Chuck Carlton

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OMAHA, Neb. – Texas gained one more chance for the unexpected, one more chance to stun the college baseball world and one more chance to earn a spot in history.

Taylor Jungmann put the epilogue to the Longhorns' season on hold. The freshman right-hander won his third game at the College World Series, striking out nine and holding LSU batters to only five hits in a 5-1 victory Tuesday.

"It's the drama, baby, it's the drama," Texas coach Augie Garrido said as he finished a radio interview on the field.

The deciding Game 3 of the championship round is 6 p.m. today at Rosenblatt Stadium, with LSU's Anthony Ranaudo facing Texas' Cole Green, the former Coppell standout.

When everything is decided, either Texas will win its seventh NCAA title or LSU will capture its sixth.

Texas showed no signs of an emotional hangover after blowing a lead in a 7-6, 11-inning loss to LSU in Game 1.

Tuesday, the Longhorns scored all of their runs in the first three innings.

Russell Moldenhauer and Preston Clark homered. Clark, the senior from Rockwall, went 3-for-4. Moldenhauer had been pulled in Game 2, despite hitting two home runs, because Garrido didn't want a lefty vs. lefty matchup.

Moldenhauer's response? A home run against LSU left-hander Ryan Byrd.

"If I got disappointed, it would have affected the whole team," Moldenhauer said. "We stayed strong."

Jungmann helped greatly. The wildness that surfaced in a six-pitch relief appearance in Game 1 was nowhere to be found.

"I was very confident," Garrido said about Jungmann. "I think the best thing for a pitcher's curveball is a four-run lead."

LSU coach Paul Mainieri gambled by starting sophomore right-hander Austin Ross and saving Ranaudo for a possible Game 3.

The downside became obvious. The Tigers' starting pitching depth has been barely average after Ranaudo and Game 1 starter Louis Coleman.

Ross lasted just two innings and 41 pitches, allowing two runs and four hits. Byrd didn't survive the third inning, yielding three hits and three runs.

The Tigers celebrated like they had won the CWS after Game 1.

Yet, they looked like the team feeling pressure early in Game 2.

LSU helped Texas manufacture a run in the top of the first on a throwing error by catcher Micah Gibbs on a pickoff attempt.

The error was LSU's first of the CWS.

"The start was horrible for us," Mainieri said.

In the sixth inning, LSU's Blake Dean tried to advance to third on Gibbs' fly ball to center field. But he was out on an appeal, ruled to have left second base early.

Maybe the Tigers suddenly realized more work remained.

LSU football coach Les Miles made the trip from Baton Rouge in anticipation of watching another group of Tigers celebrate a national title, like his team did after the 2007 season.

Throughout the 94-minute rain delay, about 100 hardy LSU faithful kept their bleacher seats through weather apparently imported from the movies Day After Tomorrow.

Both will have to return for Game 3 today if they want to see an LSU coronation.