years in the independent Western League. Painich played in the independent Northern League in the summers of 1997 and ’98. Outfielder Jeremy Witten spent 2000 in the independent Northern League East. After 1997, LSU won one more College World Series title under Bertman, defeating Stanford University in 2000.