When you do a deep dive into the LSUS baseball roster, there are a number of questions that come quickly to mind.
And the first one is quite obvious: How did someone slip one past the financial office when it came time to present the recruiting budget?
There are three players from foreign countries. (Granted, Texas thinks it is its own country, but we will leave that one alone for now.) Sure, Venezuela has been known to produce some quality baseball players and occasionally there will be a Canadian who isn’t into curling or hockey.
But the Netherlands? Guess that Rotterdam-to-Shreveport pipeline is as strong as ever.
Not to mention Hawaii. Or Illinois. Or Wisconsin, Iowa, Utah and Colorado.
Have (radar) gun, will travel.
The Pilots have built a roster that has brought about a DiMaggio-esque feel. Joltin’ Joe had a 56-game hitting streak in 1941 that’s so impressive that no one has ever come close. LSUS has now won 54 in a row.
Your call on which one is more impressive.
There’s probably not a single member of the well-travelled Pilots’ roster who has ever heard of Ken Keltner. But the Pilots are now faced with the task of not getting Ken Keltner-ed.
On July 17, 1941, the Cleveland third baseman, known as a defensive wizard, robbed Joe D. — not once, but twice — of base hits with backhanded stops and ended perhaps the most the famed streak in all of sports.
After winning the Shreveport bracket NAIA regional earlier this week, the Pilots will head to Lewiston, Idaho, to play in the World Series against the Grand View (Iowa) Vikings.
To paraphrase our boy Hamlet, “Grand View, thy name is (hopefully not) Ken Keltner.”
Fiddy-four in a row doesn’t mean a thing when the Pilots tee it up next Friday. When the season started, it’s a safe bet that the Pilots were more focused on winning a natty than going undefeated. Oh sure, that would be nice and historic and all that, but the goals are (1) Get to Lewiston, Idaho (2) Not lose the last game they play in Lewiston, Idaho.
It’s been three years since the Pilots have been to the NAIA World Series. In ’22, they had a dominant run through the regular season, only to get upset in the first game in the regional. That forced them to win four games in three days, capped by a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the 10th inning by Jaylin Turner.
That team might have tip-toed into the World Series, but this one certainly won’t. The zero on the right side of the 54-0 hyphen might as well be a bull’s eye.
It’s not as if the Pilots have any World Series experience on their side since none of the players on that team are still around in 2025.
In fact, there is only one player on the listed roster who isn’t a junior or a senior. Here’s a better one – EVERY player on the roster has previously played at another institution of high learning before coming to LSUS. Some you’ve heard of (Louisiana Tech, Northwestern State, UL-Monroe) and others you haven’t (Olney Central College, Iowa Central Community College).
In other words, if these players had a signing day when they were in high school, there were no LSUS hats in sight.
There are no Shreveport-Bossier players on the roster – Ruston is as close as you’ll get – but it’s not as if namesake LSU-BR is overloaded with players (26 players from out of state) and it doesn’t appear to have bothered the Tigers in the least.
There is good news for LSUS as the Pilots head north next week. Ken Keltner has been dead for more than 30 years.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com