Warren Morris’ Walk-Off HR Is Still One of The Best Moments In LSU Baseball History

Nearly 30 years ago, on June 8, 1996, LSU baseball found itself playing for its third national championship on a cool and breezy afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska.

Walking into Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium for the sixth time in program history, LSU was looking to make even more. The stadium was electric for the final game of that year’s NCAA baseball season, with an attendance of 23,905 — 760 people more than the stadium’s 23,145 capacity.

But as LSU prepared to play in the winner-take-all championship game against Miami, head coach Skip Bertman stumbled across good news.

The Program-Altering News

Bertman had been told that his early-season starting second baseman, Warren Morris, who led LSU’s offense with a .369 batting average and eight home runs the season before, had felt “100%” when swinging his bat that morning. That was something that Bertman had been hoping to hear since the last day of February that year.

And in the ninth inning, down one run with two outs and a runner on third, senior second baseman Morris stepped to the plate.

He had missed 42 games that season with a broken hamate bone in his right hand. Now, Bertman, every LSU fan and even Morris himself, were simply looking for a base hit to tie the game.

Miami pitcher Robbie Morrison threw the first pitch.

“A breaking ball, down and in, to a lefty,” Bertman said when recalling the moment. “That’s probably not what you want to do.”

Morris swung and made contact with the ball sending it to right field.

“When that ball starts going toward right field, I’m running hard trying to get to second for a double,” Morris said.

The result of the play was truly unexpected, even for Bertman.

“I don't know who would be expecting it,” he said.

Morris definitely wasn’t.

“I was as shocked as anybody,” Morris said.

The Play That Almost Never Happened

June 25, 2010; Omaha, NE, USA; A general view as the sun sets behind the stadium during game 12 of the 2010 College World Series between the South Carolina Gamecocks and Clemson Tigers at Rosenblatt Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Crystal LoGiudice-Imagn Images | Crystal LoGiudice-Imagn Images

Today, most LSU fans know this story: Morris misses a lot of the season, comes back and hits a walk-off home run. LSU wins the championship and it’s remembered forever. It’s not exactly new.

But what many fans don’t know is how Morris had come to terms with ending his baseball career after injuring his hamate bone earlier in the season.

The hamate bone is a bone in your hand that is commonly broken in sports like baseball and golf, often called a “swinging injury.”

It’s not an invasive surgery, but the injury, and the timeline it takes to heal, can be extensive.

“You have surgery to get the broken piece taken out, and you basically just wait for the scar to heal,” Morris said about the recovery process from the surgery. “When you're good to swing, you can get back in there, but some guys came back in 30 days, and it took some guys like 70 days.”

In the majors, six-time MLB all-star Jose Canseco missed time in 1989 because of the surgery, missing 65 days. But around the same time as Morris’ injury, Baseball Hall of Famer and 13-time all-star Ken Griffey Jr. underwent the same surgery to fix the same bone. It took him just 25 days to make a comeback.

But before Morris’ surgery, he endured two months of pain with no relief and no ability to swing a bat.

"I just finally came to a point where I was like, 'God, if this is something you want me to do, then I'll do it. But I'm not worrying about it anymore — I'm turning it over to you,’” Morris said in a recent interview. “I don't know if I have some freak injury that I just can't play anymore. If that's the case, then I'll go that route, get my degree, and just do something outside of sports.”

He had come to terms with the possibility of his career being over.

Morris said his surrendering to the Lord brought immediate relief to his mental health, explaining that it felt like a weight was taken off of his shoulders. But he also credits that surrender to something else.

“Maybe that was what the man upstairs was waiting for, because about two days later, they sent me to the hospital early in the morning to do some more tests,” Morris said. “This time the radiologist called me in and he said, ‘Hey, this scan we just took, it shows something we haven't seen on any of the others. Look at this right here, this bone right here. It's called the hamate bone. I can see clearly there's a break in it, that's the problem.’”

And now Morris had answers. Answers that showed him that he was meant to be playing baseball and that, ultimately, he was one step closer to a return.

Morris was thrilled with the news, but now came a new set of hurdles: surgery and the road to a comeback. That begged the question: how long until he’s back on the field?

For Morris, he had 29 days before postseason baseball.

“So if it's meant to be, it's meant to be,” Morris said.

The surgery was successful and now it was a race to get healthy before the regional.

"I was nowhere near 100%,” Morris said about his return. “But [Bertman] said,'That's fine. You just do what you can do.' I could throw, I could do all of that. But swinging, it was more like I was kind of 40 or 50%."

And that was enough; LSU had made it to Omaha, all while Morris had gone through the regional and the first nine days of the College World Series playing at a fraction of his full self.

"He missed 42 games,” Bertman said. “He had to bunt in the regional because he couldn't swing full speed, but he got better every day. On the 10th day at the World Series, he was feeling real good."

On that 10th day, LSU was down 8-7. It had placed the tying run on third and the winning run at the plate with one out in the inning.

The Decision of a Lifetime

LSU basebal — Jun 22, 2025; Omaha, Neb, USA; The LSU Tigers celebrate after defeating the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers to win the championship at Charles Schwab Field. Mandatory Credit: Dylan Widger-Imagn Images | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Up stepped Tim Lanier for LSU, a Baton Rouge native and product of Catholic High, who had mashed a grand slam earlier in the CWS. The stage was truly set for a beautiful hometown hero moment.

“Tim knows, we talked about it all the time — you just got to put the ball in play,” Morris said while reliving Lanier’s at-bat. “You just can't pop up, can't strike out. And he battles the guy to a full count, and sure enough, [Morrison] just got the best of him, and Tim swings and misses.”

That put Morris at the plate — the nine-hole hitter, recovering from surgery in his swinging hand.

"As I walked up to the plate, I remember trying my best not to think about negative things,” Morris said. “Tim looked at me with these steely eyes and said three words: ‘pick me up.' I just remember from that point on, I had one thought and one thought only — I don't care what happens right here, I'm going to be aggressive.”

Morris credits his aggressiveness to his decision to even swing at the first pitch.

In that moment, the breaking ball flies off his bat and directly toward the right field wall. And with Morris’ health and the wind that day — gusting in toward home plate at 12 miles per hour — a home run wasn’t even a dream.

But Morris hit it to the one spot that a home run could hit: just feet over the right field wall.

"The wind wasn't a factor,” Bertman said. “I mean, he lined it. It was a rocket into the right field seats. It wasn't wind-aided or anything like that."

But the ball crossed the fence, LSU players jumped out of the dugout and Morris rounded the bases “as shocked as anyone” with his hands extended straight up above his head.

LSU had done it. The Tigers had won.

But that wasn’t the only history made that day. The walk-off marked the first walk-off championship-winning home run in CWS history, and it also was something that Bertman can only recall happening on one other occasion.

“Nobody in the history of the College World Series ever hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth to win the game,” Bertman said. “So it's never been done, even in the big leagues, except once.

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