LSU Shreveport does impossible in mind-boggling historic season
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.
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