STONY BROOK -- For a little while, at least, upstart Stony Brook is grabbing the kind of attention usually reserved for Derek Jeter, David Wright and the big league stars in New York.

"Our motto is: 'Shock the world and win the last game of the season,'" said center fielder Travis Jankowski, the Seawolves' leading hitter at .422 and the 44th overall selection in last week's Major League Baseball amateur draft. "So as long as we do that, we should be all right from here on out."

"They gained an awful lot of respect not only down here but nationwide," Mainieri continued. "That team can play with anybody."

The Seawolves are the first team from New York State to reach the College World Series since 1980 and the first team from the Northeast since Maine in 1986.

Stony Brook demonstrated that with relentless hitting and stifling pitching against LSU. Starter Frankie Vanderka bounced back from a Game 1 loss in a relief role and threw a complete-game three-hitter in the series clincher. Travis Jankowski had four hits and scored two runs, while Maxx Tissenbaum drove in three runs with a pair of doubles.

When Vanderka's fifth strikeout ended the game, and he was buried under a celebratory dog pile moments afterward, it was a surreal sight for Stony Brook coach Matt Senk, who recalled "doing backflips" when he was first hired at then-Division III Stony Brook in 1991. Some 22 seasons later, he's headed for college baseball's promised land on the heels of stopping the mighty Tigers from booking their 16th appearance in Omaha.

"I'm a little overwhelmed, quite frankly, because I think I do know the magnitude of this," Senk said, describing how former LSU coach Skip Bertman, winner of five national titles, congratulated him after the game. "To make it to Omaha (is) every college baseball team's dream, every college baseball coach's dream and it's come to fruition. And to do it against LSU, Alex Box Stadium ... to shake coach Bertman's hand on the way in. Oh my God. Having that man congratulate me for going to the College World Series, it's just unbelievable."

Stony Brook, which has won 28 of 30 and will face UCLA in the opening game in Omaha, became only the second team to open the tournament as a No. 4 seed in the regional round and reach the College World Series. The first was Fresno State in 2008 which went on to win the national title.

This Stony Brook squad, which beat host Miami in winning the Coral Gables Regional, just might be good enough to repeat that feat. Playing before crowds of 10,000-plus wearing LSU purple-and-gold, the Seawolves didn't merely survive so much as thrive, outhitting LSU 35-15 in the series.

The only time the Seawolves (52-13) trailed in the three games was when Mason Katz hit a walk-off single to end a thrilling Game 1 in the bottom of the 12th, and outhit LSU 15-3 in the series finale.

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Stony Brook heads to 1st ever College World Series