LSUS Baseball’s Carlos Sanchez Selected By Baltimore Orioles

I was watching the Baltimore Orioles game on Sunday against the Royals, and surprisingly, Shreveport-Bossier was a topic of discussion numerous times throughout the game. Part of the conversation was about Bossier native and former Centenary Gent Seth Lugo. But the other part of the conversation really caught me off guard.

Louisiana native 'Big Ben' McDonald was on the call in the Orioles booth. And, while I was only half paying attention while cleaning, I heard Ben talking about LSU Shreveport and the City of Shreveport. I had to go back and rewind the broadcast to figure out what brought that on. Well, it turns out, Ben & Kevin Brown were talking LSUS baseball for a good reason - the Orioles had just drafted a player from LSU Shreveport in the draft, the highest draft pick ever for the school.

Orioles Draft Carlos Sanchez from LSU Shreveport

The last couple of years have been like a dream for the LSUS Pilots. They went undefeated & won a national championship, they had one of the longest winning streaks in the history of baseball, they had a former player make the big leagues, they got to visit the White House...it's been an incredible run, to say the least!

And now, another player just made history becoming the highest draft pick in school history. Venezuelan born Carlos Sanchez only played for the Pilots for one season, but it was one heck of a year.

In 57 games, the utility player hit .388, 12 home runs with 82 RBIs, and 37 stolen bases. With a stat line like that, it's no wonder he took home all sorts of hardware including RRAC Player of the Year, First Team All-RRAC, RRAC Golden Glove, RRAC Baseball All-Tournament Team, ABCA/Rawlings NAIA First Team All-America, and First Team All-Louisiana honors.

After the LSUS season, he participated in the MLB Draft Summer League, where he also had a standout performance. In 24 games there, he hit .308 with 4 home runs & 23 RBIs with 18 stolen bases.

With those kinds of stats, it shouldn't be a surprise that a major league team was willing to take him in the 10th round of the draft. And, being a Baltimore Orioles fan, I'm pretty excited that my home town team drafted an amazing player from the college I graduated from. Kind of a cool moment for me and REALLY awesome for the LSUS Pilots Baseball program.

How You Can Support the LSU Shreveport Pilots

Want to jump on the Pilots bandwagon? There's plenty of ways to support the team. The most obvious way is to go to a game when the season starts back up. If you've never been to Pilot Field before, it's located at 62 University Pl, Shreveport, LA. Not only do they produce a really good on-field product, but the experience overall is pretty darn exciting.

On top of that, there's tons of  LSU-S merch you can buy to support the program. Buy tickets to a game. Go support the Pilots! Like I said, they're doing some incredible things no other team in baseball history has ever done - and they're doing it in our own backyard. They deserve all our love and support.