With the middle of October drawing near, the sound of wooden bats across the country are becoming a distant memory as the MLB playoffs wane down to the four remaining teams.But the departure of cracking wood is slowly starting to be replaced by the just-as-familiar pinging sound of the aluminum bats as fall practice began for the defending national champion LSU baseball team Tuesday afternoon in a wet, muggy Alex Box Stadium.Now that the celebratory trip to the White House and parades around the city are completed, LSU coach Paul Mainieri’s squad is beginning to practice in anticipation of a seventh national championship.Mainieri said the purpose of fall practice is twofold.”We want to teach the kids to play fundamentally sound [baseball],” Mainieri said. “The second thing is we do an evaluation of our personnel to see how the pieces of the puzzle might fit together.”Mainieri, the 2009 National Coach of the Year, welcomed back 17 players at the practice that were a part of the 2009 National Championship team, seven of which started at some point last season.That list includes senior All-American designated hitter/outfielder Blake Dean, who will be coming off left shoulder surgery during the offseason after being drafted in the 10th round of the 2009 MLB draft by the Twins.Dean said he expects to be taking batting practice in the next few weeks.”I needed to have that surgery done because we never knew what was fully wrong with it,” Dean said. “For me to get it done and actually throw without any pain is key for me. It’s a slow process but it’s coming along.”LSU also returns 10 pitchers that saw time on the mound last season, including junior right-hander Anthony Ranaudo, a 2009 third-team All-American who was No. 3 in the nation in strikeouts with 159. Sophomore closer Matty Ott, who broke the LSU single-season saves record last year with 16, is also on that list.Along with the veterans will be the No. 3 recruiting class in the nation, according to the Collegiate Baseball magazine annual recruiting survey. Those 13 newcomers will include five players who were drafted in 2009.”This is the time for the new players to earn their role on the team,” Mainieri said. “That role will fit into making our team the type of team that can compete to get us back to Omaha.”The team will be without junior standout southpaw pitcher/outfielder Chad Jones for fall practices as he is with the football team as a starting safety.”The Dreadlocks of Doom,” as he came to be known during the baseball team’s run to the title, provided solid relief out of the bullpen for the Tigers last season. He had a 2.70 ERA in nine relief appearances, including 1 2/3 innings of hitless work in the Tigers’ 11-4 championship game victory against Texas.”I think about baseball all the time,” Jones said. “But it’s football season right now, so I’m in football mode.”—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]