BATON ROUGE — Eleven members of the LSU baseball team visited the pediatric unit at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital Monday, lifting the spirits of patients and their families while signing autographs and posing for pictures.
Players participating in the 90-minute hospital visit were infielder Matt Gaudet, outfielder Nicholas Pontiff, catcher Kevin Farnsworth, pitcher Anthony Ranaudo, pitcher Randy Zeigler, pitcher Ryan Byrd, catcher Sean Ochinko, pitcher Chris Matulis, pitcher Spencer Mathews, infielder Austin Nola and outfielder Mikie Mahtook.
Community service is one of the cornerstones of the LSU baseball program directed by third-year coach Paul Mainieri. The Tigers logged 345 hours of community service work during the 2007-08 academic year, the most last season by any of the LSU men’s sports programs.
“We believe that community service is part of the responsibility of being an LSU baseball player,” Mainieri said. “It’s important that our players interact with the public and attempt to make a positive impact upon their lives. The players participate with the intent of helping others, and they find the experience to be extremely rewarding. It gives them a greater appreciation of how fortunate they are to be college student-athletes.”
Earlier this fall, the Tigers participated in the ALS Walk to promote awareness of Lou Gehrig’s Disease and the Buddy Walk to promote acceptance of people with Down Syndrome. LSU players also appeared at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk in October.