Ash Grove product Draven Zeigler pitches in a perfect season with LSU-Shreveport

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The Pilots reach perfection. LSU Shreveport wins the NAIA World Series and goes 59-0 on the season.

On the hill for the Pilots is Ash Grove graduate Draven Zeigler who produced the second best ERA in the NAIA.

“Coming from this small town, it’s everybody’s dream, everybody wants to go on and win a national title,” the rising college senior said. “Everyone wants to go undefeated. Just to be able to do them both in the same season just makes me speechless.”

Zeigler looks around as he sits in the Ash Grove baseball dugout.

“Being able to come out here and sit in this dugout and realize this is where it all started it’s cool,” Zeigler said.

The former pirate found himself in Shreveport after junior college.

“They texted me and I had never heard of them,” Zeigler said. “I had never even heard of Shreveport, Louisiana and I was ‘like what is this place?’. I went there for a visit and after I went on my visit I fell in love with it, it was awesome.”

This season, his third year with the Pilots, he pitched in 87 innings. Including two in the national championship game.

“The atmosphere out there in Lewiston [Idaho] was just awesome,” Zeigler said. “Especially for the championship game. Everyone is rooting for you because you can feel the momentum shift. Everyone wants you to go undefeated. Everyone is just cheering for you so it was awesome just being able to go out there.”

In one year he lowered his ERA from 3.48 to 1.76. And his whip this season was exceptional at .93.

“The last couple of years I was trying to miss their barrels but this year I was trying to make them hit it and it just happens they was missing the ball and I was just doing my job throwing strikes,” Zeigler said.

From a town of just over 1500 to a major part of the first undefeated national champion college baseball team, you never know where the game will take you.

“They tell us everyday to absorb everything you can and be like a sponge and soak everything up,” Zeigler said. “Ever since I’ve been here at Ash Grove it’s what I’ve been doing. Can’t take it for granted it’s just an amazing game that we all get to play and I’m just trying to play for as long as possible.”

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