Mainieri enter ABCA Hall of Fame

BATON ROUGE – LSU coach Paul Mainieri was inducted Friday night into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas as part of the annual ABCA convention.

Mainieri was joined Friday by six other inductees, including two other active NCAA Division I coaches, Jack Leggett of Clemson and Pete Dunn of Stetson. The other 2014 inductees were Jim O’Brien of Los Angeles Harbor College, Augie Schimdt of Carthage College, Jimmie Wasem of Northwest Missouri State and Tink Larson of Waseca High School.

There are only four other active NCAA Division I coaches in the ABCA Hall of Fame – Mike Martin of Florida State, Mark Marquess of Stanford, Mike Gillespie of UC Irvine and John Anderson of Minnesota.

There are 19 voting members on the ABCA Hall of Fame Committee and a candidate must be named on 75% of the ballots to gain induction.

In receiving the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a college baseball coach, Mainieri became just the 10th Southeastern Conference coach to enter the ABCA Hall of Fame, and the second from LSU. Skip Bertman, who led the Tigers to five national titles during his 18-season tenure (1984-2001), was inducted in 2003.

Mainieri, a three-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 has a 1,179-625-7 record in 31 seasons of collegiate coaching at St. Thomas University (1984-88), Air Force (1989-94), Notre Dame (1995-2006) and LSU (2007-present). He is No. 10 on the career wins list for active NCAA coaches, and he is one of only six active coaches to have won 1,000 games and an NCAA national championship.

In seven seasons at LSU, Mainieri has guided the Tigers to three College World Series appearances, winning the national championship in 2009. He has also directed LSU to four NCAA Regional titles, two Southeastern Conference championships, four SEC Tournament titles and four SEC Western Division crowns.

Mainieri has a 315-133-2 mark at LSU, and he is the second-winningest coach in Fighting Tiger annals, trailing only Bertman, who was 870-330-3 in his 18 seasons from 1984-2001.