Baseball has a lot of parity and randomness, making it close to impossible to go undefeated in a single season.
Last Saturday, the LSU-Shreveport Pilots baseball team accomplished the seemingly impossible: an undefeated season. They had no blemishes in the regular season, conference tournament, or the NAIA World Series. With a final record of 59-0, the Pilots have cemented their place in the annals of history as the greatest college baseball team by record. This begs the question: how many other teams throughout the sport’s history can say they had an undefeated season?
It turns out, only one other team can make that claim. That team is the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, most famous for being the first professional baseball team in the United States. The Red Stockings had already played three seasons as an amateur team with local financial backing and a temporary home field for use. After a final successful amateur campaign, the Red Stockings organized themselves into professionals with the aid of the National Association of Base Ball Players, the first organizing body of American baseball. There were no rules regarding who teams could sign, so the Red Stockings were able to assemble a team of veterans to go on baseball’s first barnstorming tour. Their opponents primarily consisted of hapless amateurs with full-time jobs, so the Red Stockings steamrolled competition. Their won their season opener 45-9.
After six months, they concluded the 1869 season with a 67-0 record, and 57 of those wins came against Association teams. The accomplishment is exactly on par with LSUS, as most of their opponents will never see a minor league diamond, let alone the Majors. Cultural attitudes towards amateurism were different at the time, but the level of play was likely similar to NAIA. Neither team is filled with potential first-round MLB picks.
Meet the Pilots
LSU-Shreveport is led by Head Coach Brad Neffendorf. He just concluded his 6th year at the helm and previously led the Pilots to two other World Series appearances in 2021 and 2022. 2025 was the fourth straight year they won the regular season championship in the Red River Athletic Conference, and they also won the conference tournament in 2021. The 2024 team went a strong 44-11. This amazing team clearly didn’t come out of nowhere.
An undefeated team unsurprisingly has some impressive stats. The roster as a whole slashed an astounding .361/.493/.601. They score at least ten runs in each of their final three games to win the championship, including a 13-7 score over Southeastern in the final contest. Senior infielder Austin Gomm led the lineup with 12 home runs, slugging over .700 along the way. Meanwhile, the Pilots had a sparkling 2.38 ERA as a team, and a WHIP under 1.00. They pitched 14(!) shutouts. Senior lefty Isaac Rohde pitched 120.1 innings with a 2.09 ERA and 146 strikeouts while walking just 11. The numbers speak for themselves, LSUS absolutely earned a perfect season.
Historical Perspective
LSU-Shreveport clinched a perfect season in an era of conditioning, scholarship limits, drastically different rules, and recording of every pitch. The artificially induced parity across all levels of baseball is meant to prevent seasons of total dominance. At the beginning of the season, nobody would have expected Shreveport to run the table, including the players and coaches. Losses are part of the sport, and in a season of 60 games, the best teams lose around ten times.
No matter how skilled a team is, or how “inferior” their competition might be, modern baseball simply doesn’t allow teams to remain invincible. There is a myriad of factors that impact a game every day, and something is bound to go wrong for even the best teams. It only takes the offense having a bad night, or a fluky error, or the umpire missing a call to causing a team to lose. Plus, an undefeated team quickly becomes a target for opponents to attempt to conquer, with a larger and larger win column only increasing the motivation.
People often use the term “team of destiny” to describe a team that seems fated to win, as if they are magical. These teams take on tasks that seem impossible and are often unprecedented. Yet, somehow, the Pilots were able to turn the impossible into reality. They found a way to win and never lose. Opposing teams gave the best shot, and each time, the Pilots were still standing. No other college team can lay claim to an undefeated year like this. More than a century and a half since the formation of professional baseball, LSU-Shreveport has set the standard for team greatness. And that should be celebrated by anyone who hears of the feat. For we may never see a season like this again.
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