LSU Shreveport Pilots’ perfect score

Acrowd of fans, by some estimates, totaling around a thousand people, gathered in Festival Plaza to hail the conquering heroes of 2025’s NAIA Collegiate Baseball season. The crowd, serenaded by shouts, whistles and driving rock music, watched the LSU Shreveport Baseball Pilots march off a chartered bus and mount the stage.

School officials, city dignitaries and the team’s admiring fans were giddy with excitement as the team made its appearance. After all, no team in collegiate history had ever had a perfect season of 59 wins and no losses.

LSU-S Chancellor Robert Smith ran down the list of big-time news organizations that had finally looked to northwest Louisiana and noticed the little team that could. “Every one of them covered the story of these guys,” he said, and the crowd erupted in response. “I want to read you the headline from Sports Illustrated: ‘College baseball’s greatest season.’ Even better was another national sportswriter who wrote, ‘This is the biggest college baseball sports story ever.’” The chancellor said the team had been incredible, and watching them take the College World Series title in Lewiston, Ind., was one of the greatest thrills of his life. And he left the cliffhanger thought that the team’s record is 59-0 and counting.

The team’s coach, Brad Neffendorf, took the podium to thank a whole cast of people he said were instrumental in making the season possible. “I want to thank everyone at the university, because you don’t understand that everything you do is part of what we’ve done.”

He thanks the media for covering his team, saying he realized it was tough to cover small college athletics. But he added. “I think we’ve just changed the landscape of small college athletics all across the state.