In the growing stages

• By CARL DUBOIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Mar 14, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:56 a.m.

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Tennessee has four College World Series appearances. LSU won five national championships there.

Their coaches are in the early stages of trying to get their programs back on such turf.

They’ll open Southeastern Conference play on Tennessee grass, with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. CDT today at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.

Todd Raleigh, first-year coach of the Volunteers, and Paul Mainieri, second-year coach of the Tigers, are still trying to win young hearts and minds — and some games.

The SEC coaches picked LSU to finish fourth in the Western Division last year, and the Tigers finished fifth. LSU is picked this year to finish in the same place.

Mainieri understands the concept of flying under the radar, but he said he’d prefer a different profile for the Tigers.

A year ago, the Tigers surprised some SEC teams, winning four series against ranked opponents. Mainieri’s goal is for LSU to be the type of program that causes teams to say, “Oh, my goodness, we have to play LSU this weekend.”

There’s little satisfaction for Mainieri in being a team that comes out of nowhere.

“I would prefer to be one of the hunted as opposed to one of the hunters,” he said.

Tennessee (9-4) has a five-game winning streak. LSU (11-3) has lost its last two.

Mainieri said he thinks the Tigers are closer to the caliber of most SEC teams. A year ago LSU failed to qualify for the eight-team conference tournament.

“I’m not saying I feel like we’re better than anybody, but I don’t feel like we’re worse than anybody anymore,” Mainieri said.