In brief: Footrace decides Canoe Classic

Paddling: After more than six miles of downstream paddling, the top three places in Sunday’s Spokane River Canoe Classic came down to a quick exit and a footrace to the on-shore finish line at Harvard Road.

Nick and Deb Bauer of Spokane (shown above), who regularly train by paddling down and up area rivers, won the annual event in their tandem kayak in 42 minutes, 36 seconds. Within seconds, solo kayaker Don Hicks of Cocolalla edged Alison Scott (teamed with Jim Bauer) by a step.

The Bauers’ onboard GPS unit showed that they averaged 9.6 mph and went as fast as 14.2 mph in the last stretch of rapids.

They could have calculated how fast the Spokane River current was flowing by just sitting on their boat and letting it float until they got a GPS reading.

But, as Deb Bauer pointed out, “We never just sit in our boat and drift.”

See Canoe Classic slide show at spokesman.com/sports.

Resurgent LSU takes on Texas

Baseball: Two years after failing to even qualify for the Southeastern Conference postseason tournament, LSU is playing for a national championship in baseball again.

Paul Mainieri has rebuilt the Tigers in the image of Skip Bertman’s powerful teams of the 1990s, with dominant pitching and hitting carrying LSU into the best-of-3 College World Series finals against No. 1 national seed Texas starting tonight in Omaha, Neb.

“This team is as good as any LSU team in the 1990s,” Bertman said with emphasis Saturday.

The 71-year-old Bertman, who remains a revered figure among the passionate LSU fan base, took over a mediocre program in 1984 and led it to the College World Series in his third year. He won the first of his five national titles in his eighth season.

Mainieri got the Tigers to the CWS in his second year and to the finals in his third.

“I don’t think it could have happened any faster than that,” Bertman said.