LSU Hires New Coach

[lonestar]

The Tigers have hired a new coach to take over their storied baseball program.

Sources close to the LSU baseball program tell WAFB 9SPORTS Athletic Director Skip Bertman has chosen Smoke Laval's successor.

Former LSU baseball player and current Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri will be named LSU's new head baseball coach at a Wednesday news conference, set for noon, sources say.

Mainieri has won 533 games in 12 seasons at Notre Dame, and gave the Irish their first college world series trip in 45 years, when his team beat top-ranked Florida State in 2002 to advance to Omaha.

Mainieri, who was a Tiger in 1976, also played two seasons at UNO and his wife, Karen, is a Louisiana native.

Bertman is also familiar with the 48-year-old Mainieri because Mainieri is a Miami native, whose father was a high school coach while Bertman was also a prep coach and later an assistant coach for the Miami Hurricanes.

Former LSU baseball coach Smoke Laval resigned from the university earlier this month.