Louisiana UnLimited: Kyle DeBarge

**NewsCopy** · April 30th, 2024, 04:05 pm

The Ragin Cajun baseball team continues to dominate the Sun Belt Conference with a 16-game win streak during this season and is currently first in the conference. The Cajuns are having a stand-out season, despite losing many key players from last year's team. Junior shortstop Kyle DeBarge has been one of many players to step up and take charge of this winning team.

Even though in his earlier career Debarge didn't think he could play high-level baseball, his numbers on the field say otherwise, with a batting average of .351, 15 home runs, 50 runs batted in, 128 total bases, and a league-leading 66 hits this season. He has also collected many awards as a Cajun, including the 2023 Sun Belt Conference All-Tournament Team, 2023 All-Louisiana, and the 2023 NCAA Coral Gables All-Regional Team.

His decision to come to UL was a no-brainer, considering the fact that he had been watching the Cajuns since he was a kid. His first offer was UL and as a sophomore, his recruiting process took only one day.

"UL, they were my first offer," said DeBarge. "My recruiting process was one day. It was the day after our state championship game sophomore year. We won the state championship. The next morning I get a call from Jake Wells. He gave me the offer, I said 'I'll talk it over with my parents.' I talked it over with them that night and then committed, so it was literally one day."

There was uncertainty that this year's team could match the chemistry of the last two years after a big shift in the players on the roster. Debarge asserts that this year's chemistry is just as good as the last two years, citing the new players as the reason.

"We lost so many good players last year, but this year the new guys came in and just-they're just dogs," said DeBarge. "They want to play. Everybody loves to play and they've taken everything Coach (Matt) Deggs has taught us [...] and didn't put a toe in the water, they just, head first, dove in."

His favorite part about the chemistry of the team is the brotherhood that the players have been able to create. The "pack mentality" of baseball is essential for DeBarge and not hard for him to participate in.

"The best part about it, in my opinion, is the brotherhood. I'll play for this guy next to me. I don't care who gets the credit, that shouldn't be hard to buy into."

DeBarge is no stranger to winning games, having played for legendary baseball coach Glenn Cecchini at Barbe High School in Lake Charles. Although he moved from the small town of Kinder to Lake Charles, Debarge doesn't think the transition was much of a challenge because he still had baseball.

"It was a transition but I don't think it was all that much because I still had my buddies that I'd been growing up with, playing baseball with."

Baseball has always been a sort of home for DeBarge. Growing up in Kinder, Louisiana, he was always playing baseball. Whether it was with his dad, mom, or other siblings, DeBarge made time for little else in his free time. His dedication to baseball is what ultimately drives him, playing for the little kid inside him, who knows nothing else but baseball.

"It's all I've ever done. I don't hunt, I don't fish, I don't do any of that. All I did growing up was sports… just doing that as a little kid and it's all I've ever done."

As his junior season draws to a close, the topic of the MLB draft this summer has come up in conversation. In 2020 Debarge himself tweeted about making it to the major leagues, saying "I'm going to be a big leaguer one day! I'm pinning this tweet so when I make it I can laugh at all the people who said I couldn't!"

I'm going to be a big leaguer one day! I'm pinning this tweet so when I make it I can laugh at all the people who said I couldn't! #dreambig

— Kyle DeBarge (@DebargeKyle) May 15, 2020

Debarge's tweet serves as a point of motivation for himself as he continues his baseball journey.

"I made it public so there's no turning back. I wanted to make it public so now I have to do it. There is no other option. I have to do it," he said.

Though talk of MLB swirls around DeBarge, he is somehow able to keep a straight head. He ignores it by focusing on the present with the current team and season. He is in awe of the fact that no team is ever the same, and no game is safe from being your last. He chooses to leave it out on the field every game he gets to play because he'll never be in that exact moment again.

"I'm never going get to play on this team, like this exact team, ever again. Every year there's never going to be a team exactly like that. Just play every game like it's your last because it very well could be and you're never going get to play with these guys again."