2021 Baseball Roster Preview

[NewsCopy]

LA - With Louisiana Baseball moving forward with its 2020 fall season, take the time to familiarize yourself with some notes and facts on the 2021 roster.

As it stands, the team has 19 pitchers, 21 position players and one two-way player, which makes 41 on the roster. The Ragin' Cajuns return the majority of their pitching staff, but will have a healthy competition around the diamond.

Collegiate Baseball Recruiting Rankings
- With the 22-player recruiting class (three, four-year transfers, 10 JUCO prospects, nine freshmen), the Ragin' Cajuns received votes but just missed a spot in Collegiate Baseball's Top 40 Recruiting Classes.

Far Away Friends
- The player who grew up the farthest away from Lafayette is Kevin Fitzgerald. The Elk Grove, California, native's hometown is 2,103 miles from Cajun country.

Four-Year Transfers
- The Cajuns added three four-year college transfers in CJ Willis (LSU), Brett Borgogno (Cal State Fullerton) and Drake Osborn (Texas A&M-CC). Osborn was a Third Team All-Southland Conference Catcher in 2018 and Buster Posey Watch List member in 2019 and Willis was selected in the 39th round of the 2018 MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays.

High School Homie
- Aside from the St. Thomas More crew (Brennan Breaux, Alex Hannie, David Christie), Louisiana head coach Matt Deggs and freshman Conor Higgs both attended Texas City High School at different times, of course.

Hitting Notes
- Out of the 554 at-bats the Ragin' Cajuns recorded last season, the team only returns 274 of them.
- Brennan Breaux ended last season hitting .444 in his last five games (8-for-18), and was the only player on the team to end the year batting over .300.
- Returning hits leader Connor Kimple is back patrolling the outfield. He ended the season with 15 hits.
- Louisiana struck out 186 times last season, but with the retooled roster only 80 of the 186 strikeouts return in 2021.
- Out of a possible 68 starts from 1B (17), 2B (17), 3B (17) and SS (17), Louisiana only brings back 15 starts from last season.

MLB Draft Cajuns
- Jason Nelson – 31st Round 2019 MLB Draft (San Diego Padres)
- CJ Willis – 39th Round 2018 MLB Draft (Tampa Bay Rays)
- Will Moriarty – 32nd Round 2017 MLB (Texas Rangers)

Minnesota Cajuns
- Sam Riola, from Hamm Lake, Minn., is the first Minnesota native on the roster since Tim Beasley in 2006. To take it a step further, Beasley coached Riola at Bethel University before Riola made his way to Iowa Western JC and then transferred to UL.

New Identity
- Out of the 41 players on the current roster, the Cajuns only have seven student-athletes who have played two or more years at Louisiana. (Connor Cooke, Brennan Breaux, Alex Hannie, Jacob Schultz, Austin Bradford, Austin Perrin, Jack Burk)

Pitching Notes
- Louisiana has seven pitchers on the 2021 roster that have made starts in their careers. The clubhouse leader in career starts is Jack Burk with 26.
- The pitching staff in 2021 returns: 64 starts, 161 appearances, 494.0 innings pitched, 416 strikeouts and 4.32 ERA.
- Jack Burk (152.0) and Austin Perrin (127.1) are the two pitchers on the roster who have thrown over 100.0 innings in their careers.

Team DNA
- Student-athletes on the baseball team come from all over North America. One player is from Canada and the rest of the team are from 13 different states. The states represented are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin.

Which (Cajun) is that?
The Ragin' Cajuns have multiple players on the team that share the same name:
(5) – Conor Angel, Conor Higgs, Conner Wyly, Connor Cooke, Connor Kimple
(2) – Austin Bradford, Austin Perrin
(2) – Sam Riola, Sam Bianco
(2) – Ben Fitzgerald, Kevin Fitzgerald (Not Brothers)
(2) – Jonathan Brandon, Brandon Talley (Last Name/First Name)
(2) – Anthony Catalano, Anthony Babineaux

The rest of the story
Louisiana AD

[Turner]

I hope baseball can make some noise like football is doing.

[Turbine]

Bump

[CajunEXPRESS]

We’re investing a lot of emotion in an unproven squad and coach. We did okay in the Wuhan shortened 1st season, not great. I’m thinking it’s still less risky than our cold oatmeal basketball coaches. Both almost guaranteed to disappoint often and early.

[redstickcajun]

I think we might be surprised by this group. Pitching will be good and allow the bats to come around.

[JMV JustMyView]

We’re investing a lot of emotion in an unproven squad and coach. We did okay in the Wuhan shortened 1st season, not great. I’m thinking it’s still less risky than our cold oatmeal basketball coaches. Both almost guaranteed to disappoint often and early.

Unproven coach?

[CajunEXPRESS]

Unproven here as the head man. I’m aware of his time here and SHSU. Different circumstances often changes how things develop. How else do you explain how coaches move up, fail, and never achieve the success of the initial confidence. Once he’s here a little longer we can make educated opinions.

[cajuns80]

We’re investing a lot of emotion in an unproven squad and coach. We did okay in the Wuhan shortened 1st season, not great. I’m thinking it’s still less risky than our cold oatmeal basketball coaches. Both almost guaranteed to disappoint often and early.

This is one hell of a take.

[JMV JustMyView]

Unproven here as the head man. I’m aware of his time here and SHSU. Different circumstances often changes how things develop. How else do you explain how coaches move up, fail, and never achieve the success of the initial confidence. Once he’s here a little longer we can make educated opinions.

Come on he had like 13 games here as the head man. You said he was a unproven coach which is not true.

[Turner]

Its going to be a strange new experience only seven players who played for Robe.