Mainieri earns Baseball America coaching honor

• Advocate staff report
• Published: Jun 30, 2009 - Page: 1C

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Nearly a week after wrapping up its sixth College World Series championship, the LSU baseball program continues to gather praise.

Its coach, namely.

Paul Mainieri, who directed the Tigers to their first national title since 2000 in his third season, has been named Baseball America’s Coach of the Year.

Late last week, Mainieri earned Collegiate Baseball’s Coach of the Year honor.

LSU knocked off No. 1 national seed Texas in the CWS championship round, completing a 2-1 series victory with Wednesday’s 11-4 decision.

Only two years ago, the Tigers were at home for the postseason, unable to garner a berth in the regionals for the second straight year.

But Mainieri took LSU to the CWS last season, his second, as the Tigers rolled up 23 straight wins down the stretch.

Beginning the season at the top of two major polls, Mainieri led LSU to a share of the Southeastern Conference regular-season championship this year. The Tigers then won the SEC tournament, storming through the losers bracket with five straight wins.

LSU finished 56-17, one win short of the 1997 team’s school record.

Like last year, the Tigers got hot late. They won 28 of their final 33 games, including a 14-game winning steak in the heart of the postseason.

“I don’t think anybody could have done it any faster or classier,” Skip Bertman, who won five national titles as LSU’s baseball coach, said in the Baseball America report.

In his time as LSU athletic director, Bertman hired Mainieri, who led Notre Dame to a 533-213-3 record in 12 seasons.

Mainieri’s first LSU team went 29-26-1 and failed to qualify for the SEC tournament. But the Tigers are 105-36-1 the last two seasons.