Back to the pinnacle

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 6, 2009

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Paul Mainieri’s restless nights, the tossing and turning, might be over for good.

Because not only did the third-year LSU baseball coach get what he hoped for and dreamed about for years, Mainieri also got a fuller grasp of what the Tigers winning a national championship means to a state and a fan base that had hungered nine years for another one.

Senior Louis Coleman doesn’t figure to have any problems sleeping, either.

A decision Coleman called pivotal to the rest of his life played out perfectly with him throwing the first pitch of LSU’s 2009 season at brand new Alex Box Stadium and the final pitch to sew up the national championship at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb.

The Tigers are back on top of the college baseball world after claiming the College World Series championship by downing Texas two games to one in the best-of-three national championship series.

LSU is the national champion for the sixth time since 1991, but the recent triumph is the program’s first since 2000.

“As a coach, you lay awake in bed and you look up at the sky and say ‘Dear God, if you could ever let me take a team to Omaha I’ll never ask for anything else,’” Mainieri said. “Then you go a few times and don’t win and you ask again if you could take a team back there and win it once, you won’t ask for anything else.

“Then you win it and realize it wasn’t you just being selfish. It’s something that a lot of people wanted and celebrate with you. It really warms my heart to know that what we did meant so much to so many people and made our fans around the state so happy.

“Louisiana people love life, they love to have a reason to throw a party, and they love their Tigers. For us to be able to deliver another championship to them is something I’ll never forget.”

To return to the pinnacle, LSU had to grapple all season with hype and top-shelf expectations. Before the season began, the Tigers were pegged No. 1 in two national polls and No. 2 in two others.

Unfazed by that pressure, LSU rolled up a 56-17 record, the second most wins in program history. The Tigers claimed a co-championship with Ole Miss during the SEC regular season with a 20-10 mark and then shrugged off an opening-day loss at the league tournament to storm back for a second straight crown there with five victories in four days.

Once the postseason began, LSU rolled through a home NCAA regional, surviving an intense 3-2, 10-inning thriller against Baylor when sophomore pitcher Anthony Ranaudo delivered the best game of his 12-3 campaign with 14 strikeouts in nine innings.

The Tigers drew Rice in the Super Regional round, the only matchup of two top-10 teams in the round to determine the College World Series field.