OMAHA, Neb. - There was a time when Louis Coleman did not know if he would start another game, much less an extremely pivotal one in the College World Series.
Coleman, a senior from Schlater, Miss., who is LSU's ace at 13-2 with a 2.74 ERA, will lead the No. 1 Tigers against Arkansas in the winner's bracket final of Bracket One at 6 p.m. tonight on ESPN in Rosenblatt Stadium.
The game carries huge consequences. The winner advances to within a win of reaching the national championship best-of-three series and doesn't play again until Friday against a team from the loser's bracket. The loser tonight must win Wednesday, Friday and Saturday to reach the national championship series that starts a week from today.
"Louis just overflows with confidence, and consequently, everybody has confidence in him," LSU coach Paul Mainieri said Sunday after pitching Coleman in a critical eighth inning Saturday night with a 6-5 lead. The No. 1 Tigers (52-16) won 9-5 to advance.
No. 7 Arkansas (40-22), meanwhile, upset No. 2 seed Cal State Fullerton, 10-6, Saturday afternoon and will start sophomore right-hander Brett Eibner (5-4, 4.61 ERA) tonight.
Coleman, a 6-foot-4 right-hander who has won five of his last six starts and pitched seven or more innings in seven of his last eight starts, was named a first team All-American on Sunday by Baseball America after receiving the same honor from Collegiate Baseball and Rivals.com in recent weeks. He was drafted in the fifth round by Kansas City last week.
"I'll definitely be ready to go on Monday," said Coleman, who threw just 17 pitches in his inning Saturday, facing the minimum with a strikeout. "I'm definitely good to go."
Yet, just two years ago, Coleman was a project not sure if he should throw overhand, submarine style or with a three-quarters delivery.
A 28th-round pick by Atlanta out of Pillow Academy in the Mississippi Delta in 2005, Coleman made LSU's SEC rotation as a freshman in 2006 and went 5-6 with a 6.14 ERA in 13 starts and 80.2 innings. But in 2007 in Mainieri's first year with the new delivery, Coleman submarined to a 2-3 record with four saves and a 5.59 ERA in 46.2 innings in just four starts.
"The low point was my sophomore year in 2007 when I had to drop underneath," Coleman said. "It was frustrating. I wasn't having success over the top, where I felt most comfortable. I started off in the weekend rotation the first two weekends, and after that I went to the pen. Then I went to closing. Then I went to middle relief. I just bounced around. At first, the submarine wasn't too bad, because I had some velocity."
When Coleman returned for his junior year, though, he was sinking.
"My velocity was way down. I just wasn't locating, and it was easy to hit," he said.
So Mainieri and then-pitching coach Terry Rooney moved him to a three-quarters delivery.
"We were really trying to salvage the kid's career," Mainieri said. "He really went through an evolution."
Mainieri didn't expect much out of Coleman last season, but halfway through Mainieri gave him another chance and he started to dominate with a moving fastball in the high 80s and a nasty slider. From April 15 through the College World Series last season, Coleman was as deceptive as his delivery as he went 7-1 with two saves, a 1.91 ERA, a .217 batting average allowed and 45 strikeouts in 42 innings in 16 appearances.
He has picked up where he left off last season and is tied for third nationally in victories with San Diego State's Stephen Strasburg - the first player selected in the Major League Draft. He leads LSU with 114 innings.
"Now, it's like a low three-quarter delivery," Coleman said. "I think just being able to get more movement on the fastball helped a lot. Now, I can throw it a lot more often. Before my junior year started, I worked a lot with grips and with making the ball move. And Jared Bradford (LSU's ace in 2007-08) gave me a sinker grip to work with. Really, it was just getting the mental approach and saying I can still do this. I had a pretty good season last year, but I didn't throw near as much (55.1 innings). To be able to do it for this long, I'd say this is more of a successful season."
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn would agree. Coleman allowed two hits in nine innings at Arkansas for a 5-0 win on May 2, and Van Horn can still see that unorthodox delivery.
"Hitters would probably call him filthy, especially the right-handers with that cross-fire action," Van Horn said Sunday. "It looks like he's throwing it behind them, and he tries to locate it away. Very few guys can do that as consistently as he can throwing that fastball and the slider on the outer half to the right-handers. The lefties see it a little better, but he tries to get under their hands a little bit with the slider. He's just a good pitcher. I wouldn't say I'm glad to have another crack at him."
Coleman was glad to help with the win Saturday, but he sees that as only an appetizer.
"I think it will help because the more I throw the better my arm feels," said Coleman, who twice relieved in SEC games on Friday nights this season and started and won two days later against Kentucky and Georgia.
"I would have thrown a bullpen anyway. I got to throw 100 percent and threw 100 pitches. That was perfect," he said. "If we can get the job done and get a couple days off, it will be wonderful."
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