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Musgraves: 2004 Pilots
still a ‘question mark’

Nancy Morris Cook

It would seem LSUS head baseball coach Rocky Musgraves is sitting on top of the world.

The 2003 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Region XIII coach of the year not only brings a veteran pitching staff into the Pilots’ 2004 season, but also brings a team ranked third nationally by the NAIA.

The ranking comes following a Cinderella season in which the Pilots won the Region XIII Championship and went on to finish third in the NAIA World Series.

This from a team that finished in second place in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference with a 20-10 record, yet went on to win the Region XIII tournament and the Super Regional against the then-NAIA No. 4 team from Embry-Riddle University of Daytona Beach, Fla.

That strong showing was what bought the Pilots their first-ever ticket to the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. There, they caused the 10-run “mercy rule” to be invoked in the seventh inning against the Indiana Tech Warriors in an 11-1 thumping of the Heartland Super Regional champ. The Pilots dropped their second game to the No. 1-ranked Oklahoma City Stars, then came back to defeat Spalding University (Louisville, Ky.), 8-4 and Embry-Riddle, 14-4, before being dropped from the double-elimination tournament in a semi-final rematch with Oklahoma City. The Stars then dropped two straight to lose the national championship to Lewis-Clark State College.

The Pilots’ post-season success was good enough, however, to earn them a 2004 preseason ranking of No. 3 in the nation.

Before they’ve even played a game.

But all that glitters is not necessarily gold.

Though the 2003 team’s World Series performance, as well as the high preseason national ranking, has been helpful in recruiting, which is actively going on for the 2005 season at this time, it also creates pressure for the 2004 team.

“We know what it takes to get there [the World Series], (but) the downfall is high expectations,” Musgraves said. “Because only 16 of the 40-member team are returning this year, it’s anybody’s guess what is going to happen.

“I feel like Monty Hall looking at all those doors in that television show ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ – I don’t know what’s behind those doors,” Musgraves quipped.

The good news is that rookies on the pitching staff will join seasoned veterans who know what they’re doing. Musgraves said the six veterans on the pitching staff “are the strongest we’ve ever had.”

He added that the new team has talented hitters who will be able to put big numbers on the scoreboard, but “the biggest question is defense – we just don’t know.”

Musgraves also had good things to say about the new players. “We did well in recruiting, we have a lot of talent,” he said, “but we’re very inexperienced. We have a lot of question marks with this team. We know what we have physically. We’ll have to see what we have mentally.”

Until the team actually begins playing, “we don’t know how (young players) will react.” Though Musgraves said the team appears to be “pretty close” at this stage of development, the “Who’s got your back?” question will remain unanswered until actual games are played.

(Nancy Morris Cook, a career journalist and former member of the LSUS staff, is a special assistant to Caddo Parish District Court Judge Mike Pitman.)