The dust has settled from LSU's early exit from the College World Series and in this writer's view sports journalists who cover LSU and the Series have yet to touch upon Mainieri's failure as a manager and coach in both of LSU's losses and especially in its opening game against UCLA.
LSU's failure to sacrifice bunt after lead off hitter Katz was walked to put him in scoring position on second base in the bottom of the ninth was a major blunder on Mainieri's part. LSU was only one run behind at the time with no outs. Instead of the sacrifice bunt the batter hit into a double play which virtually gave the game away with two out. Mainieri's failure to call the sacrifice bunt during both LSU games when needed showed he lacked the basic fundamentals of the game.
UCLA's manager and coach understood that his pitcher and LSU's pitcher were not going to give up many runs and there fore it was important to have runners in scoring posititon once they reached base. Their coach used the sacrifice bunt on several occasions to move the runners in scoring position and it worked. It mattered not if his runners scored on a hit or an error, it still counted and UCLA's winning run in that game came on an LSU error.
Mainieri's failure to use the sacrifice bunt at the most critical time in the game must have left former LSU manager and coach Skip Bertman fit to be tied. There is no doubt in this writers mind that he would have called for the bunt in the bottom of the ninth if he were the coach. Skip Bertman did not win 5 National Championships only because he was a good coach and because he had good players. He won because he was aware and understood that executing the fundamentals of the game was the key to winning.
Mainieri's decision to have his batter hit away with Katz on first deprived his pitcher and team of a chance to win. His starting pitcher and team deserved better. So what did we hear from sports journalists who covered LSU. The same worn out hype: they won the SEC and the SEC Championship: they won more games than any other LSU team and etc, and etc. To them every thing was just fine and after all Mainieri did win a national title several years ago. The feeling being past performance will automatically win another national championship. LSU fans and the team deserve an objective report from sports journalists instead of excuses.
This writer has been a long time fan of LSU sports but in the last several years I have learned to expect the worst instead of the best in the so called big games because of poor coaching decisions in both football and baseball. LSU's two and out in the CWS should be Mainieri's rosetta stone to executing the basic's of baseball next season and beyond. Mississippi State won no titles this baseball year but they did make it to the CWS championship game. That should be enough to motivate Mainieri and sports journalists also.
This commentary written by John Lucia
