LSUS Pilots are on TOP!

LSUS Pilots Baseball and Their Improbable Historic Season

by Cameron Braun - Almagest Staff Writer

Coach Brad Neffendorf and the Louisiana State University Shreveport (LSUS) Pilots opened their season on January 24 when they defeated the McPherson College Bulldogs 17-1 in a run-rule affair. Little did anyone know that this would be the start of one of the most dominant seasons in college baseball history.

The Pilots have been putting up impressive numbers all season long. Neffendorf has put together as complete of a squad as you will find. Three starters in Isaac Rohde, Draven Zeigler, and Cobe Reeves who are all ace-caliber pitchers. A bullpen led by Kenneth Schechter, Lex Meinderts, Josh Miller, David Hankins, and now Brock Lucas, who just returned from injury. Then there is the lineup, one that has no easy out. One through nine puts up a fight. Josh Gibson, Ryan Davenport and Austin Gomm are the headliners of an elite Pilot offense. A typical lineup sees all but one player batting above .300, with the one at a .290 clip. The reason Gibson, Davenport, and Gomm are highlighted is because they each bat over .400.

These guys broke the school record for most runs scored and runs driven in (RBIs) in a March 30th win over Texas College when they scored 42 runs and recorded 34 runs driven in. The record was previously set at 37 runs scored and 32 RBIs on February 14, 2008, against Tougaloo College. Coach Neffendorf told KTBS he “didn't even know that until honestly, right when the game was ending” He believed someone looked up the records on the LSUS athletics website and got the word to coaches and players.

Making history is cool and all, but it can easily lead to distractions, especially for college kids. Coach Neffendorf had this to say to KTBS regarding that, "That's been kind of something that we've been trying to stay away from the entire year. Obviously, we know our record, we know the success, we know what we've been doing. But, I think for myself, the rest of the coaching staff and the players, they've done a good job of ignoring anything and just going out and playing, and just it kind of worked itself out." The way the Pilots have handled themselves and continue to go to work every day goes to show how good Neffendorf is at his job. Fun fact, the Pilots just missed the NAIA record at 45 runs scored in a single game, set in 1988 by Grand Canyon University, now a Division 1 school.

This kind of success is nothing new for the Pilots. LSUS saw countless successes in the Rocke Musgraves era and are seeing even more from Neffendorf in his sixth season as head coach. The last time LSUS missed the NAIA tournament was 2002. They have appeared in the world series five times and are focused on a sixth this season, and maybe ring number one. What Neffendorf’s squad has accomplished this season and are still trying to get done is something that we have almost never seen before.

Baseball is a sport of failure, no matter what level you’re playing at. You are bound to lose a few games here and there, but that has just not been the case this season for LSUS. As it stands today, the Pilots are 44-0. Last weekend against Houston-Victoria, the Pilots notched their forty-second straight win, breaking the all-time NAIA record which stood for thirty-five years, recently held by Point Park in 1990.

Starting pitcher Rohde, who you could call the ace of the staff, had this to say about the streak according to KTAL Shreveport, “It means everything, it’s been a hell of a ride,” “We’ve been grinding from day one, the first day in the fall it’s 100 degrees outside and we were out here grinding. It all pays off eventually, it’s been a lot of fun and hopefully we can keep it going.” “It shows our determination we’ve been down a couple of games, there’s

been five or ten close games and we’ve always found a way to battle back,” “It’s not just a one guy thing, every hitter does everything, pitchers and bullpen’s been great, everybody does their job, so it’s been quite a ride.”

Now, the Pilots are not on top of the mountain just yet. In 2000, Division II Savannah State University won forty-six games in a row. LSUS can break that streak with a series sweep of Jarvis Christian University this weekend. A sweep would guarantee the Pilots a #1 seed in their conference tournament and a regional host spot, which has happened before. With what is at stake this weekend; however, this is a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

For the rest of the season, the conference tournament begins next weekend, then the postseason afterwards. Of the forty players on the LSUS roster, twenty are seniors. It will be a very different looking team next season, so the Pilots must do what they can now to get as far as they can and do what no Pilot team has done before. One more win guarantees LSUS the single greatest regular season in NAIA history. A sweep this weekend makes them the first team to ever go unbeaten in a regular season in NAIA.