The LSU Shreveport baseball team will not get back into action today as the ice melt hopefully concludes, but conditions appear promising for homefield doubleheaders between the last two NAIA World Series champions Friday and Sunday.

The Pilots, the reigning titleholder, are top ranked in this year’s NAIA top 25 poll.  Hope International, a 2025 World Series participant whom LSUS beat twice on its way to the national crown, is No. 4 in the preseason top 25 and is visiting for all four games.  Last May in Lewiston, Idaho, the Pilots beat Hope 6-3 and eliminated them two days later, 14-4.

The second victory came in a semifinal contest. It elevated the Pilots alone across all collegiate levels of their sport – from junior college through the NAIA and NCAA ranks – for posting the most consecutive wins in a season. They passed the last milepost in the record book, topping the 57-game string by the 2007 Howard (Texas) Community College team.

Friday’s doubleheader will start at 1 p.m. with Sunday’s contests starting at 2 p.m.

The Pilots, who welcomed 30 new players this season, are 2-0 and have won 61 straight games, starting with last year’s 59-0 season. The Fullerton, Cal., based Royals are 2-0 after a road sweep last Saturday at Simpson College.

As the thaw began Wednesday, a white sheet of winter precipitation blanketed Pilot Field. A second straight day of sunshine today is expected to remedy that.