The LSUS Pilots sit on the precipice of an historic, almost-beyond-belief baseball season as they are one win away from not only the NAIA World Series championship, but doing it in unbeaten style.
One more win.
But even though they are in Idaho to try to win it all, the Pilots wouldn’t have to look far to find a cautionary tale back here in Northwest Louisiana.
An undefeated run to the championship game certainly brings back memories of what a few high school teams experienced years ago.
In 1991, the Airline Vikings were 30-0 as they entered the state championship game against St. Amant. They were nationally ranked in the USA TODAY high school baseball poll. Airline even had the benefit of playing close to home as the Class AAAA tournament was held at Fair Grounds Field in Shreveport.
It was a team that featured Todd Walker, who would go one to be one of the greatest players in college baseball history.
All of that was great … until St. Amant put up a seven-spot in the first inning. The Vikings never recovered.
And in a way, they still haven’t.
“Devastating,” says Rodney Horton, who pitched in both the semifinals and finals on that day. “I still haven’t gotten over it. Not sure I ever will.”
The Vikings had been knocked out in the quarterfinals in the previous year on a 14th inning error in a game that took two days to play. They had been a surprise team in the state finals in 1989 in Baton Rouge
But nothing could have prepared them for going from 30-0 to 30-1. If there was a silver lining, at least the dream didn’t end on a wild pitch or a dropped fly ball. Losing 18-4 didn’t leave much doubt.
“I look around and I see reunions of state championship teams and I know I’ll never get to have one of those,” Horton says. “Being unbeaten meant nothing compared to winning the state championship.”
But the ’91 Airline Vikings were just the latest in line to suffer that fate. Not only did the Bossier Bearkats do it once, they did it twice. And in back-to-back-years.
The ’72 Bearkats were 26-0 as they headed to Minden to meet the Crimson Tide, a district rival who Bossier had already beaten three times that season. Minden had only made the playoffs by winning a committee vote of the district principals after finishing in a tie for second.
Mattered not.
The Bearkats are still waiting to get a hit in that game. Junior righthander Ronald Martin, who would go on to pitch at Louisiana Tech, threw a no-hitter as Minden won 3-0.
Twenty-six and one.
Certainly that couldn’t happen again the next year, but it did. This time, the ‘73 Bearkats went 23-0 on the way to the state championship game, this time played at home (Walbrook Park).
Morgan City put three runs on the board in the top of the first inning on the way to a 7-3 win.
Twenty-three and one. (At least they got six hits this time).
For those keeping score, the 1972 and 1973 Bossier Bearkats were 49-0 in every game that wasn’t played for the state championship during those two seasons.
Over a three-year period, the Bearkats won 66 regular season games in a row.
Even this year, Covenant Christian (Houma) went 36-0 until losing in the Division IV semifinals.
Just like the amazing run LSUS has had this year, all of that is impressive window dressing. But it really just boils down to one thing that matters.
Win the last game.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com