Dean, Bradford pick up prestigious honors from LSWA

Freshman outfielder Blake Dean and junior pitcher Jared Bradford were honored recently on the College Baseball Team voted on by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

Dean landed was named the state’s Freshman of the Year, while Bradford was named co-Pitcher of the Year and co-Newcomer of the Year.

The team was chosen based on nominations from the regular season by the baseball Sports Information Directors of the state and then voted on by a panel of LSWA members. Dean finished with all but two votes for the honor, while Bradford garnered six votes in each category.

Bradford finished his first season with the Tigers (he was a junior-college transfer) with a 10-4 record and a 4.41 earned-run average. He had 81 strikeouts and 16 walks in 96 innings pitched. Bradford was the Southeastern Conference’s leader in wins and he also added five saves. He posted either a win or a save in 10 of LSU’s 12 league wins. He earned second team All-SEC and all-region honors.

Dean hit .316 with 46 runs batted in and was named to the Freshman All-SEC Team. He lead LSU in batting average, RBIs, hits (65), doubles (12) and home runs. Dean had a team-best 20-game hitting streak from March 17-April 20.

Catcher Sean Ochinko was the lone LSU player on the second team.

2006 FOOTBALL GAMES BEING REPLAYED

Fans can relive LSU’s 11 victories from a year ago starting on Sunday, June 17 as Cox Sports Television (CST) will begin its summer-long rebroadcast of 2006 Tiger football games leading up to this year’s season-opener.

Last year, the Tigers posted an 11-2 overall mark, capped with a 41-14 win over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. That victory ended a stretch that saw the Tigers win their last seven games on their way to a No. 3 final national ranking.

The action starts at 1:30 p.m. on June 17 as CST will replay LSU’s 45-3 season-opening win over Louisiana -Lafayette. The summer schedule of re-broadcasted LSU wins continues through Sunday, August 26 (8 p.m.) when CST airs the Tigers’ win over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. The LSU-Arizona game will be replayed on Sunday, July 24 at 7 p.m.; The LSU-Tulane game will be replayed Sunday, July 1 at 7 p.m.; The LSU-Mississippi State game will be replayed on Sunday, July 8 at 3 p.m. The LSU-Kentucky game will be replayed on Sunday, July 15 at 7 p.m. the LSU-Fresno State game will be replayed on Sunday, July 22 at 7 p.m. the LSU-Tennessee game will be replayed on Sunday, July 29 at 7 p.m. The LSU-Alabama game will be replayed on Sunday, Aug. 5 at 7 p.m. The LSU-Ole Miss game will be replayed on Sunday, Aug. 12 at a time to be named later. The LSU-Arkansas game will be replayed on Sunday, Aug. 19 at 3:30 p.m.

Four days later, the Tigers will open the 2007 season, their third season under Les Miles, when they travel to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State in a nationally-televised Thursday night game.

One of the features of this summer’s rebroadcast include segments with Miles as he, along with host Lyn Rollins, talk about the highlights of each game, which will also include an in-depth analysis of the Sugar Bowl win.

CST is the exclusive regional network home for LSU sports and it delivers Tiger athletics to over 1.5 million viewers in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Florida.

The following is a listing of the dates and times for the rebroadcast of the 2006 LSU games on CST:

DORSEY PICKS UP ANOTHER AWARD

LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey has been named to the preseason watch list for two national awards — the Outland Trophy and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy.

The Outland Trophy is awarded each year to college football’s top interior linemen, while the Nagurski Trophy goes to the nation’s best defensive player. Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis won the 2006 Nagurski Award, while Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas was the recipient of the 2006 Outland Trophy.

Dorsey is among 41 players listed to the preseason watch list for the Outland Trophy, while there are 49 players on the initial Nagurski list.

Dorsey, a senior from Gonzales, returns for his final season with the Tigers in 2007 after opting out of the recent NFL Draft despite being projected as a high first round pick. In three years with the Tigers, Dorsey has played in 38 games, starting 17 times, as he’s been a key component to LSU’s nationally-ranked defense during his career.

His most productive season came in 2006 when he earned First-Team All-America honors from the Associated Press, the American Football Coaches Association and Sports Illustrated.com. He was also a First-Team All-Southeastern Conference selection after recording 64 tackles, 8.5 tackles for losses and 3.5 sacks for the Tigers. He was twice named the SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week during the 2006 season, the first time coming in a win over Arizona and then again the following week against Auburn.

Dorsey’s performance in 2006 continued a trend for the Tigers that has seen an LSU defensive lineman earn First-Team All-America honors for four straight years. Chad Lavalais was an All-American in 2003, followed by Marcus Spears in 2004 and Kyle Williams and Claude Wroten in 2005.

A year ago, Dorsey anchored an LSU defense that ranked among the top five in the nation in several categories, including a No. 3 rating in total defense (242.8 yards per game) and a No. 4 ranking in scoring defense (12.6 points per game). The Tigers also ranked No. 3 nationally in pass defense (145.7 yards per game), No. 4 in pass efficiency defense (163.3 rating), and No. 14 in rushing defense (97.1 yards per game).

LADY TIGERS WILL BEGIN NEXT SEASON IN WNIT

LSU’s women’s basketball team, under the director of first-year head coach Van Chancellor, will open the 2007-2008 season in the Preseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT).

The Lady Tigers, coming off a 30-8 season and a fourth-straight appearance in the NCAA Final Four, will host Samford in the opening round of the 2007 Preseason WNIT on Nov. 9 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The tournament features a new format this fall, as it moves from single elimination to a three-game guarantee. Teams that lose in the first two rounds will play consolation games on the second weekend (Nov. 16-17).

The event opens Friday, Nov. 9 with all first-round games. Second-round games will be played on Nov. 11-13, semifinals will be on Nov. 14-15 and the championship is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 18. All games are played on home campuses, which are determined after each round.

BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL NEW STADIUMS STILL ON FOR 2009 OPENING

In LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman’s latest Cyber Chat, he said that construction has begun on LSU’s new baseball stadium on the corner of Nicholson Drive and Gourrier Lane and the softball stadium project is being re-bid in order to bring down the cost of the facility. The softball stadium is projected to begin construction early this fall and both facilities are scheduled to open in the spring of 2009.