Macaluso: 1989 defining year for LSU baseball

• By JOE MACALUSO
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jun 10, 2009 - Page: 1C

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Saturday’s conversation with Skip Bertman centered around Mike Bianco, Ole Miss baseball’s coach. LSU’s opponent in the College World Series opener came down to either Ole Miss or Virginia.

Bianco played for and coached with Bertman at LSU. Part II focused on the relationship between current LSU coach Paul Mainieri and Virginia coach Brian O’Connor and the nine years they coached together at Notre Dame.

Somewhere in the interview, Bertman mentioned Bianco was the leader on the team “that defined us.”

That was 1989: Bianco was a senior catcher, who couldn’t have known that he was catching five major league pitchers that season.

In 1989, Ben McDonald earned the Golden Spikes Award. The other four pitchers? Russ Springer, Curt Leskanic, Chad Ogea and Paul Byrd. LSU, 48-14, was second in the SEC.

LSU, who’d reached the CWS in 1986 and ’87, bid for a regional, but was sent to Texas A&M as a No. 2 seed. The No. 1-ranked Aggies, 55-5, came with a message to Bertman and his Tigers something on the order of if they wanted to be the best, they’d have to beat the best.

It’s the same sort of message the NCAA sent to Atlantic Coast Conference tournament-champion Virginia this year. O’Connor’s up-and-coming program was sent to UC Irvine to take on No. 1 Irvine, San Diego State and defending champion Fresno State.

Back to LSU and 1989: In the span of four days, the Tigers went 5-1: 12-10 over UNLV in the opener, then a 6-4 loss to South Alabama before what arguably is the best 36 hours in LSU baseball history.

In that day and a half, the Tigers eliminated UNLV 13-8, then South Alabama 6-5 to reach the Central Regional’s finals and the Aggies, who had swelled their record to 58-5 after steamrolling three regional opponents 65-13.

With McDonald on the mound — and a thermometer hitting 105 degrees — LSU beat the Aggies 13-5 to force a deciding game.

By the time the sun set over Olsen Field, A&M was up 3-0 in the first inning. LSU scratched across a run in the top of the second; A&M added another in the third. The Tigers got two runs in the fifth and tied it at 4 with a run in the top of the eighth.

Fast forward to the 11th inning: Craig Cala doubled and was at second base with two outs when Bertman went to the bench for Pat Garrity, who had 19 at-bats all season.

Tension gripped the stadium. Garrity doubled high off the right-field fence off A&M ace reliever Scott Centala. Cala scored.