Mainieri's Milestones

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 5, 2009 - Page: 8C

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2006

June 28: Mainieri is introduced as the new LSU baseball coach, taking over a program where he played for a season in 1976.

2007

• Feb. 29: Mainieri coaches his first game with the Tigers, a 4-3 victory against St. Mary’s (Calif.).
• March 16: Mainieri leads LSU in his first SEC game, a 5-0 loss at South Carolina.
• May 17-19: No. 1-ranked Vanderbilt sweeps LSU in Nashville to close out the season, ending the Tigers’ 22-year streak of qualifying for the SEC Tournament. LSU also misses the NCAA Tournament for a second year in row. Although the Tigers finished 29-26-1 – their worst victory total since 1983 – they claim victory in four of seven SEC series against ranked foes, three on the road.

2008

• Feb. 22: LSU begins the final season at the old Alex Box Stadium by downing Indiana 7-1.
• March 14, 16: Tennessee sweeps the Tigers to open SEC play, extending their losing streak to five games — the longest in Mainieri’s three seasons.
• April 18-20: Georgia clips LSU twice and then rallies to forge a 10-10, 12-inning tie at the Box. The frustrating weekend leaves the Tigers 23-16-1 overall, 6-11-1 in the SEC with four weeks left in the regular season.
• April 22-May 17: DJ LeMahieu’s two-out, eighth-inning single sparks an 8-4 come-from-behind victory at Tulane two nights after the Georgia series, triggering a school- and SEC-record 23-game winning streak. The memorable streak includes 12 straight wins to finish the SEC season, which allows LSU to surge past the rest of the West Division field for an 18-11-1 record.
• May 21-25: A stirring ninth-inning rally allows the Tigers to stun South Carolina in the SEC Tournament opener and then go 4-0 to win the first tourney crown since 2000.
• May 30-June 1: The winning streak tops out at 23 games when the Tigers blaze through NCAA Regional play with three wins.
• June 7-9: UC Irvine ends LSU’s streak with an 11-5 Super Regional opening win at the Box, and then threaten to end the Tigers season with a 7-4 ninth-inning lead in the second game. But the Tigers storm back with five runs in the ninth to force a third game and then bomb the Anteaters 21-7 in the finale to punch a ticket back to the College World Series for the first time in four years. The last game at Alex Box Stadium is one to remember.
• June 15-20: LSU’s trip to Omaha, Neb., is short-lived as the Tigers lose twice to North Carolina. But LSU manages to stage a dramatic comeback for a 6-5 win against Rice in between, ending a five-game CWS losing streak.
• Postseason: Assistant coaches Terry Rooney and Cliff Godwin leave to take over the program at Central Florida. Mainieri hires Michigan State head coach David Grewe as the Tigers pitching coach and recruiting coordinator and promotes young assistants Javi Sanchez and Will Davis.

2009

• Preseason: With experienced players back at every position and a talented pitching staff, LSU is anointed the No. 1 team in the country in two major polls, No. 2 in the other two.
• Feb. 20-22: The Tigers launch a new era with a three-game sweep over Villanova to christen the new Alex Box Stadium. In the season opener, a record crowd of 9,054 stuffs the stadium — a record twice broken later in the season.
• March 13-May 16: LSU wins all five SEC road series and nine of 10 league sets overall on the way to a 20-10 mark in what is regarded as the toughest league in the country. The Tigers blow past Mississippi State 15-4 in Starkville, Miss., in the final game of the regular season to claim a share of the 2009 SEC championship.
• May 20-June 19: The Tigers lose their SEC Tournament opener, 4-1 to Vanderbilt, but climb all the way back to win the event with a 6-2 triumph over the Commodores. Those five wins are the start of a 14-game postseason wining streak that covers NCAA Regional and Super Regional play and a 3-0 start at the CWS that lands LSU in the championship round for the first time since 2000.
• June 22-24: The Tigers square off with Texas in the College World Series finals, snaring a heart-stopping 7-6, 11-inning triumph in the opener. The Longhorns force a third game with a 5-1 win and forge a 4-4 tie after five innings in the decisive game. But LSU erupts for five runs in the sixth inning and wins going away, claiming the program’s sixth national championship in Mainieri’s third season.