OMAHA, Neb. – The game between the only two teams to hold the No. 1 ranking this season lived up to its billing.

And it ended with another clutch hit that has Wake Forest’s baseball team one win closer to a national title.

Bennett Lee’s RBI single through the left side scored Danny Corona from second base, and Camden Minacci shut the door in the ninth for the Deacons’ 3-2 win over LSU on Monday night at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.

“A lot of star power in that game, and it didn’t disappoint,” Wake Forest coach Tom Walter said.

It puts the Deacons (54-10) one victory away from winning Bracket 2 of the Men’s College World Series. They’ll have Tuesday off and play Wednesday night for a chance to reach a best-of-3 final series against the winner of Bracket 1, of which Florida is in control.

LSU (49-16) drops into a Tuesday rematch against Tennessee for an elimination game. The Tigers beat the Vols in an earlier matchup out here, 6-3, on Saturday night, and Tennessee bounced back with a 6-4 win that knocked out Stanford on Monday.

Everything in Monday night’s showdown came down to the eighth inning.

We pick things up with Tre’ Morgan leading off with a double — the first LSU batter to lead off an inning by reaching base. A bobbled grounder up the middle made it runners on the corners with zero outs, and Cade Beloso hit a slow roller to third baseman Brock Wilken.

The junior who’s come so far defensively charged, double-clutched to get a better angle, and threw home to Lee, who dropped the tag on Morgan.

“He said the ball was literally still spinning in his glove when he went to throw it,” Lee said of Wilken. “From my perspective, I’ve done millions of picks in my life and I just took over. I’ve got good hands and it just took over.”

That’s where Wake Forest turned to Minacci, who’s been lights-out since a couple of subpar outings in May.

“There’s no one I’d rather be in the foxhole with battling with 30,000 people screaming at us,” Lee said of Minacci, his high school teammate from Jesuit High School in Tampa, Fla.

“To go from starting games in high school to closing games in college, with him behind the plate, it’s kind of a full-circle moment. And it’s pretty incredible,” added Minacci.

Minacci’s second pitch was a 5-4-3 double play — Wilken the defensive savant, again — and the Deacons went to the bottom of the inning with momentum.

Corona’s one-out double into the right field corner was Wake’s first — and only — extra-base hit of the game.

Lee fell behind in the count before asking for a timeout and a visit from associate head coach Bill Cilento, who was coaching third base.

“I just told him it was good to see him and it sure would be great if he could hit a ball through the infield,” Cilento said with a laugh. “Danny would score, Cam could get three outs and we would go home.

“We both laughed a little bit, he said, ‘Thanks,’ and he went back and did it.”

Minacci didn’t allow a baserunner in the ninth; that was Wake’s first 1-2-3 inning since the first.

It was befitting for this heavyweight matchup of the only teams to hold No. 1 rankings in the national polls. So close during the regular season and on a collision course since the NCAA baseball championship bracket was set.

LSU got two runs early and Wake Forest got two runs three innings later.

Josh Hartle went six innings, throwing a career-high 107 pitches. The sophomore lefty had nine strikeouts and a season-high four walks, but battled his way through a rough third inning in which N.C. State transfer Tommy White lined a two-out single to drive in the game’s first run, and then White scored LSU’s second run when left fielder Adam Cecere lost a ball in the sun.

Pierce Bennett was the only Deacon to reach base in the first four innings, walking in the first inning and hitting a single in the fourth. Lee had a single in the fifth, so for the first five innings of this game, the only Deacons to reach base were those with “Bennett” in their names.

The Deacons broke through on the scoreboard when LSU starter Ty Floyd walked three straight batters to begin the sixth. Wilken hit a single up the middle to drive in a run after a pitching change, and Justin Johnson’s double play groundout at least pushed in Bennett to tie the game.

Extra bases: Wake’s lineup was the same as it was Saturday, with notable differences from past lineups being Bennett in the 2-hole, Corona hitting sixth, Cecere starting in left field and hitting eighth. It’s the first time in seven NCAA tournament games the Deacons have repeated a lineup from their previous game. … Lucas Costello was a defensive replacement for Cecere to start the seventh; Cecere struck out three times, including to end the sixth with the bases loaded. … Hartle’s nine strikeouts give him 140 this season, which is Wake’s single-season record … for now. Rhett Lowder has 137, one behind the record Hartle passed, which was Mike Buddie’s 138 in 1992.