PINEVILLE – It's been a long trip for Walt McGee (Pineville, La./Pineville High) at Louisiana College, one wrought with injuries, ups and downs but no shortage of joy. Now, as the four-year starter's career with the Wildcat baseball program draws to a close, McGee hopes to make the most of the time he has left in the Blue and Orange.

“This is my last year to play baseball,” McGee said. “I don't want to miss one day with all of my friends. I want to keep this up for as long as I can.”

It would have been easy enough for McGee, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound third baseman, to miss plenty of his final season.

The injuries have piled up on him since his freshman year.

“I guess I'm just getting old,” McGee jokes. “It's just been one injury after the next. And they have almost all just been bad luck.”

Among Mcgee's ailments the last two seasons have been a broken bone in the hand caused by the vibration of a bat, a broken bone in the wrist due to an errant pitch and, most recently, an injury to his rotator cuff.

Despite it all, McGee has missed very few starts and has, to date, batted .260 in 24 games (all starts) with 20 hits, 14 runs scored, 16 RBI, two homeruns and a .363 on-base percentage.

“Walt has done a pretty good job for us,” LC baseball coach Mike Byrnes said. “As far as the player he was when we first signed him out of Pineville High to the player he is today, he is the most improved player we've had over the last four years.”

McGee had plenty of chances to improve after being thrust into the lineup at third base as a freshman.

“When I first came in, I figured I wouldn't see the field for two years,” McGee recalled. “But, I got the opportunity to play all four years and I did everything I could to get better.”

“What he did was come in and work his tail off for four years,” Byrnes said. “He's gotten physically stronger and, despite battling a lot of injuries, he's always found a way to do what he has to do to help this team. That's what it's all about.”

It's also about returning to postseason play for the Wildcats, who last year missed out on the playoffs for the first time in five seasons and only second time during Byrnes' 10 years as coach.

“That's definitely our goal,” McGee said. “I think all of us seniors want to keep this season going for as long as we can.”

The good news is that LC, currently 11-17 overall and 4-5 in ASC East play, would make the conference tournament as the fourth, and final team from the East if the season ended today.

The bad news is that the season does not end for a few ore weeks and the toughest stretch of the season lies ahead of the Wildcats, who must travel to first-place Texas-Tyler as well before playing host to Texas Dallas, the team that sits in fifth place and is hot on the heals of LC.

McGee and the Wildcats will face arguably their toughest challenge of the year this weekend when they travel to American Southwest Conference East Division leading Texas-Tyler for a three-game series with the Patriots, who are 23-8 overall and 11-0 in the ASC East.

The first game of the series will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday with a doubleheader to follow at noon on Saturday.