CHANCE AT REDEMPTION

by Carl Dubois www.tigerdroppings.com


I can't put you on the mound in Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium for you to get a glimpse of what it will be like to be Louis Coleman tonight, but Jared Bradford can.

Bradford and Coleman are good friends. They share the same basic body type, the same willingness to handle multiple roles as LSU pitchers, and they shared the highs and lows of the Omaha experience at the 2008 College World Series.

Coleman relieved Bradford with the score tied and later surrendered the ninth-inning grand slam that gave North Carolina a 7-3 victory that sent the Tigers home to Baton Rouge.

The next morning, Coleman put his bags on the team bus, stepped back off and talked about returning to Omaha as a senior so he could help LSU win the College World Series. Bradford, one of his closest friends, says his fellow right-hander is competitive in ways you and I can't realize just from watching him pitch.

"Louis was ready to get back out there and pitch against North Carolina immediately after getting back to the hotel that night," Bradford says.

When LSU (52-16) plays SEC West rival Arkansas (40-22) in a pivotal winners-bracket game at 6 p.m. CDT (ESPN2), Coleman will be back on the mound at Rosenblatt as a starter this time. He threw 17 pitches in relief Saturday in the Tigers' 9-5 first-round victory against Virginia.

This will be his fifth CWS appearance, his first as a starting pitcher. It won't be his first game this season against the Razorbacks.

Coleman (13-2, 2.74) pitched a complete-game, two-hit shutout May 2 for a 5-0 victory at Arkansas. He is scheduled to oppose Razorbacks sophomore right-hander Brett Eibner (5-4, 4.61).

For more nuts and bolts on No. 1-ranked LSU, visit LSUSports.net.

For a similar look at No. 7-ranked Arkansas, go to ArkansasRazorbacks.com.

For insight into Coleman's competitive nature, listen to Bradford, who is now in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He's on the phone from Jupiter, Fla.

"Louis is not going to back down from any challenge, not by any means," Bradford says, eager to talk about his friend and former teammate. "You can tell him I'm going to race him to the bag of trash in that garbage can in his apartment, and he's going to beat me."

Bradford, recalling Coleman's demeanor after allowing North Carolina to crush LSU's spirit and eliminate the Tigers from last year's CWS, says the return trip is about Coleman making things right for himself -- and for his team. Bradford recalls hearing Coleman talk in the fall about how this team was clicking and coming together the way the 2008 team had done.

Since then, Coleman has been making his way back to where he wanted to be, one pitch at a time. He pitched a scoreless eighth inning Saturday night in Omaha and will turn around and start against Arkansas tonight.

If anyone knows what that's like, it's Bradford, who in 2007 and '08 defined the job description of part-time starter, part-time closer, full-time team player on LSU's pitching staff.

"If you'd asked me about it before I went to LSU, before I took on that role, I would have said that it's very difficult, just because starting and relieving are so different," Bradford says. "But Louis has had the experience, a lot like I did, where he's gotten used to it -- to where instead of starting and relieving, it just becomes pitching."

Whatever the situation, the preparation becomes easier to manage, he says.

"You kind of get used to that mindset of just being able to get loose at a moment's notice," Bradford says.

He explains by saying Coleman can compress the starter's pregame routine into almost any time frame, from jogging to running to soft tosses to throwing at game speed in the bullpen.

"Louis has got the body of a guy that can bounce back," Bradford says. "He's one of those guys that has the rubber arm, so to speak, but aside from the physical aspects of it, Louis has got the mentality to be able to not think of himself as just a starter or just a closer or just a middle reliever.

"He's got the attitude that he's going to compete no matter what the situation is. It is a difficult role, but eventually you settle into like he did, and there's no doubt in my mind he'll compete with the best of them in any situation."

Coleman's shutout of Arkansas in May started the Razorbacks on what grew into an eight-game SEC losing streak. The relative job security of Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn became a topic of discussion in the usual places.

The Arkansas team Coleman will face tonight has won eight of its last 10 games, including all six NCAA postseason tournament games. The Razorbacks have scored 10 or more runs in four games during the winning streak, nine runs in another.

Coleman's journey to this matchup has been four seasons of hard-earned development. He was a power pitcher in high school, but he learned as an LSU freshman it's not just about throwing hard. He was the pitcher on the staff most prone to giving up home runs, and he had ups and downs while learning the lessons inherent in the higher level.

Before his sophomore year, a new coaching staff approached him about pitching with a side-winding delivery. Bradford, a junior transfer that year, watched as Coleman agreed to do whatever was necessary to help the team.

His velocity dropped, but he had success at the beginning. As time passed, Bradford got the idea that Coleman didn't seem 100 percent convinced the change was a good thing.

Coleman told Bradford early last season he didn't feel as confident as he would if he went back to something closer to an over-the-top motion. Bradford encouraged him to tell that to the coaches, especially pitching coach Terry Rooney.

"He went to Coach Rooney, and he was all for it," Bradford says. "Coach Rooney said, 'Sure. If this is something that you want to do, let's do it.' Louis began working with it.

"That's when he got that funky windup where his lower half is going sidearm and his upper half is going over the top, and from there he gained that confidence back. You can tell that he knew, that it clicked with him, and he knew this was what made him comfortable, this was going to help him, and this was going to help the team."

He was terrific down the stretch, helping the team get to Omaha. From April 15 through the end of the 2008 season, Coleman was 7-1 with a 1.91 ERA and two saves in 16 appearances. He held opponents to a .217 batting average.

Bradford says Coleman played the most significant role in the drive to Omaha from a pitching standpoint.

"He came on at the end of the year," Bradford says.

This year, Coleman's record speaks for itself, and it describes an evolution hard to fully comprehend unless you're a Jared Bradford, who's come as close to walking in those shoes as anyone.

"He's definitely struggled at times," Bradford says, "but he'll tell you -- just like I will, just like any other pitcher will -- that at the level LSU plays at, you've got to fail some in order to understand how to push through and persevere. He does it as well as anybody."

Coleman will get the ball tonight. Does some piece of Bradford wish it were him?

"Absolutely," he says, and you can hear the smile.

"But there comes a point when it's time to move on," Bradford says. "It's time to be out of college like I am,