Looking back on the first and only time Aaron and Austin Nola played on the same team

As the Nola boys become the first brothers to square off in an LCS in 25 years, their former coach reflects on their year together at LSU.

Austin Nola, left and Aaron Nola when both played for LSU, in 2013.Read moreHilary Scheinuk, left, Steve Franz / LSU Athletics

by Scott Lauber

Updated Oct. 18, 2022, 9:59 a.m. ET

Published Oct. 17, 2022, 5:27 p.m. ET

SAN DIEGO — Before the first fall scrimmage in 2011, Louisiana State University baseball coach Paul Mainieri split his roster. On one side, he put senior shortstop Austin Nola; on the other, freshman pitcher Aaron Nola.

Austin promptly banged a double off the left-field wall against his younger brother. The next time he stepped to the plate, he got a hit-and-run sign. Austin did as he was told. He swung at a pitch in the dirt and moved the runner with a weak grounder.

“He comes back to the dugout and says, ‘Why’d you put the hit and run on?’” Mainieri recalled by phone Sunday. “I said, ‘I didn’t want to hurt your brother’s self-confidence if you hit another one off the wall.’”

Mainieri didn’t pit the Nola boys against each other again. It wasn’t that Aaron wasn’t up for the challenge. (Mainieri quickly realized that he seldom would be overmatched in three years at LSU.) Rather it was because Aaron came to school in Baton Rouge to play with his brother, not against him, after never before having the chance.

What, then, must the Nolas be thinking now, a decade later, as the Phillies and San Diego Padres play for the National League pennant and Aaron, 29, and Austin, 32, become the first brothers to square off in a League Championship Series since Roberto and Sandy Alomar Jr. in 1997?

“I love watching him succeed,” Aaron said Saturday night amid the euphoria of the Phillies’ divisional series-clinching celebration. “One, because he’s my brother; two, because of the road he had to travel to get to where he’s at right now. He’s had a heck of a good story.”

They are three years apart in age, but Aaron reached the majors four years before Austin. No matter. Aaron credits Austin as his best baseball teacher. When Austin made his major-league debut for the Seattle Mariners in 2019, after grinding for seven years in the minors and switching positions from infield to catcher, Aaron said he was happier than the day of his own call-up in 2015.

And Mainieri doubts that Aaron would have even come to LSU in the fall of 2011 if not for the fact that Austin was on campus, too.

“I just remember feeling very fortunate that the coach at Catholic High in Baton Rouge did not keep Aaron Nola as a freshman when Austin was a senior,” Mainieri said. “Because they wanted to play together. Had Aaron played as a freshman on the varsity team, I might not have had that year with both of them.”

There was another wrinkle. In 2011, the Toronto Blue Jays drafted Aaron out of high school in the 22nd round and Austin nine rounds later. Mainieri wondered if the Jays may entice the brothers to sign by promising to send them to the same minor-league affiliate.

But once Austin chose to return to school for his senior year at LSU, Aaron was on board. It worked out well for everyone.

LSU advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals in 2012, with its lone victory coming in a game started by Aaron. Austin batted .299/.420/.434 and got drafted by the Miami Marlins in the fifth round in 2012. Aaron went 12-1 with a 1.57 ERA as a sophomore and 11-1, 1.47 as a junior, and was named Southeastern Conference pitcher of the year in 2013 and 2014. The Phillies drafted him seventh overall in 2014 and signed him for $3.3 million.

Oh, and they got their chance to be teammates.

“They’re extremely close,” Mainieri said. “Having them individually was a coach’s dream. But to have them there at the same time, I was pinching myself every day because it almost didn’t feel real.”

Mainieri described Austin as “the poster child of the LSU baseball program,” as much for his leadership, character, and connection to the community as his ability. And he was a solid shortstop, too.

“He was the best shortstop I ever coached,” said Mainieri, who retired last year. “And remember, I coached Alex Bregman.”

But Austin would also occasionally catch Aaron’s bullpen sessions, a ritual that continued through several offseasons before lapsing once Austin got married and relocated to the West Coast. It was renewed last winter. As the MLB lockout dragged into February, Aaron drove from Louisiana to Austin’s home in San Diego for two weeks of Nola-on-Nola training.

And brutally honest feedback.

“He’s just direct,” Aaron said. “Brother to brother, you know? We don’t beat around the bush. We’re going to tell each other the honest truth. That’s why I went out there. He’s the only guy that really knows me the best, more than anybody. He’s not afraid to tell me what I need to do and what I don’t need to do, which, I like that a lot.”

They have faced each other before. Austin went 0-for-2 with a walk against Aaron on Aug. 21, 2021, in a 4-3 Padres victory at Petco Park. And on June 24 this year, also in San Diego, Austin lined an 0-2 pitch from Aaron into right field for an RBI single in a 1-0 Padres victory.

But the stakes are higher now. This is for more than bragging rights around the Thanksgiving table. A trip to the World Series is on the line.

“They’re highly competitive kids, and when they go against each other, I know that they’re going to want to beat each other, like any brothers would,” Mainieri said. “But I think Austin is Aaron’s biggest fan, and I know Aaron is Austin’s biggest fan. Just knowing how close they were here and hearing Austin interact with Aaron and encourage him and give him little tips here and there. That’s the perception I have.”

Aaron, who has made more starts than any pitcher in the majors since 2018, is lined up to start Game 2 on Wednesday. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in 12⅔ innings over two postseason starts and 19⅓ innings overall, rising to the moment as a big-game pitcher.

It’s a virtual lock that he will face Austin, who has started each of the Padres’ seven postseason games and notched a hit in all but one, going 8-for-21 (.381) with two doubles, four RBIs and a .916 on-base plus slugging percentage.

Their parents will be there, agonizing over how they could possibly lean in one direction or another. Mainieri was considering a trip to San Diego, too. He was in Houston on Oct. 3 when Aaron carried a perfect game into the seventh inning to punch the Phillies’ first ticket to the playoffs since 2011.

“I texted with [their father] A.J. [Sunday] morning, and he’s like, ‘I’m just a nervous wreck,’” Mainieri said. “I said, ‘A.J., stop it. Just enjoy this.’ Because they’re the envy of any father in America right now.”

Mainieri paused a beat, like a comedian setting up a punch line.

“But I made one suggestion,” he said. “Maybe wear LSU attire.”

And think back to the one and only year that the Nola boys were on the same side of a field.