LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri officially announced changes to his coaching staff at a noon press conference Thursday.
Michigan State coach David Grewe will become the Tigers’ associate head coach. He will also work as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator following the departure of former LSU associate head coach Terry Rooney, who left for a head coaching position at Central Florida on June 12.
Javi Sanchez, LSU’s volunteer assistant this past season, has been promoted to hitting coach to replace former Tigers hitting coach Cliff Godwin, who announced that he accepted a job on Rooney’s staff at Central Florida on June 24.
“I’m sorry to see Terry and Cliff go but very thankful for the effort put in,” Mainieri said. “They will always have made their mark on the program here at LSU, but I am equally as excited about the future of the program – and even moreso in many ways.”
Former LSU catcher Will Davis, who served as coordinator of baseball operations this past season, will succeed Sanchez as volunteer assistant.
Former pitcher Kyle Beerbohm, a senior on this past year’s squad, will join the staff as an undergraduate assistant.
“We’ve put together a coaching staff now that I have great comfort with – I have great familiarity with,” Mainieri said. “I am know the talents of all of these individuals.”
Grewe joins LSU after three seasons at MIchigan State, where he compiled a 75-85 record. He has previous assistant coaching experience at Chicago, Central Michigan and Notre Dame.
The former Dayton catcher spent three seasons as an assistant to Mainieri at Notre Dame before accepting the head coaching position at Michigan State.
“During those three years that he coached with me, David and I forged a very close bond – beyond a friendship really,” Mainieri said. “I think his vision of the game and his knowledge of what it takes to win, recruit players, develop players and work in a cohesive way with the other staff members was something that to me was off the charts.”
The Fighting Irish were 134-54-1 with the Mainieri-Grewe duo and made three consecutive NCAA regional appearances from 2003-05.
Sanchez, a shortstop and catcher under Mainieri at Notre Dame from 2001-04, played two of his seasons for the Fighting Irish during Grewe’s time with the team.
Grewe said his relationship with Mainieri and the opportunity to coach for one of the top baseball programs in the country made the decision to take the associate head coaching position an easy one.
“I’m going to be moving my wife up and my 7-month-old child here in a couple months,” Grewe said. “And we can’t wait to start this next chapter in our lives.”
Both Mainieri and Grewe said they were excited about the chemistry and comfort the new LSU coaching staff will have.
“It’s going to be hard to replace Terry and Cliff and the great work that they did,” Grewe said. “But I’m very confident that the cohesiveness of our staff will be able to make that transition very smooth.”
In addition to working with Mainieri and Sanchez as coordinator of baseball operations this past season, Davis played his final season at LSU under Mainieri.
While each member of the coaching staff will have experience working with at least a majority of his colleagues, Mainieri was quick to make it known more went into his decisions than familiarity.
“Familiarity and knowing the kids – that’s a secondary thing,” Mainieri said. “The first thing I need to do is have talented people who can do their job, and that’s the most important thing. Once I recognized that they have the talent and the ability to do the job, then the familiarity and knowing their work ethic and their integrity and the way they live their lives and care about the right things that becomes a determining factor.
Beerbohm was available to the Tigers as a undergraduate assistant this year because his four years of playing eligibility expired but he has not yet graduated.
Mainieri said one role he expects Beerbohm to be helpful with is allowing the hitters to face a lefty in batting practice.
“One of my concerns with Terry leaving – as miniscule as it may seem to you – is Terry was a left-handed pitcher in his college days,” Mainieri said. “Whenever we would face a left-handed pitcher, that day, Terry would actually pitch batting practice. It was kind of an unsung part of his job.”
While Beerbohm did not finish the 2007 season on the Tigers’ active roster, he made the trip to Omaha, Neb., with the team and helped pitch in batting practice.
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]