“Philosophically,” Mainieri said of Dunn, “he and I are really on the same page.” (Credit: Cody Worsham)

Kevin Gausman is confused.

For the life of him, LSU’s sophomore ace can’t figure out whether his new pitching coach, Alan Dunn, is a baseball coach or a track coach.

“We run more than the track team,” he says, laughing. “We’re always running and doing abs.”

To his credit, Dunn doesn’t just dole out the fitness work; he gets in on the action himself.

“I don’t know how old he is, but he’s the most in shape person ever,” Gausman said. “He’ll get on the treadmill and run five miles and barely be breaking a sweat.”

Confusion aside, Gausman and the rest of the talented LSU pitching staff can only hope Dunn’s teaching abilities can measure up to his ease of exercise, because a five-mile run has nothing on the work Dunn has cut for him in 2012.

After missing out on postseason play last season just two years removed from a national championship, LSU’s journey back to the pinnacle of college baseball starts with its newest – and fittest – coach.

BBCOR blues

Strangely enough, one of the foremost reasons Dunn, a pitching coach, came to LSU has to do with a rule change regarding hitters.

In 2011, the NCAA introduced a new standard for college baseball bats. The new Ball-Bat Coefficient of Restitution (BBCOR) designated that players switch to aluminum bats that operate more like wooden bats. In short, the NCAA hoped to level the playing field between offense and defense in college baseball after decades of dominance in favor of hitters.

In large part, they met that objective. Last year’s offensive numbers around the country – Alex Box included – weren’t pretty. Nationally, batting averages fell from .305 to .282, and scoring per team decreased from 6.98 runs to 5.58 runs per game, the lowest number since 1975 (just the second year of the aluminum bat in college baseball). And to the detriment of Gorilla Ball fans, teams hit just 0.52 home runs per game, again, the lowest since 1975.

Things weren’t better in Baton Rouge. On the home front, the Tigers sank from 78 homers in 2010 to less than half that in 2011, belting just 34 home runs on the season. LSU’s slugging took a similar slide, from .499 in 2010 to .428 2011.

But, according to Head Coach Paul Mainieri, it wasn’t LSU’s offense that let them down in 2011. Adding that the Tigers lead the SEC in runs scored and were third in batting average last season, Mainieri said it was, instead, the LSU bullpen that was “our Achilles Heel last year,” citing three blown ninth-inning leads that kept the Tigers from hosting a regional and led to missing out on the NCAA Tournament altogether.

The numbers agree with Mainieri. LSU’s 4.96 team ERA in SEC play was worse than the national average, and the staff’s three conference saves were dead last in the SEC.

At season’s end, Mainieri knew that adjusting the program’s approach would be necessary.

“The game of college baseball has changed forever,” Mainieri said. “With the new bats, it’s obvious that it has become a pitching game.”

Back to school

So began a nationwide quest for a coach to make the most of LSU’s talented but underachieving arms. From the get go, Mainieri knew he wanted to buck conventional wisdom during the search process by looking outside of the college baseball ranks.

“I felt that maybe we should go outside the box,” Mainieri said. “Instead of searching the country for the best college pitching coach that we could find, I thought that we should see if there is not somebody that is potentially in the pro ranks that could do this very important job.”

As he began putting out feelers with his professional contacts, one name repeatedly came up: Alan Dunn. Mainieri said at least 15 different people gave Dunn, who had been working with the Baltimore Orioles as their minor league pitching coordinator and had 20 years of professional experience under his belt, raving reviews.

“You could almost feel the person jumping out of their skin with enthusiasm when they would talk about this guy and what he could bring to the table,” he said.

For Mainieri, pursuing Dunn was a no-brainer. And for Dunn, himself a college pitcher at Alabama in the 1980s, returning to the college game after two decades in the pros was an equally easy decision.

“When I started thinking about what direction I wanted to go with in my career, my heart has always been being a pitching coach and being in that environment where you have your guys, and you’re with them every single day,” he said. “I thought, ‘Where else better than to get back into the college game?’”

It also didn’t hurt that LSU’s pitching staff was brimming with big arms like Gausman’s.

“Icing on the cake,” he said.

Dunn deal

So far, even with the season yet to begin, Dunn’s impact has been clear. Mainieri, for one, marvels at his interaction with the staff.

“Alan has a tremendous ability to teach,” Mainieri said. “It’s really kind of mesmerizing because he’s got a great balance of being firm with the players but also very positive. He puts on a clinic with those kids.”

The players have reacted to Dunn just as positively as their head coach.

“That guy is unreal,” junior reliever Nick Goody said. “He brings a big league mentality. He shows up on the field ready to go. I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Dunn, meanwhile, has wasted no time making adjustments. He’s already scrapped Gausman’s slider for a curveball and taken over the pitch-calling duties, while also encouraging LSU’s pitchers to up their tempo.

“He wants us to get the ball and get it rolling, not take our time on the mound, and put the pressure on the other team,” Gausman said.

He even had the pitchers start throwing batting practice, a common practice in professional circles but almost unheard of in college ball.

“What a beautiful thing it was,” Mainieri said. “The hitters never faced that kind of batting practice pitching. I think it helped our pitchers as well. It was almost like a bullpen session.”

For the most part, however, Dunn is avoiding making too many tweaks, saying his approach from the professional ranks to college won’t be all that different.

“The game is still the game,” Dunn said. “From a teaching standpoint, we’re not doing anything different than I did the 20 years in pro baseball. Pitching is pitching.”

As good a start as it’s been in practice, Dunn knows he will ultimately be judged by how his pitchers perform in the game. But, as per usual, Dunn is ready to run.

“I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to teach again,” he said. “That’s my passion: being in the foxhole with [my] guys on a daily basis and going through the grind of a season.”