By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
There’s not a direct flight or a straight road from Shreveport to Lewiston, Idaho, where they’ll start the NAIA World Series next Friday. And appropriately enough, the LSUS baseball team successfully managed some mighty severe twists and turns Wednesday to confirm its long-standing plan to make the trip.
The Pilots’ 9-6 victory over Mid-America Christian (40-17) sealed the deal, giving national No. 1-ranked LSUS the Shreveport Opening Round crown for the first time since 2022 and extending an incredible season-long undefeated run to 54 straight.
Many of those have been blowouts, like the 15-4 semifinal win Tuesday, or at least relatively low-stress victories. Not Wednesday. Although after clearing an early hurdle, it shaped up like another one.
The Pilots’ starting pitcher exited due to illness three batters into play. Instead of turning it into a bullpen game, LSUS coach Brad Neffedorf called on his Monday night starter, staff ace Isaac Rohde, who had gone seven innings less than 48 hours earlier.
And it worked.
Rohde was money, throwing 46 of his 65 pitches for strikes, blanking the Evangels and striking out five while allowing only two hits in 4 2/3 innings. LSUS backed him up with a five-run third inning, highlighted by a three-run bomb from Ian Montz, and built what seemed a very comfortable 9-0 lead going to the top of the sixth.
Then things went haywire. Bullpen ace Lex Meinderts took over, got an out, gave up a base hit, then plunked the next two Evangels batters. That lit a fuse that led to the ejection of Neffendorf and the visitors’ third base coach. Five of the next six Mid-America hitters reached base, and the one who didn’t contributed a sacrifice fly in a shocking six-run sixth inning.
But the Pilots got shutdown relief from Brock Lucas, who allowed only two baserunners and no hits in the final three frames, allowing LSUS to dogpile on the infield as the season-long target of a trip to Idaho became reality.
While the players were overjoyed, Neffendorf was overcome with relief, and pride, as he spoke with media.
“It’s emotional,” he said, pausing to gather himself, “because nobody can do what they just did. And there’s not many coaching staffs and assistants who – after what I put us through, whether I think I needed to be ejected or not … to hold it together like they did, to call the game the rest of the way like they did, (and) those players stay out here and played clean defense and still be competitive at the plate – they don’t need us. They’re going to give us a chance, and they will, starting next week.”
Rohde (14-0) was non-plussed when he was waved into action.
“He (Neffendorf) said ‘get movin.’ I went down, hardly got any warmups to be honest, just hopped on the mound and started throwing. Got out there and it was feeling good. It worked, whatever it was.”
What did give him pause was the game flow.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a game quite like that,” he said, “where we had that much of a lead, and not that much of a lead real quick.”
The Pilots got out to a fast start thanks to Montz’ majestic blast.
“I had a tough matchup with a lefty on the mound,” he said. “I was just looking for a good pitch over the plate that I could handle, and I did just that. Pretty amazing.”
The Pilots made the most of their seven hits, two apiece from Jackson Syring and Anthony Swenda. They drew eight walks. Defensively, they made only one error, and struck out nine Evangels while stranding nine.
It all combined to assure this May, the Pilots were not stranded at home.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com