Dubois: Bullpen a big relief for Tigers

• By CARL DUBOIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jun 2, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

There is always work to be done. LSU won its regional with an 11-4 victory Sunday night against Southern Miss, and LSU pitching coach Terry Rooney had another job on his hands.

His wife wanted photos of her with Paul Mainieri’s wife and the girlfriend of assistant coach Javi Sanchez. He obliged. Click. Click.

The camera was soon replaced in his hands by sheets of paper representing the labor of his pitchers during the regional, including the starting point of his agenda for the week.

“Our relief pitching for the last few weeks has been very good,” Rooney said after watching Paul Bertuccini slam the door and Jared Bradford put a chair against it. “I thought this weekend our starting pitching was average.”

Ryan Verdugo and Blake Martin did their jobs, giving the Tigers a chance to win, but they’ll need better command in the super regional against UC Irvine.

“We’ll go to work this week and get them ready to go, but overall I thought our pitchers did a good job as a staff,” Rooney said.

The Tigers took the traditional postgame victory lap to slap hands with fans who during the game chanted “Skip! Skip!” as LSU’s retiring athletic director and former coach rested following his Saturday evening scare.

Rooney’s first regional at Alex Box Stadium lived up to its billing.

“All the places I’ve been since I’ve played and coached in college,” Rooney said, “you always hear about the regional setting here at Alex Box, and it was everything everyone said it would be — and more.”

It started when fans, asked by Mainieri to wear LSU gold, did just that Friday.

“We all just took a moment to step back and recognize just how awesome it was,” Rooney said.

Freshman catcher Micah Gibbs, ineligible for his senior high school season because of a transfer ruling, became a believer.