BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — When LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri looked around last fall during walk-on tryouts, he didn't see a familiar face.
Raph Rhymes, a scrappy infielder who nearly made the Tigers' 2009 roster as a walk-on, was nowhere to be found.
Turns out Rhymes had found a place to play down the road at LSU Eunice, an emerging junior-college baseball power.
Now Mainieri won't have to wonder where Rhymes is.
Mainieri tells The Advocate he got the official scholarship paperwork back from the former Eunice star and Neville High School of Monroe player Tuesday.
There's room now and Rhymes' 2010 season is definitely a strong indication the Tigers can use him.
The 6-foot, 190-pound redshirt freshman batted .483 (115-for-238) with 82 runs, 31 doubles, 12 home runs and 98 RBIs the most in NJCAA Division II.
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Information from: The Advocate, http://www.2theadvocate.com
