Looking back, looking ahead

Ah, the last post of 2007 and the first year of our little blog.

It was a down year for Louisiana college baseball, though the state doubled its haul of regional teams from 2006 as Louisiana-Lafayette and New Orleans carried the flag into the postseason.

LSU played its first season under Paul Mainieri; Northwestern State its last under Mitch Gaspard.

Louisiana Tech and Centenary made strides and Tech should take that final step to the regionals this season. Status quo held at LSUS where the Pilots were again an NAIA regional participant.

2007 was tough on local major leaguers as well. B.J. Ryan was done for the season by April; Todd Walker by May, though Walker's was by choice. Former Captian Shreve star Scott Baker shuttled from Triple-A to the Minnesota Twins' rotation and took a perfect game into the 9th in late August.

We're about halfway between the end of the 2007 World Series and the start of the 2008 MLB season, but there's good news for New Year's Day -- it means were about six weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training.