LSUS to make first-ever appearance in NAIA championship 05/06/03

The LSUS Pilots will face North Georgia College at 3.p.m. Wednesday in its first-ever appearance in the NAIA baseball championship tournament. The game will be played in Hattiesburg, Miss.

The Pilots’ 42-20 record is a school-high for season wins, and is currently the best college baseball record in Louisiana. Four members of the record-setting and pace-setting LSUS team were named to the All-Conference team of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference. Aaron McRae, a 6-1 senior, was named one of two all-conference catchers. Shortstop Tyson Arishenkoff, a 6-2 senior; utility infielder Wesley Gray, a 5-11 junior, and pitcher Gene Stevens, a 6-0 junior, were also named to the All-Conference team. This is Gray’s second consecutive selection to the GCAC squad.

LSUS received the automatic season conference champion bid to the NAIA Region XIII tournament because the Pilots finished the season second, a half-game behind William Carey College, which also won the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference tournament. William Carey is the No. 1 seed in the regional tournament, LSUS is No. 4 and the University of Mobile, also of the GCAC, is the No. 5 seed.

LSUS’ first-round opponent, North Georgia, was the Georgia, Alabama, Carolina Conference regular season champion. Two other GACC, Faulkner and Shorter, round out the regional tournament’s field of six teams. Faulkner plays Mobile at noon Wednesday and William Carey plays Shorter at 6 p.m.

The GCAC and GACC are the only two conferences in NAIA Region XIII, which also includes a number of independent teams.