LSU bringing in Eddie Smith as hitting coach
Published 6:00 pm Tuesday, July 9, 2019
LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri is changing hitting coaches — bringing in one of his former players to replace another on the job.
Neither LSU nor Mainieri would confirm the news, first reported by D1 Baseball, that former Tiger Sean Ochinko is no longer with the program.
But several news outlets have confirmed that Ochinko, who held a volunteer position on Mainieri’s staff, will be replaced by Tulane assistant coach Eddie Smith.
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Smith was a full-time assistant at Tulane, where he was the hitting coach and third base coach as well as the Green Wave’s recruiting coordinator.
Presumably Smith would serve LSU in a volunteer capacity as the NCAA allows only two full-time assistants and LSU has both of those slots filled. Allen Dunn is the Tigers’ pitching coach and Nolan Cain is the third base coach and recruiting coordinator.
Smith played for Mainieri at Notre Dame and has also been an assistant coach at Virginia (under head coach Brian O’Connor, a close friend of Mainieri’s), Notre Dame and Santa Clara. He was head coach at Lower Columbia Junior College in Longview, Wash., his home state. He compiled a 146-49 record there.
Ochinko played under Mainieri at LSU for three years, including Mainieri’s first year in 2007 and finished on the 2009 national championship team.
He had been the volunteer hitting coach the past two seasons.
According to the Tulane website, Smith has coached 48 players that were drafted, including 13 that reached the Major Leagues.