Shreveport Reporter

SHREVEPORT, LA - LSUS Baseball’s Head Coach  Brad Neffendorf has been named a 2022 ABCA Regional Coach of the Year,  announced by the American Baseball Coaches Association on Tuesday. 

This past season, Coach Neffendorf led the Pilots through a  53-8 campaign that saw the Pilots finish the season as a National  Semifinalist for the fourth time in program history. The Pilots got off  to a flying start in the regular season and continued to play at a high  level for the majority of it. 

They finished the regular season with a 47-3 record overall and  a 31-2 record in the Red River Athletic Conference. Those 31 conference  wins were more than enough for Neffendorf and the Pilots to clinch the  seventh Conference Regular Season Championship in program history and  set a new conference and program high for league wins. The regular  season also saw the Pilots clinch the nation’s longest winning streak  twice, once at 23 games, and the other at 13 games. 

The Pilots were given an opportunity to be a host site for the  2022 NAIA Baseball Opening Round for only the second time in program  history, the first since 2005. After dropping their opener against  Loyola (LA.), the Pilots won four games in three days to punch their  ticket to the NAIA World Series for the fifth time in program history.  The Pilots then began World Series play with an 8-4 win over Bellevue.  After dropping a game, the Pilots bounced back to defeat Faulkner in an  elimination game to clinch a spot in the National Semifinals for the  fourth time in program history. The Pilots were just one win away from  playing in the National Title Game.

Overall, the Pilots finished the season with 53 wins, the  second most in program history dating back to 1991 and the inaugural  season for LSUS. The Pilots broke the 2012 team’s record for the best  start in program history after a 34-2 start to the season. Their 23-game  winning streak also set a new program high. 

This is the second straight season that Neffendorf has been  named an ABCA Regional Coach of the Year as he did so after the Pilots’  45-win season a year ago. The Pilots stormed through postseason play,  winning both the RRAC Tournamentand the NAIA Opening Round. It was the  fourth time in program history the Pilots made it to Lewiston.

2022 ABCA/ATEC NAIA Regional Coaches of the Year

Region	Coach	School	State
Opening Rd.	Duane Monlux	Bellevue	NE
Opening Rd.	Billy Berry	Tennessee Wesleyan	TN
Opening Rd.	Jeremy Sheetinger	Georgia Gwinnett	GA
Opening Rd.	Jake Taylor	Lewis-Clark State	ID
Opening Rd.	Collin Martin	Webber International	FL
Opening Rd.	Patrick McCarthy	Faulkner	AL
Opening Rd.	Ryan Thompson	MidAmerica Nazarene	KS
Opening Rd.	Rob Ruiz	Westmont	CA
Opening Rd.	Brad Neffendorf	LSU Shreveport	LA
Opening Rd.	Adrian Dinkel	Southeastern	FL

                                            

_{Source: https://www.lsus.edu/neffendorf-named-2022-abca-regional-coach-of-the-year}