Head coach Tony Robichaux and his staff signed seven players to National Letters of Intent.
ACADIANA – Defending Sun Belt Conference champion Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns and head baseball coach Tony Robichaux completed his signing class Friday with the addition of two student-athletes to National Letters of Intent.
Alex Fuselier (St. Martinville, La.) and Taylor Hubbell (Scottsdale, Ariz.) join five prior commitments - Matthew Lackie (McKinney, Texas), Garrett Larsen (Texarkana, Texas), Kyle Olasin (LaPlace, La.), Zach Osborne (Houston, Texas) and Les Smith (Dyersburg, Tenn.) - for the 2008-09 academic year.
Teulings High product Alex Fuselier (St. Martinville, La.) hit .380 with six doubles as a junior last season. On the mound, the southpaw went 7-1 with a 2.05 earned run average, striking out 59 batters, while allowing 12 walks in 52 innings pitched.
Fuselier is one of the top two-way players in the state and has also played for the Louisiana All-Star organization in the summer of 2007, hitting .483, while going 6-0 on the mound. He earned a 2.60 ERA in 32 innings pitched and tossed a no-hitter for the All-Stars last summer.
Scottsdale Junior College left-handed pitcher Taylor Hubbell (Scottsdale, Ariz.) was 6-0 with a 2.29 ERA in 75 innings pitched as a freshman. Hubbell allowed 66 hits and 19 walks, while striking out 56 batters. He pitched Scottsdale JC to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II World Series, notching their first win in the event.
In June 2007, Hubbell pitched in the National Junior College All-Star Weekend at the USA Baseball Complex in Millington, Tenn. He is currently pitching in the same junior college league as former Ragin’ Cajuns Alex Preciado, John McCarthy and Devery Van De Keere.
Right-handed pitcher Matthew Lackie (McKinney, Texas) is rated as the 27th-ranked high school product in Texas and 214th nationally by Perfect Game Scouting. Lackie was 4-3 with a 1.86 earned run average in 13 games as a junior. During the summer of 2007 with the Dallas Bats organization, Lackie was 7-0 with a 1.61 ERA in 42 innings pitched.
He participated in the prestigious Texas Scouts Day event in August at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Garrett Larsen (Texarkana, Texas), a right-handed pitcher out of Navarro Junior College, was 2-2 with 49 strikeouts and a 4.61 ERA as a freshman last season. During the summer of 2007, in just 25 innings pitched, he posted a 1.80 ERA for the Liberal (Kan.) BeeJays of the Jayhawk Collegiate League.
In June 2007, Larsen was a 33rd round draft choice of the World Champion Boston Red Sox.
Outfielder Kyle Olasin (LaPlace, La.) is the second Louisiana native to sign with the Ragin’ Cajuns for the 2009 season. Last season, Olasin hit .453 with 62 hits, 39 runs scored and 37 stolen bases for Enterprise-Ozark Junior College in Alabama. He did not commit an error in 92 fielding chances.
Olasin led the Alabama Community College Conference in stolen bases and fielding percentage and finished second in batting average and hits in 2007. He was a second team All-League selection with 21 multi-hit games and had a 14-game hitting streak during the season. Olasin transferred to New Orleans’ Delgado Community College for the 2008 season.
Right-hander Zach Osborne (Houston, Texas) rounds out the pitching staff signees. Osborne posted a 3.63 ERA with a 1-0 record in 11 innings for NJCAA National Runner-Up New Mexico Junior College (55-8) last season. He pitched in the Texas Junior College All-Star game in September.
Les Smith (Dyersburg, Tenn.) hit .440 with 13 doubles, 28 runs scored, 29 RBI and 11 stolen bases with a .952 fielding percentage during his junior season in 2007. Smith, the 2007 District Player of the Year, was selected to the 2007 All-Tennessee Baseball Team. He was also selected to play in the prestigious Area Code Games in Long Beach, Calif., and was selected to the All-Area Code team. Smith was ranked 51st on Rivals.com top high school players nationally for 2008.
“We’re losing a lot of pitching and starting position players after this season with our seniors graduating,” Robichaux said. “And, with the anticipation of new rules coming into effect after January with the number of scholarships that are available, each team will sign fewer kids and the recruiting classes will begin to shrink.
“So, now we have to sign more guys who can come in immediately and make an impact,” Robichaux said. “We felt that we needed to make sure we prepared ourselves with the loss of several seniors after this season with a solid crop of guys that can come in next season and pick up where they left off.”
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Ragin' Cajuns Baseball early rec-ROUX-ting class at 7
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