Coleman returning to LSU pitching staff next season

• By CARL DUBOIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Aug 17, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The Friday night Major League Baseball contract deadline for 2008 draft picks passed without Louis Coleman signing with the Washington Nationals, ensuring he would return for his senior year at LSU.

“I signed with the Tigers,” Coleman joked Saturday afternoon.

Coleman, a right-handed pitcher from Schlater, Miss., said three years in Baton Rouge have made an impact upon him.

“Ever since I got to LSU, it’s grown on me,” Coleman said. “Growing up in Mississippi, I had no idea about LSU, but the first time I stepped on campus I knew I was supposed to be there.”

Coleman’s decision helps the Tigers. They lost seniors Michael Hollander and Jared Bradford as expected, then also lost underclassmen Matt Clark, Blake Martin and Ryan Verdugo to professional baseball during the summer.

“It’s big news for us,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said of Coleman’s decision to stay.

The news is timely because of similar good news at SEC rival schools.

Ole Miss retained closer Scott Bittle, who turned down an offer from the New York Yankees. Georgia ace Trevor Holder rejected an offer from the Florida Marlins, and other SEC schools celebrated similar decisions by players or recruits.

“Thank goodness Louis Coleman and (pitcher) Jordan Brown are coming back to LSU,” Mainieri said. “Had they not, it might have made a real difference between us and those teams, but now we were fortunate enough that a couple of our seniors came back.

“That gives us some veteran leadership on that staff along with (Nolan) Cain and (Paul) Bertuccini and (Ryan) Byrd and guys like that. I think that’ll bode well for us.”

Coleman said he wasn’t ready to leave after three seasons, and when the Nationals failed to contact him after late June, returning to LSU increasingly became attractive to him.

“If a good offer was on the table, I was willing to take it, but I really enjoy LSU,” he said. “I just wanted to go out one more time.”

Coleman was a stabilizing force on LSU’s pitching staff down the stretch last season, a span that featured a 23-game winning streak and a trip to the College World Series.