LSU’s College World Series dampens bright season

What a difference a ring makes. 

That’s all I kept saying to myself throughout the week as I watched LSU’s players boot routine ground balls and take hapless swings at pitches in the College World Series.

The result of the poor play was a good, ol’ fashioned two and barbecue in Omaha – a sad ending to a great regular season for the Tigers.

What was once a promising campaign ended with a thud – all of the good work the team did throughout the spring will be forgotten for how it all ended. 

What a difference a ring makes.

LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri got one in 2009 – a title that looked like the beginning of a return to prominence for the Tigers’ program.

That hasn’t happened.

The opposite has occurred since that season – LSU hasn’t won a game in the College World Series since they last dog-piled on Omaha’s soil. 

That’s four-straight seasons for those keeping score at home.

That is unacceptable for a program such as the LSU baseball that is spoiled by its own dominance.

This is not a fire Paul Mainieri column – it is merely an alert to the LSU faithful that the coach’s alleged sparkling resume may not be as shiny and bright as it appears.

If not for a College World Series Championship in 2009, the rest of the work is actually subpar by the Tigers’ lofty standards. 

The total body of work is pretty similar to that of previous coach Smoke Laval, who was fired by the program and is widely considered by Tigers’ faithful to be a failure.

Why? He never won it all in Omaha.

Again, it all comes back to that ring. 

Let’s crunch the numbers. 

This past season was Mainieri’s seventh with the LSU program.

He owns a glistening 314-133-2 record as the team’s coach. But when the chips are on the table and postseason success is at stake, Mainieri’s Tigers don’t always hold up to expectations.

In four of his seven seasons, LSU has not reached the College World Series. 

In three of those seasons, the team didn’t advance to an NCAA Super Regional.

In two of his seven campaigns, the Tigers didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament at all. 

That’s right – 28 percent of the time under Mainieri, LSU isn’t among the top 64 programs in the country.

The optimistic Tiger will accurately point out that one of those years was Mainieri’s first with the program when he took over a team completely talent-depleted.

But what’s the excuse for the 2011 season? Two years removed from winning the national championship, the Tigers couldn’t muster enough recruiting prowess to field a team capable of making the NCAA Tournament? Really? 

Something here just doesn’t add up. 

When was the last time Duke basketball didn’t reach the NCAA Tournament? Or better yet – what would happen if Les Miles would guide the Tigers’ football program to a season without a bowl game? 

I’ll tell you what would happen – fans would want him burned at the stake – that’s what would happen.  

But of course, Mainieri gets a pass, because he owns that one magical season in 2009 where LSU put it all together and posted a dominant 56-17 record – enough to win the College World Series. 

That one season, the Tigers obviously won multiple College World Series games – enough to take home the title.

In all six of the coach’s other seasons combined, the Tigers have won just one game in Omaha. 

So what LSU’s administration needs to do moving forward is decide whether the national championship season was a fluke or if the six other seasons were just a testament to how difficult it is to win in college baseball. 

Truthfully, I don’t know the answer to that question – I’m happy I’m not the man being paid to decide the program’s future.

I know parity today in college baseball is greater than it’s been in years past – this is true.

But in the past four years since LSU’s last run, five SEC baseball programs (South Carolina, Florida, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Mississippi State) have won College World Series games. 

Why hasn’t LSU joined the party?

No one is asking for the program to return to the Skip Bertman days of annual national titles. Those days are done across college baseball. 

But I don’t think being in the middle of the pack among SEC teams is acceptable, either.

There has to be some sort of median and middle ground.

At some point, the Tigers have to re-establish themselves as an annual baseball powerhouse.

Don’t think it can be done in modern college baseball? 

Ask South Carolina.

Prior to this season, the Gamecocks had made it to the NCAA Tournament Finals in three-straight seasons – winning it all in two of those seasons.

If they can do it, LSU should be able to, too.

Getting to Omaha is an honor for most programs. But for LSU, the true honor is winning games there. 

Mainieri hasn’t consistently done that. 

That must change going forward.