59 games, 59 wins!
Not only did the LSU-Shreveport Pilots baseball team win the school’s first national championship in any sport, but they became the first team at any level of college baseball — four-year or two-year — to go through an entire season undefeated.
The Pilots completed their unblemished campaign Friday night with a 13-7 win over Southeastern University (Lakeland, Fla.) in the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho.
Pilots coach Brad Neffendorf says this national championship was many years in the making.
“There are a lot of really good teams, a lot of really good players, a lot of really good coaching staffs that have been here,” Neffendorf said in the immediate aftermath of the Pilots’ title-clinching win. “They helped pave the way for us to be in this position. Our guys went out and did something unbelievably incredible this year. With so many of them that came back with the purpose of wanting to get here and do this.”
For a while, it looked like Southeastern was in a position to wipe the bagel off LSU-S’ loss column and replace it with a hoagie roll.
The Fire jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the 2nd inning — the biggest deficit the Pilots faced all season long — and took a 7-6 lead into the bottom of the 6th.
Jackson Syring and Ian Montz, however, led the bottom of the frame with back-to-back home runs, and the Pilots took the lead for good.
Kenneth Schecter then iced the Fire’s bats, pitching four shutout innings out of the bullpen to get the win.
“Southeastern played and incredibly well executed game, extremely tough,” said Neffendorf. “We finally got some zeroes hung near at the back end of the game, so I can’t be any more proud of these guys than I am right now.”
The magnitude of LSU-S’ achievement cannot be overstated; it’s been picked up by scores of national outlets, including ESPN and MLB.com.
While LSU-S now owns the longest winning streak in college baseball history at any level, they haven’t set the record yet; the streak will carry over into the 2026 season.
The City of Shreveport is holding a well-deserved celebration for the Pilots Monday morning at 11:30 at Festival Plaza.
Neffendorf says everyone who wore a Pilots uniform is a part of this championship.
“That’s one of the most historic programs that did not have an national title,” says Neffendorf. “And, you know, there’s a couple of alumni that I’ve been reaching out all week long. This is a program national title.”
Before his Philadelphia Flyers took the ice in Game 6 of the 1974 Stanley Cup Final, Coach Fred Shero wrote a simple message to his team on the locker room chalkboard: “Win today, and we walk together forever.”
(The Flyers beat the Bobby Orr-led Boston Bruins 1-0 that day to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.)
After completing college baseball’s first-ever perfect season, the 2025 LSU-Shreveport Pilots will now, indeed, walk together forever.
Jeff Palermo contributed to this report.
