A leading candidate has reportedly emerged in LSU’s search for Paul Mainieri’s successor.

College baseball insider Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball is reporting that former Oregon State baseball coach Pat Casey is the top candidate. Rogers’ report indicates a hire could be close as his tweet ends, “More could be coming on this very soon.”

Mainieri announced in May that he would be retiring when LSU’s 2021 campaign ended. The Tigers were considered a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament but made the Eugene Regional. After falling in its first game of the Regional, Mainieri’s club managed to win four consecutive elimination games to take the Eugene Regional and advance to the Super Regional best-of-three series for a spot in the College World Series.

Casey, 62, coached college baseball from 1988-2018 at George Fox (1988-94) and Oregon State (1995-2018). During Casey’s tenure, OSU won the College World Series three times (2006, ’07, ’18). Casey is 1,071-571-7 as a head coach, receiving national coach of the year honors in 2006 and ’17.