Elmer "Lloyd" Matherne
February 15, 2010
Attempt to raise rates denied by insurance dept.
February 18, 2010Christmas came early last year for LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri.
On one hand, Mainieri’s Tigers won the 2009 national championship in June, allowing the coach to fulfill the promise he made to LSU fans when he took over in Baton Rouge in 2006.
But Mainieri also received another gift in his stocking in July when the team’s All-American slugger Blake Dean shunned the MLB’s Minnesota Twins and opted to return to LSU for his senior season – a decision Mainieri said makes the Tigers a much better team heading into the 2010 season, which begins Friday against the Centenary.
“His decision to come back to school, that really means the world to us,” Mainieri said. “When I write out a lineup card, it’s easy to write the name Dean in that number three spot. And everything falls in around him.”
Dean returns to Baton Rouge after hitting for a .328 average with 17 home runs and 71 runs batted in during his junior season.
The Tigers’ All-American, who was LSU’s designated hitter last season, was drafted in the 10th round of the 2009 MLB Draft by the Twins, but opted to return to school because he underwent offseason shoulder surgery.
Mainieri said Dean hopes he can be drafted higher in the upcoming MLB Draft by showing scouts he can perform in the field.
Dean will serve as LSU’s first baseman this season.
“He’s had a tremendous preseason,” Mainieri said. “He looks great. I think he’s ready to have the best year of his career.”
Around Dean will be five players who had starting experience in the lineup, including junior outfielder Leon Landry and junior catcher Micah Gibbs.
Landry was one of LSU’s leading sluggers last year and had 12 home runs with 41 RBIs. Gibbs served as the team’s cleanup hitter for some of the season and managed the team’s top-tier pitching staff.
“I think our lineup is going to be really solid,” Mainieri said. “Last year was as good a lineup as you hope to have in college baseball, but I don’t think this lineup will be that far behind.”
Junior Anthony Ranaudo will anchor LSU’s pitching staff.
Ranaudo was a hammer on the Tigers’ staff last year, going 12-3 with a 3.04 ERA, enough to earn him a place on the All-American team.
Mainieri said junior Austin Ross and sophomore Joey Bourgeois are the favorites to round out the team’s weekend rotation.
Behind the starters is sophomore closer Matty Ott, who locked down 16 games in his freshman season.
The Tigers will open the season Friday – the first season since 2000 that the team will be defending their national championship title.
But despite the pressure to perform at a high level, Mainieri said he expects his team to fare well once the opening pitches are thrown.
“I wouldn’t anticipate any issues from that standpoint,” he said. “It’ll be fun. I enjoy it when people introduce us as the defending national champions.”
While LSU is battling for back-to-back national titles, it’s all about rebuilding for Nicholls, who is looking to build on last season’s 19-32 season.
Colonel coach Chip Durham is entering his fifth season with the program and the team’s win total has steadily increased throughout his tenure – a trend the coach said he doesn’t think will stop this year.
“I like this club,” Durham said. “Will we win 40 games? No, probably not, but we’re more than capable of being a 30-win team, making the conference tournament and competing to win the championship.”
Durham said the strength of this year’s team would be pitching.
Last season, the Colonels had a team ERA of 4.51, a mark that was one of the best in the Southland Conference.
Durham said senior Lance Dunnam, junior Clint Dempster and senior Tyler Minto will open the season with the opportunity to be the team’s three weekend pitchers.
Dunnam is looking to build on his 2009 success that saw him post a 3.80 ERA.
He said the entire outlook of the team will be different this season for the Colonels.
“It’s a completely different outlook in our clubhouse,” Dunnam said. “It’s a complete 180. Everybody’s here to win and with our team camaraderie this year, it will be a totally different season.”
Pinto served as a utility infielder and starting pitcher for the Colonels last season, went 3-3 with a 4.26 ERA in 12 starts.
The Mobile, Ala., native said the Colonels’ hurlers have one goal this season – to be the best staff in the Southland Conference.
“That’s what we’re trying to do,” he said. “And I feel very confident about that goal, because we have great depth all the way through the lineup. We brought in a bunch of new arms and everyone who is returning has thrown really well.”
One of the newcomers Pinto was referring to is Dempster, who spent last season in junior college.
Dempster, who is a Thibodaux native, recorded a 1.84 ERA with a JUCO-high 113 strikeouts last season at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
On offense, the Colonels will hope to improve on an anemic offensive season in 2009, in which the team scored just 278 runs in 51 games.
Durham said despite the offensive struggles, the answers to the Colonels’ problems don’t tell the full story.
“We play in a large ballpark,” he said. “And it’s a weird place on the campus, so the wind is always blowing in. Everyone struggles to hit here. We’re going to be quick on the bases, we’re going to have to bunt well and do more technical things to execute to string together some runs.”
But despite optimism in Thibodaux, there isn’t much optimism for the team outside of the area as the team was picked to finish last among the 12 teams in the Southland Conference.
“That’s something we’re thinking about, because we know we’re better than that,” Minto said.
The coach agreed and said this year’s team has a good chance to silence its critics.
“There’s no respect for Nicholls baseball in our conference,” he said. “We’re not going to get any until we start to string together some wins. And I believe we’re going to do that and turn some heads this season.”
