Latest news with #LSUShreveport
Wall Street Journal
06-06-2025
- Sport
- Wall Street Journal
59-0! The College Baseball Team That Never Lost a Game.
59-0! What a ridiculous baseball accomplishment. Sounds like witchcraft, honestly. It might be unbreakable, like Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and Cal Ripken's 2,652 consecutive games played. The Louisiana State University Shreveport Pilots just completed a college baseball season in which they went 59-0. Baseball isn't supposed to work like that. This is a game in which even greatness is humbled by repeated failure. Miss 70% of the time at the plate and you might have the swing of a Major Leaguer. Juggernauts that win 100 games still lose 62 times. Even the Savannah Bananas drop a few. Baseball has long seasons, rainouts, injuries, bad days, double-headers, missed calls and quirky bounces. Fifty-nine and oh? Nobody goes 59-0. Until now. LSU Shreveport's run is historic. There's never been a college baseball season like it, at any level. The Pilots, who are part of the LSU system and play in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, won the school's first ever national championship at the NAIA World Series this past weekend. I'm still flabbergasted. How on earth do you go 59-0? LSU Shreveport isn't really sure, either. 'I don't think anybody sets a goal of trying to not lose a game,' says Pilots head coach Brad Neffendorf. 'We wanted to put ourselves in a position to win every game, but am I ever thinking we won't lose? No. Heck no. What we did was dang near impossible.' Not that the players were even talking about it. Neffendorf says he didn't have to warn his team about letting the win streak go to their helmeted heads. 'They never did,' says the coach. 'There were reminders about staying true to who we are, staying humble, staying focused on what we're trying to do. They were phenomenal with it.' LSU Shreveport has a tradition of stellar baseball—the school has won numerous conference titles and made multiple trips to the NAIA World Series. There have been some 40-plus win seasons and even 50-plus win ones. But 2025 was something else. The Pilots—by the way, these are riverboat pilots, not airplane ones—returned a talented team stacked with senior leadership and flew right out of the gate. They swept their season opening three-game series against McPherson by a combined score of 38-4, and it was pretty much off to the races from there. They didn't play many close games. In February there was a 7-6 walkoff win against Indiana University Southeast, a team coached by Neffendorf's brother, Brett. The Pilots had only three more one-run wins the rest of the way. LSU Shreveport never got taken to extra innings. They won a boatload of games by double digits. Translation: They were really, really good. 'We always talk about being different here,' says Neffendorf. 'We play fast, up-tempo and aggressive. But most of all I want to play the right way. We respect the opponent, the umpires, everyone.' Baseball is a superstitious sport—try yapping about a no-hitter during a no-hitter sometime. That was another reason not to talk about the streak. But as LSU Shreveport's winning snowballed, it became hard to ignore, says athletic director Lucas Morgan. 'I still remember the conversation I had with Brad,' Morgan says. 'We were like 30-0, approaching the best start in program history, and we were like, 'This is something we want to publicize, but we don't want to jinx it.'' The AD recalls thinking: 'We're going to lose eventually, so we'll just wait until we lose, and then we'll put the announcement out there.' 'And then we didn't lose.' Baseball in the NAIA is not a mega-money extravaganza. There's plenty of talent, including some D1 caliber players, but it's not awash in dilemmas over name, image, likeness or portal reform (NIL and the portal exist, however.) LSU Shreveport, which also has strong programs in basketball and soccer, tends to recruit from junior colleges and transfers from other four-year schools. Games aren't on prime-time TV; they're streamed. Plane rides? The Pilots took one plane ride the whole season—to Spokane for the World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. The rest of the year was spent on the bus, with one back-and-forth to New Mexico stretching 10 hours each way. Back in Shreveport, The Baseball Team That Didn't Lose became a point of pride. Pilot Field (capacity 1,000) was the hottest ticket in town. 'Our stands were packed,' says Morgan, the AD. 'You had huge groups of little kids trying to get autographs after the game. It's not that Shreveport hasn't supported our program before, but this was on a whole other level.' Streaks of any kind create pressure. Neffendorf, a longtime pitching coach who took his first collegiate head coach job with the Pilots in 2020, says he was often asked if he wanted his team to lose so they could relax. 'I can't tell you how many people reached out and they're like, 'Man, what you're doing is unbelievable, but don't you feel like it'd be good if you lost one?'' the coach says. He understood what they meant, but he felt his ball club was handling the situation just fine. 'I didn't believe in the process of, like, 'Hey, we've got to lose a game.'' In the end, they didn't lose at all. They hit well, they pitched well, they played stellar defense. They mastered high-tempo Pilots baseball. They also stayed healthy. LSU Shreveport didn't suffer any season-ending injuries, says the school's sports medicine director, Meghan Neffendorf—Coach Brad's wife. 'I mean, that's just luck,' Meghan says. 'You have to have a little bit of luck to go 59-0.' You sure do. That's why you may never see it again—what the mighty riverboat Pilots of LSU Shreveport just pulled off. 'We made the impossible possible,' says Brad Neffendorf. Write to Jason Gay at
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Tony's Take Perfection Comparisons The Butcher Broken Record
By Tony Duckworth, tonyduckworthsr@ Perfection. 59 – 0 is the best baseball record in the history of college baseball. History didn't happen in the SEC or Big Ten. Historical runs don't happen often, so let's celebrate a small university who accomplished the unthinkable. Advertisement While you may have never heard of LSU Shreveport, the Pilots recently won the 2025 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics National Championship. For the record, this was the 68th Annual NAIA Baseball National Championship. LSUS won the championship game 13 – 7. In storybook fashion, the Pilots overcame a 7 – 6 deficit in the bottom of the 5th. How impressive is it that the squad embraced the pressure of the moment and kept this remarkable streak alive to win the hardware? Go Pilots! Comparisons. The most successful seasons in college baseball history include the 2019 Vanderbilt team (59-12), the 1975 Texas team (59-6), and the 1995 Cal State Fullerton team (57-9). Other notable seasons include the 2011 South Carolina team (55-14), the 1978 USC team (54-9), and the 1983 Texas team (66-14). 66 wins will never happen again, but that season didn't top the 59-0 LSUS season. It does make you wonder how many classes the 1983 team attended given they played 80 games. This was well before remote learning options. Gotta love it. Dynasty. One of the newest members of the SEC achieve dynasty status several season ago. While they have been eliminated from winning the 2025 national championship, the Oklahoma Sooner's recent successes under Patty Gasso are remarkable. Advertisement OU has won eight national championships including four in a row between 2021 – 2024. While the Sooners have taken advantage of playing in front of a home crowd, no one will argue the remarkable run they are on. The college softball world series has been played in Oklahoma City since 1990. The standard of excellence of winning four naty's in a row is the best in college softball history. The Butcher. As the AD at Northeastern State University, I told my Senior Associate AD my feelings following meetings with one of our highly successful head coaches. My right-hand man heard me say on more than one occasion that Coach ____ better be glad he wins at a high level. Meaning, this coach's on-the-field success kept me from moving in a different direction. The New York Knicks have been irrelevant for a quarter of a century until the arrival of Tom Thibodeau. The Butcher led the Knickerbockers to their first Eastern Conference finals since 2000. According to ESPN Research, Thib's led New York to 24 playoff wins which is 17 more than the team's past 13 coaches combined. Re-read the last sentence. Advertisement While Thib's isn't without flaws, it is hard to imagine the Knicks making a change despite the dysfunctional ownership. The Butcher made the NYK's relevant again while making the center of the basketball universe, Madison Square Garden, a high-energy home-court advantage again. I, along with the rest of the hoops community, will be watching what direction the organization goes. Broken Record. The Atlanta Braves do not get hits when runners are in scoring position. Follow Tony Duckworth on the X platform at @tonyduckworthsr. Duckworth is a native of Macon and serves as the President and CEO of the Albany Area YMCA. Tony worked in intercollegiate athletics for thirty-one years. He was an NCAA Division II Director of Athletics at three universities, including Albany State, following ten years as a head men's basketball coach at two colleges.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
LSU Shreveport makes college baseball history with championship win
As LSU baseball goes in search of a national championship in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, one of its branch campuses etched its name into the college sports record books. LSU Shreveport won the 2025 NAIA national championship 13-7, the first national title in any sport for the Pilots. They ended with a 59-0 record, the first undefeated season in collegiate baseball history. Advertisement The Pilots went down early against Southeastern, trailing 4-0 heading into the bottom half of the second inning. But they mounted a comeback, trading blows with the Fire until a four-run outburst in the sixth. Jackson Syring and Ian Montz clubbed back-to-back solo home runs to lead off the frame, followed by an RBI single from Ryan Davenport and a sacrifice fly from Austin Gomm. The Pilots finished with 11 hits in the victory while also holding Southeastern scoreless over the final four innings. Kenneth Schechter earned the win on the mound, hurling four scoreless innings in relief. Issac Rohde pitched the final frame, holding the Fire without a hit to send the Pilots into celebration. Head coach Brad Neffendorf led the team to the win during his sixth season at the home. In his career, LSUS made three trips to the NAIA World Series and four opening round appearances. He's the fastest coach in program history to reach 100 wins. This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: How LSU Shreveport made college baseball history with national title
01-06-2025
- Sport
59-0! NAIA champ the first college baseball team on record to go unbeaten
LSU Shreveport became the first college baseball team on record to go unbeaten, finishing 59-0 when it won the NAIA championship in Lewiston, Idaho. The Pilots' perfect season ended with a 13-7 victory over Southeastern (Florida) on Friday night and gave the 10,000-student school in northwest Louisiana its first national title in any sport. For 25 years LSU Shreveport has been one of the top programs in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which governs sports at 241 mostly small colleges across the country. The Pilots have appeared in the NAIA national tournament every year since 2005 and the NAIA World Series in 2021, 2022 and 2025. They're 270-49 in six seasons under coach Brad Neffendorf, including 142-13 in Red River Athletic Conference play. LSU Shreveport played only four games decided by one run this season, ranked second in the NAIA with 11.3 runs per game and third with a .361 batting average. The Pilots' 2.38 ERA was more than a run better than the next-closest team, and they led the nation with a .982 fielding percentage. Josh Gibson, at .436, was one of three players on the team to bat better than .400, and Isaac Rohde struck out an NAIA-leading 146 and had a 2.09 ERA while going 16-0. The Pilots broke the NAIA-record winning percentage of .935, set when Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) went 43-3 in 1996. The NCAA top single-season winning percentages are .914 by Arizona State (64-6 in 1972) in Division I, .939 by Savannah State of Georgia (46-3 in 2000) in Division II and .978 by Trinity of Connecticut (45-1 in 2008) in Division III.
New York Post
31-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
LSU Shreveport does impossible in mind-boggling historic season
No baseball team is ever going to go 162-0, but 59-0 is now proven possible. LSU Shreveport became the first college baseball team ever to go undefeated when it finished off a perfect season Friday by beating Southeastern, 13-7, to capture the NAIA championship. The NAIA is different from the NCAA and governs more than 250 mostly small schools across the country. Athletes compete in 16 sports for 29 championships while earning $1.3 billion in scholarships. LSU Shreveport's dream was in danger — 58-1 without a championship would have been the ultimate heartbreaker — when it fell behind 4-0 in the second inning of the championship game. The Pilots didn't take the lead for good until a five-run outburst in the sixth. LSU Shreveport has appeared in the national tournament every year since 2005 and was making its third NAIA World Series trip since 2021. But this season was another level of dominance en route to the program's first national championship under sixth-year head coach Brad Neffendorf. LSU Shreveport finished their season at 59-0. Instagram/@lsusathletics 'It's hard to still comprehend,' Neffendorf told the school's Facebook page. 'It's hard to know that it's over because it's been such an unbelievable group, but it's 35 years in the making.' The Pilots only played four one-run games, averaged 11.3 runs per game, hit .361 as a team and launched 76 home runs. LSU Shreveport made history in their perfect season. Instagram/@lsusathletics All 11 players who had at least 100 at-bats over the season hit better .300, including three .400 hitters. They were just as good, if not better, on the mound (2.38 ERA) and in the field (.982 fielding percentage) — both of which led the nation. LSU Shreveport's winning streak is the longest ever at any level of college baseball. Fittingly, the Pilots ranked No. 1 in every NAIA poll from the preseason through the final pitch. By comparison, the NCAA's best single-season records belong to Arizona State (64-6 in 1972) in Division I, Savannah State (46-3 in 2000) in Division II and Trinity (45-1 in 2008) in Division III, according to The Associated Press.
