OMAHA, Neb. — Coming out of last season, LSU coach Jay Johnson couldn’t have foreseen the national championship this group of tenacious Tigers is taking back to Baton Rouge.

“It was probably a year ago today,” he said, “we had 12 players in our program that actually played on the field for us in 2024. Twelve.”

Then, quoting his mentor and LSU baseball patriarch Skip Bertman, Johnson said: “We ended up with some really good fortune.”

LSU knocked previously unbeaten Coastal Carolina ace Jacob Morrison out of the game with a four-run fourth inning and the Tigers won their second national title in three years Sunday with a 5-3 victory in the College World Series finals.

The Tigers (53-15) completed a two-game sweep of the Chanticleers (56-13), who entered the finals on a 26-game win streak and on Sunday saw coach Kevin Schnall and first base coach Matt Schilling ejected in the bottom of the first inning.

LSU gave the Southeastern Conference its sixth straight national title in baseball and 11th in 16 years. It was LSU’s eighth, all since 1991 and second most all-time behind Southern California’s 12.

Johnson became the first Division I coach to win two titles in his first four years at a school. No other coach had accomplished that feat in fewer than eight seasons.

“It’s not to be taken for granted, being here two years ago,” Johnson said. “That was special. Greatest night of my life. This is equal and maybe even tops in some ways.”

The 2023 team was led by Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews, the top two picks in the MLB amateur draft that year, and slugger Tommy White. It was built to win a championship.

The good fortune Johnson referred to was mixing those 12 returning players from last season with a talented freshman class that mostly showed up intact after the draft and was rated No. 1 in college baseball, along with 10 transfers — including three ranked in the top 10 in the portal rankings. The team coalesced quickly.

“We went through probably the hardest schedule in college baseball and we had one hiccup — one. A little speed bump at Auburn,” Johnson said, referring to being swept in a three-game series in April. “But other than that, they dominated the season and they dominated the schedule.”

Coastal Carolina won the national title in 2016 and was trying to become the first team since 1962 (Michigan) and the fifth all-time to win the championship in its first two CWS appearances.

“To get us just back to Omaha after what we did in 2016, and then to come to Omaha and play the way we did and get us back to the World Series finals is really incredible,” Schnall said. “These two games won’t define what this team was.”