OMAHA, Neb. -- When Stanford third baseman Jonny Ash laid in bed on the eve of the biggest game of his college career Wednesday night, he experienced a dream that even he couldn't believe.

It was the bottom of the ninth, there were two outs and he was at-bat against All-World closer Chad Cordero of Cal State Fullerton. The Cardinal were down by one, until Ash lifted a two-run homer over the right field wall to win the game.

	Jonny Ash's game-tying homer enabled Stanford to celebrate a win on Thursday.

Pretty shocking, considering in over 275 career at-bats, Ash, a slap hitter, had never homered. Pretty shocking considering in 53 innings, Cordero had only given up two home runs all year.

Yet that was the dream.

And on Thursday night, it happened.

Well, almost. Ash belted a two-strike, two-run, one-out homer off Cordero in the top of the seventh inning, not the bottom of the ninth, to tie Thursday's win-or-go-home game at 5-5. Stanford eventually went on to win 7-5, reaching the championship round, when Danny Putnam belted a two-run homer of his own in the 10th.

"But I'll tell you what," Putnam said. "Without Ash's homer, mine doesn't mean a thing. We don't win this baseball game. I'm so happy for him, I have goosebumps."

After the game, Ash didn't know quite how to react. When asked if he felt like Ozzie Smith, a reference to the 1986 playoffs, when the Wizard belted a game-winning homer after going homerless all season, he didn't get it.

"Uhhh, no," Ash said, confused. "Not really. It feels great to win, I guess."

Then a reporter explained what he meant.

"Oh yeah," Ash said. "Yeah, definitely. Then I definitely feel like that."

In addition to the dream, Ash said that Stanford third base coach Dean Stotz predicted such drama a few weeks back during a batting cage session in Palo Alto. Ash was ripping the cover off the ball in practice and Stotz pulled the junior aside.

"He told me, when we get to Omaha in a couple weeks, that I was going to get one for us -- a big one." Ash said, "And sure enough I did."

Cordero, the first-round pick of the Montreal Expos and one of the best pitchers in college baseball, was unusually called on with two outs in the sixth inning. His longest career outing was four innings and he had gone three innings twice this year. After retiring Brian Hall in the sixth and Tobin Swope to lead-off the seventh, Cordero surrendered a double to Sam Fuld before Ash came up to bat.

With the count even at 2-2, Cordero threw a fastball on the inner portion of the plate. It was exactly what Ash was looking for. And it was up.

"I went after him the same way I do everybody else -- I just pound fastballs," Cordero said. "I just left that one up. And he happened to hit it over the fence. There's nothing you can do about it."

Said Ash: "It was a little up and I put a really good swing on it. I pretty much knew it was out because I didn't feel the ball."

The homer was the first Cordero had surrendered in the postseason in three years. And it was just the second run he had allowed in his last 32 innings, a stretch that dates back to March 16.

"It's tough," Fullerton head coach George Horton said. "Chad gave us everything he had out there tonight."

Though it turned out that Ash was the hero, he almost as easily could have been the goat. The third baseman came to bat with the bases loaded and one out in the second inning, only to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.

Afterward, the visibly frustrated Ash was consoled by Putnam.

"He was beating himself up and I was like, 'Hey -- you hit the ball hard. It wasn't a weak grounder back to the pitcher, you hit the ball on the nose. It was a good at-bat.

"Don't be hard on yourself, we're going to need you later."

And when they did, he delivered. But it only tied the game, meaning Ash would have to put the homer behind him as quickly as the ball sailed out of Rosenblatt Stadium. He didn't have trouble doing so in the field, but the next time he came to bat in the ninth and the Stanford faithful gave him a rousing ovation, he popped up a sacrifice bunt attempt to Fullerton catcher Kurt Suzuki.

"When I heard the fans, I got a little too excited," he said. "And I didn't execute. But Danny (Putnam) was there to pick me up. And we were able to win."

Who says dreams don't come true?

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn3.com.