Calling All Alumni DECEMBER 04, 2003 The 2003-2004 LSUS baseball teams is inviting all alumni to attend the first anual Pilot Baseball Alumni Weekend. Friday, February 6 a 7 innning baseball game will be played at Pilot Field beginning at 6:30. The Alunmni team will be coached by LSUS Athletic Director and first ever LSUS baseball head coach, Doug Robinson. Food and refreshments will be provided for those who attend. Saturday, February 8, the LSUS Pilots and Lady Pilots basketball teams will be at home in conference action versus the University of Mobile. We will be hosting a tailgate party in support for our basketball teams which will begin at 2:30 outside of the Health and Physical Education building. All those alumni who attend are encouraged to stay for both games Saturday as the LSUS Athletics Department will be paying tribute at halftime of the men's game to the 2003 LSUS Baseball team who finished 3rd at the 2003 NAIA College Baseball World Series. Pilots land four on NAIA World Series All-Tournament Team MAY 31, 2003 Tyson Arishenkoff, shortstop for the LSUS Pilots, won the Gold Glove Award for the 2003 NAIA World Series and, along with three teammates, was named to the All-Tournament Team. The Gold Glove Award goes to the most valuable defensive player in the tournament. Pilots' ace Gene Stevens was the No. 1 pitcher on the All-Tournament Team. His battery mate, catcher Aaron McRae, and outfielder Cole Reynolds were also named to the elite squad. McRae and second baseman Wesley Gray both received honorable mention recognition in NAIA All-American balloting. Six of the 10 teams in the World Series had All-Tournament players. National Champion Lewis-Clark State College placed five players on the team. LSUS and Oklahoma City University, which was ranked No. 1 all season but lost two straight games to Lewis-Clark to finish second, placed four players each to the team. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, Fla.), Indiana Tech University (Ft. Wayne) and Bellevue (Neb.) University each had one player named to the team. Two Lewis-Clark players joined Arishenkoff as winners of individual awards. First baseman Emerson Frostad received the Charles Berry Hustle Award, and pitcher Mark Kaiser was name the tournament's most valuable player. The Pilots, who made their first-ever appearance in the World Series, triumphantly returned to Shreveport Friday evening after finishing the tournament in Third Place. LSUS defeated Indiana Tech, Embry-Riddle and Spalding University (Louisville, Ky.) by combined scores of 33-9, but lost twice in the double-elimination competition to Oklahoma City. For the Stars, it was Yogi Berra's "deja vu all over again." Two years in a row, the Oklahoma City squad sailed into the championship game undefeated. And, for the second straight year lost twice to Lewis-Clark to finish runner-up. Lewis- Clark hosted the tournament in Lewiston, Idaho, for the third consecutive year. The Pilots earned their way to the World Series by winning the Region XIII tournament and the Atlantic South Super Regional. Gulf Coast Athletic Conference rival William Carey College, playing host to the Region XIII tournament in Hattiesburg, Miss., defeated the Pilots 10-2 in the undefeated semi-final game. LSUS then won three in a row to win the regional championship. The final two games against William Carey were both one-run thrillers, the first 2-1 and the second 10-9 in 11 innings. McRae and Gray were also named to the All-Region XIII Team, and head coach Rocke Musgraves was named Region XIII Coach of the Year. The Pilots then played host to Embry-Riddle, then the No. 4-ranked team in the nation, in the Super Regional. LSUS took the first game 8-5, then dropped the second game 9-3. A coin toss made the Pilots the visiting team on their own field. They used the opportunity to jump on the Eagles for seven runs in the top of the first inning and never look back. The Pilots won the weather-shortened third game, 13-2, at the end of the sixth inning. Musgraves loses six seniors from the record-setting 52-24 team: Arishenkoff, McRae, outfielder Ramsey Branch, infielder Miles Fletcher, pitcher Dustin Walden and catcher/infielder Miguel Hernandez. LSUS Pilots finish in third place in NAIA World Series! MAY 28, 2003 Nationally ranked No. 1, the Oklahoma City University Stars proved to be too much for the LSUS Pilots in the final elimination game of the 2003 NAIA World Series Wednesday night. The Pilots lost 12-2, and bowed out of the tournament in third place behind the Stars and Lewis-Clark State College, the host of the tournament in Lewiston, Idaho. The visiting team Wednesday night, the Stars jumped on freshman pitcher Daniel Welch for three hits in the top of the first inning, including a three-run homer. Trailing 3-0 with no outs, Pilots Coach Rocke Musgraves went to the bullpen, calling on senior left-hander Dustin Walden, who ended the inning with no further damage. Musgraves would call on a total of six pitchers on the night. Pilots catcher Aaron McRae opened the LSUS second with a home run, but the Pilots were unable to take advantage of two more hits. Oklahoma City scored one in the top of the third, another in the fourth and three in the fifth, increasing their cushion to 8-1. The Pilots added one run in the fifth to close to the margin to six. After quiet sixth and seventh innings, however, the Stars scored a run in the top of the eighth, and ripped a three-run homer in the ninth to make it a 12-2 game. The Pilots went down in order in the bottom of the ninth. The Stars recorded 18 hits on the night, while the Pilots got to Oklahoma City pitching for 11 hits. The Pilots (52-24), who made the school's first-ever NAIA World Series appearance, were beaten twice by the Stars, but recorded three impressive wins in their other games. In their opener against Indiana Tech (Ft. Wayne) Friday, the Pilots recorded the only 10-run "mercy rule" win of the tournament, downing the Warriors 11-1. The Pilots lost to the Stars 13-5 Saturday in their second game, then came back Monday to defeat Spalding University, of Louisville, Ky., 8-4. Tuesday, the Pilots trounced No. 2 seeded Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, of Daytona Beach, Fla., 14-4. The Lewis-Clark Warriors will have to take two straight games from the Stars Thursday and Friday nights to repeat as national champions. The Stars have been No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings since the first poll of the season. The Warriors faced exactly the same scenario in the 2002 World Series. Having been handed their single loss of the tournament by again top-ranked Oklahoma City, Lewis-Clark defeated the Stars twice to win the championship. LSUS Pilots advance to Final Four in NAIA World Series MAY 27, 2003 Junior pitcher Gene Stevens pitched his second complete game of the NAIA World Series Tuesday as the LSUS Pilots thrashed No. 2 seed Embry-Riddle Eagles, 14-4, and advanced to the Final Four in the tournament. The Pilots will play again Wednesday against No. 1 seed Oklahoma City, with the time -- either 5:30 or 9:30 p.m. (CDT) -- to be determined by the tournament games committee. LSUS and Oklahoma City are joined in the final four by Bellevue (Neb.) and Lewis-Clark State College, who will play in the other Wednesday game. Oklahoma City and Lewis-Clark were to play the nightcap Tuesday. The Pilots had a huge second inning, scoring eight runs off six hits and sending 13 batters to the plate. Designated hitter Thomas McManis, one of four players to step to the plate twice in the inning, struck out to start the second, but came back in his second appearance to blast a three-run homer over the right center field wall. First baseman Miguel Hernandez and shortstop Tyson Arishenkoff recorded 2 RBI and third baseman Ben Wingerter had the eighth RBI. The Pilots spread their other six runs evenly over the remaining seven innings, scoring two runs in the fifth, eighth and ninth innings. Had it not been the ninth inning when LSUS scored its final two runs, the game would have ended under a second 10-run "mercy rule" win for the Pilots, who defeated Indiana Tech 11-1 in their first game of the tournament. LSUS scored its 14 runs on 16 hits and had one fielding error. Embry-Riddle, of Daytona Beach, Fla., had 4 runs on 8 hits and one error. The win marked the third time in as many weeks that the Pilots defeated the Eagles, ranked No. 4 in the NAIA polls coming into the World Series. The Pilots won the best-of-three series from Embry-Riddle to gain the invitation to the NAIA's version of "The Show." Play-by-Play (Courtesy of NAIA World Series) LSUS starters: 25/lf Reynolds; 16/2b Gray; 41/ss Arishenkoff; 18/dh McManis; 33/c McRae; 24/rf Morben; 44/1b Hernandez; 14/3b Wingerter; 19/cf Branch; 15/p Stevens; Embry-Riddle (FL) starters: 11/cf Croley; 5/ss D'Antonio; 17/dh Rojas; 37/lf Smith; 30/3b Clifford; 4/2b Lewis; 27/1b Cocolin; 23/rf Davis; 22/c Poole; 31/p Murphy; LSUS 1st - Reynolds flied out to cf (1-0). Gray walked (3-1).