• By CARL DUBOIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: May 26, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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HOOVER, Ala. — No matter who Paul Mainieri puts on the field, or in what role, LSU keeps rolling.

Daniel Bradshaw, a freshman pitcher with one career start, made his second Sunday in the SEC tournament championship. Louis Coleman, all but off the radar early this season, came to the rescue with another solid relief effort.

Derek Helenihi, 1-for-11 in his first three games here, moved up three spots to third in the order and put a ball in play to help get his team’s first run.

He added a sacrifice fly. LSU won. I guess you heard.

That’s 20 in a row. They’ve come with different guys playing the hero, a revolving cast of supporting roles and countless combinations of ways to win.

Sixteen of 20 times the opponent had a lead. Sixteen times LSU erased it.

Mainieri put Helenihi in the No. 3 hole to break up a sequence of left-handed batters in the lineup against Ole Miss left-hander Nathan Baker. The move played a role — a small one, perhaps — but with this team it all adds up.

“A team evolves over time,” Mainieri said, “and you learn about kids from letting them play. Sometimes you’ve got to run them through experiences before you know who you can really count on.”

During this 20-game winning streak, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a list of players Mainieri can’t count on in some form or fashion. Every one of them has done something to contribute.

That includes senior Kyle Beerbohm, who didn’t make any of the SEC road trips but threw extra batting practice so the left-handed batters could work on hitting left-handed pitchers better.

Now the Tigers can plan for what Mainieri hoped for in January, for what we thought impossible five weeks ago, for what suddenly seemed within reach two weeks ago — a regional at Alex Box Stadium.
The May 11 celebration was indeed a going-away party for the ballpark, but it isn’t ready just yet to go away.

Skip Bertman hopes the Tigers get more than one more weekend at The Box.

“I hope to God that the regional that they do draw is a good one,” Bertman said. “Sometimes you’re a No. 1 seed and you draw some guy who’s the last seed but throws 106 mph.