BATON ROUGE, La. (WGNO) – Former LSU coach Paul Mainieri was inducted Friday night into the Louisiana Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame at the River Oaks Event Center in Lafayette, La.
The Hall of Fame ceremony capped the first day of the annual LBCA Convention, which continues Saturday at Rock‘n’Bowl in Lafayette.
Among the other members of the 2022 LBCA Hall of Fame induction class are former Southern University coach Roger Cador, former Tulane coach Joe Brockhoff, former Catholic-Baton Rouge High School coach and LSU player Mel Didier, and former University High School coach and LSU player Burke Broussard.
Mainieri joins in the LBCA Hall of Fame former LSU head coach Skip Bertman and former University of New Orleans coach Ron Maestri, for whom Mainieri played in 1978 and 1979.
Mainieri, who retired as the Tigers’ coach at the end of the 2021 season, completed his 39-season career with a 1,505-777-8 record, including a 641-285-3 mark in 15 seasons at LSU. At the time of his retirement, he was the NCAA Division I leader in career victories among active coaches.
LSU won a remarkable 31 team championships during Mainieri’s tenure, including the 2009 College World Series national championship, nine NCAA Regional championships, five NCAA Super Regional championships, four SEC regular-season titles, six SEC Tournament titles and six SEC Western Division crowns.
Mainieri completed his career No. 7 all-time among NCAA Baseball Division I coaches in wins, and he is one of only five coaches in NCAA Division I Baseball history to earn 1,500 victories and a national championship.
Mainieri has the third-highest career winning percentage in SEC history, trailing only Bertman, who was 870-330-3 (.724) at LSU from 1984-2001, and former South Carolina coach Ray Tanner, who posted a 738-316 (.700) mark from 1997-2012.
Under Mainieri, the Tigers earned an NCAA Tournament Top 8 National Seed in six consecutive seasons (2012-17), making LSU and Stanford (1999-2004) the only schools in NCAA history to capture six straight Top 8 National Seeds. Since 2008, LSU has earned nine NCAA Tournament National Seeds, the second-best mark in the country over the past 13 full seasons.
Mainieri’s LSU players earned First-Team All-America recognition on 13 occasions, and 21 of his former Tigers have played Major League Baseball, including MLB All-Stars DJ LeMahieu, Alex Bregman, Aaron Nola and Kevin Gausman. LSU players were chosen in the MLB Draft on 90 occasions during Mainieri’s tenure, including a first-round selection in seven of the past 13 seasons.
He served as the head coach of the United States Collegiate National Team for its 2018 summer tour, and he led Team USA to a 12-3 record that included series victories over Chinese Taipei, Japan and Cuba.
His sincere commitment to everyday excellence was recognized in a substantial way on January 3, 2014, in Dallas, when he was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Mainieri, a four-time National Coach of the Year, joined in the Hall of Fame his father, Demie Mainieri, who coached Miami-Dade North Community College to 1,012 wins and a national title in his 30-year career. Demie and Paul Mainieri are the only father-son combination in the ABCA Hall of Fame.
Mainieri’s emphasis upon academic achievement was illustrated by the Tigers’ performance in the classroom, as 103 LSU baseball players earned their degrees during his tenure. Twenty-five of the graduates were players who signed professional contracts before completing their college eligibility and returned to LSU to finish their degree requirements.
Mainieri’s LSU players received SEC Academic Honor Roll recognition on 151 occasions over the past 14 seasons.
(Release via LSU Athletics)