Mainieri wins a national coach of the year honor

Highly successful head coach Paul Mainieri of LSU was named the 2015 National College Baseball Writers Association Coach of the Year by the organization at a national media conference Saturday morning at TD Ameritrade Park.
Mainieri is the eighth recipient of the annual award that is voted upon by the NCBWA Board of Directors.
“Congratulations to Coach Mainieri on the NCBWA National Coach of the Year award,” NCBWA Executive Director Bo Carter said in a news release. “He has continued the nationally competitive tradition of LSU Baseball and is much deserving of this award.”
Mainieri said in the release, “I’m extremely honored to receive this award. I see the names of the previous award winners, and I’m thrilled to be included on that list. It’s a tremendous award that I will always cherish.
“I’m supported by such a tremendous coaching staff and support staff, and we have a phenomenal group of players,” Mainieri added. “I accept this honor on behalf of a lot of wonderful people at LSU.”
The National Coach of the Year designation is the fourth for Mainieri during his career. He has received National Coach of the Year recognition two previous times at LSU (2008, 2009) and once at Notre Dame (2000).
Mainieri has directed LSU to 50-plus wins this season and a berth in the College World Series. The Tigers also captured the SEC regular-season championship and have been ranked No. 1 in the nation for 10 consecutive weeks.
The LSU squad features five first-team All-SEC players, and four Tigers have earned All-America recognition. Eight LSU players were selected in the 2015 MLB Draft conducted this week.
Mainieri was named the SEC Coach of the Year for the second time in his career after leading LSU to its league-best 16th SEC regular-season championship. It was the third title during his nine-season tenure. LSU also won the SEC Western Division title for the 18th time in school history and for the fifth time under Mainieri.
During the past four seasons, LSU has won a nation’s-best 203 games, and the Tigers are the only team in the country to earn a national seed in each of the last four NCAA Tournaments.
NCBWA membership includes writers, broadcasters and publicists. Designed to promote and publicize college baseball, it is the sport’s only college media-related organization, founded in 1962.