Sometimes a single moment sums up an entire season for an athletic team.Last season, that moment came June 24th, 2009. Senior Louis Coleman threw up his glove in celebration after recording the final out of an 11-4 victory against Texas to win the College World Series.The most telling moment this season also came on the pitcher’s mound. Four Tiger pitchers watched helplessly as players from UC Irvine and UCLA blasted seven home runs out of the park during the Los Angeles regional.In two games against UC Irvine, junior Austin Ross and senior Paul Bertuccini allowed two home runs each. Junior Anthony Ranaudo allowed two UCLA home runs and freshman Jordan Rittiner gave up one.Pitching has been one of the biggest struggles for the Tigers this season, partly because of the loss of junior Chad Jones to the NFL draft and Coleman to graduation. Injuries and inconsistency out of the bullpen also hurt the performance of the pitching staff.  Opponents out-homered the Tigers 79-78, and the LSU pitching staff had a collective 5.56 ERA.Ranaudo entered the season surrounded by Major League Baseball draft buzz, but reality came crashing down quickly Feb 19. Ranaudo developed a stress reaction in his elbow following the Centenary series, and didn’t return until the Tennessee series March 27.Ranaudo said his arm felt great after pitching against the Volunteers.”My arm is 100 percent,” Ranaudo said at the time. “I’ve got no discomfort.”But his ERA skyrocketed to 8.15 after a disastrous start against Ole Miss in which he allowed nine runs on nine hits in 1.2 innings. As the saying goes, pitching wins championships, and the Tigers certainly didn’t look like a championship caliber team when they ended the regular season in a 4-14 slump.Sophomore Matty Ott, another integral part of last season’s national championship, looked for a while as if he could make the same transition from closer to weekend starter that Coleman made last season.Ott threw seven innings of relief in a 14-inning win against Alabama, allowing only two runs on four hits. With a lack of options, LSU coach Paul Mainieri started him in the third game of the Florida series.Ott struggled, giving up nine runs on eight hits in only 3.2 innings. Ott returned to his role as a closer but never returned to his 2009 form. The tide looked to have turned during the Southeastern Conference tournament. Ranaudo, Ross, junior Ben Alsup and junior Daniel Bradshaw all had extended outings to help the Tigers win four games, and ultimately the championship.”It seemed like old times with Anthony out there reeling,” Mainieri said in a press release May 26.Ott went to warm up in the bullpen with expectations to close out the championship game against Alabama, but it was Ranaudo who came out to earn the win in extra innings after an hour-long rain delay.Building on the momentum from the tournament, the Tigers beat UC Irvine, 11-10, in the first game of the regional. The team fell into the loser’s bracket the following day with a 6-3 loss to UCLA.The Tigers couldn’t find an answer for UCLA sophomore Trevor Bauer, who shut them down for eight innings. Ranaudo got the loss after pitching six innings and allowing four runs on seven hits. “UCLA’s starting pitcher was outstanding, as good as we had faced all year, and we had faced some good pitchers,” Mainieri said in a press release. “But that kid was really something special.”Ott didn’t pitch the first two games of the regional, which Mainieri said was “a coach’s decision. Looking like the old “Matty Ice,” Ott allowed no runs on Sunday, but UC Irvine eliminated the Tigers, 4-3.If every season has an iconic moment, it might have been sophomore UC Irvine pitcher Nick Hoover smiling in triumph as he ended LSU’s hopes of a ninth-inning rally.After all, as the saying goes, pitching wins championships.  –Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]