On April 3, the Pilots got back to their sweeping ways against the Southwest Mustangs. Typically, series sweeps come at a premium. At LSU-Shreveport, they come as an expectation, especially in the Brad Neffendorf era.
The Pilots outscored Southwest 23-6 in the Friday doubleheader. In game one, Brock Lucas took the mound and turned in a winning start. Lucas turned in five innings of work, allowing one earned run on six hits. The strike out did not quite work as expected as Lucas only tallied three, yet he was still able to battle through.
Offensively, Carlos Vega continued to flash the leather and hit the ball well enough to earn himself RRAC player of the week honors. Vega was not expected to play against the Mustangs since he was dealing with a hand injury. However, with Landon Hunt suffering a foot injury and being sidelined for the foreseeable future, a spot in the lineup opened. Fortunately for Vega, he and the Pilots coaching staff felt he was just well enough to play with his injured hand. If you did not know any better when watching Vega this weekend, you would never think he was injured to begin with. Vega totaled four hits, nine RBIs, and countless web gems at third base. Carlos Sanchez also made history, tallying his thirteenth triple of the season, tied for the most in a single season in LSU-Shreveport history.
Game three saw Robert Lastra get another start. He was able to tally two earned runs on four hits over four innings with four strikeouts. The Pilots showed some firepower in this latter game with three homers from Dorien Jackson, Vega, and Que Walton. Vega’s homer was a sixth inning grand slam that put LSUS up ten, setting up the run-rule victory. Walton’s homer was even more entertaining as he did it the inside-the-park way.
This was a big series as the Pilots are now tied with Texas A&M-Victoria for first place in the Red River Conference. Neffendorf says, "Of course the Pilots want to take first place, but it would not be the worst thing ever if they did not. The regular season and tournament champions receive automatic bids into the NAIA tournament". Neffendorf, while confident LSUS can get it done, acknowledges that the RRAC is toughest it has been in the past five years. Even thought the Pilots are not "perfect" like last season, they are still seen as the team to beat in the Red River conference.
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