Speaker 1: The Freshman Quartet will be back for Raging Cagen's Baseball
in twenty twenty seven. Let's discuss it here on Raging Rundown.
What's good, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome into another episode
of Raging Rundown, the show where you will know all
things ul sports. I'm your guy, JaMarcus Fitzpatrick, but you
know you can always call me fits. And in today's episode,
we will be talking about the Freshman Quartet returning to
Raging Cagn's Baseball in twenty twenty seven, as they announced
their intentions on social media on Tuesday afternoon. Now, before
we get into that, obviously, as you saw in the
last episode, the season ended in the Startfield Regional Louisiana
falling to Mississippi State nineteen to five, ultimately ending their season.
They played sixty six games, they finished the year forty
one and twenty five, but ran into a bus and
ran out of arms and that ultimately ended their season.
And in that episode, one of the things that I
said at the end of it was that this staff
is going to be prioritizing the four freshmen that were
a part of this last seasons. As we'll talk about
it in past tense, now this past season's class, I
said that it was going to be important that you
bring back pitcher Sawyer Pruitt and catcher Colt Brown and
shortstop Blaze Rodriguez and outfielder Noah Lewis. That you needed
to have those guys back on top of other pieces
around in terms of retention, and if you were able
to do that, then things could be special for you.
In twenty twenty seven and lo and behold, just two
days really a day after me saying that in an
episode it all happens, all four guys announced their intentions
to return to the team. And so I'll pull up
on social media exactly when it all started in what
they said in each one of them their post. It
started at four eleven where Sawyer Brewit tweeted see y'all
at the Tigue in twenty seven hashtag were one thirteen,
which is the one hundred and thirteen season that Raging
Cagn's Baseball will play, which will be next year. At
four to twenty four, Colt Brown says, run it back.
At six six, Blaize Rodriguez says, no place like the
Tigue Cajun Nation, run it and then Finally, Noah Lewis
at seven point thirty put hashtag one thirteen with the
go Cajun's hand signal that we all know and love
so much. Also, on top of that, when you talk
about other players that are coming back, Ascension Episcopal product
Hayden Pearson, his father Joseph Pearson saying make each other great,
homegrown and home cooked meals again next year, confirming that
his son will be returning in twenty twenty seven, and
also Parker Smith announcing that he would be coming back
on his Instagram page and as of today I had
originally recorded episode, so I'm coming back for a re record.
Mark Collins announced on Instagram that he would be returning
for twenty twenty seven as well. So you have guys
that have now announced. You have Parker Smith that's one,
Hayden Pearson two, Noah Lewis three, Bleas Rodriguez four, Cole
Brown five, saw Your Prewitt six, and Mark Collins seven two, four, six.
Seven guys have announced their intentions to return. And it's huge,
particularly this this big four class. First of all, because
all four of the four guys that we've talked about
were all some Belt freshman team members, so the conference
is on notice and they understand that these guys are special.
When you talk about each player individually, Cole Brown led
you in bad and average with a three fourteen. He
had eight home runs. He had seventy two hits and
fifty three RBI, which was second on the team out
of the lineup, and he started sixty four of the
sixty six games that you played in. I think the
only two was maybe like a Kansas State game and
then maybe a midweek game where Jose Torres went in
and started a couple of games for you. Other than that,
he was your guy behind the dish. Noah Lewis was
third on your team in batting average at a two
ninety seven. He started in forty seven games and appeared
in sixty games. He like I said, at a two
ninety seven batting average, he had nineteen RBI, just three
home runs. But that power is gonna come along more
for him. But he was a table setter for you.
He was able to get on base. He had fifty
four hits for you, and once he got on base,
he was really really good at stealing bases as well,
as he had sixteen stolen bases out of the twenty
attempts that he made, so he led your team in
stolen bases as well, and we know how much Mad
Diggs and company liked to try to go and steal bases.
Then you look at Blaize Rodriguez. He played in every
single game for you and started in every single game
for this past year with a two fifty two batting average. Defensively,
he was very, very impressive. We saw how big he
came up in the Cincinnati game, the elimination game that Sunday,
where he had two Sports Center Top ten type plays,
So he's gonna be big to have back. And then
obviously saw your prud eventually started off the season as
a midweek starter, emerging more as a Friday night starter,
having a rough patch, but then kind of being a
back end bullpen guy for you and still having some
big closing moments in his freshman campaign. He finishes his
freshman season as I'm pulling it up down here with
a five to twenty one bad or excuse me, a
five to twenty one er. He was seven and five
and twenty five appearances. He started ten games for you.
He threw in seventy four at a third innings and
he had eighty three strikeouts, which was third on the
team behind Tyroman and Andrew Herman. So that four is a
huge part for you, guys. It's a huge piece that
you have. And then you think about Hayden Pearson, who
was really big for you in a lot of moments.
He wasn't a true starter, but he had a four
and three record, He had a three seventeen ERA, he
appeared in twenty eight games. I'm looking at Parker Smith's stead.
Excuse me. Parker Smith had a three seventeen. He was
four and three and twenty eight appearances in one start.
Hayden Pearson meanwhile had a three seventy four ERA. He
was one to ohero and twenty six appearances. He pitched
in thirty three in two third innings. Parker Smith went
forty eight in the third innings. Hayden Pearson had twenty
eight shrikeouts. Parker Smith had thirty nine. So all of
those guys are huge for you. And then we talk
about Mark Collins as well, as we saw near the
back half of the season him kind of emerging and
having really really big games for you. You think about
the four RBI career high game that he had in
the regional and how big that was, and he continued
to build as the season progressed. He had a two
seventy nine batting average. He appeared in forty seven games
and started in thirty two of them. He had thirty
six hits, five home runs, and twenty two RBI. So
just having those guys in the mix helps you a lot.
And Coach Diggs had talked about that he really believes
that this team, with the pieces that they have and
what they are are going to be bringing in, that
this group can not only just be a part of
a regional, but can host one in twenty twenty seven.
And I would have to agree with him because of
how talented this freshman class is and all of the
pieces around it can potentially be as well. We have
yet to hear from Drew Marko, Donovan LaSalle, and Steven
Spalita as some guys of note. There are plenty other
players on the roster as well that have not announced
their intentions. Josh Limb is one of them. Cole Flanagan
is another, Bryce Wilson, Landon, Victorian Oleen Galt, to let
Case and Ballard. Obviously, Chase Morgan did not play this
past season, but he would be in the mix as well.
We've heard from Sawyer Prue and Parker Smith, and like
I said, I'm just going down the list. Cody Brash
could potentially be someone that could enter the MLB draft.
Tyroman can also be that, Gared Carter, cam Riley, Griffin, Abart,
Trip Dobson. And that is pretty much it. So we're
waiting to see if more and more guys announced their intentions.
But as of now, you have seven guys that have
made it publicly known they will be back in twenty
twenty seven. Now. As exciting as it is to see
what guys will be coming back, there have been some
players to have announced their attentions their intentions to leave
the program and enter the transfer portal, one of them
being a little bit of a surprise. We'll discuss all
of that when we come back here on Rage and Run. Now, Hey, guys,
thank you so much to tune it into another episode
of Rage and Rundown. If you made it to this
point in the episode, thank you so much. Please do
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Raging Cajun fans just like yourself. So, as I mentioned,
seven players have announced their intentions to return to the
Raging Cagen's program in twenty twenty seven. We've listed them
all for you. I'll read them again. Parker Smith, Hayden Pearson,
Noah Lewis, Blaize Rodriguez, Cole Brown, Sawyer prud and Mark Collins.
We have heard four players announce their intentions to enter
the transfer portal and then a fifth player in Murphy Brooks,
announcing that he would be medically retiring from the game
of baseball. Cohen Alfonso, Jas Lacava and wil Wilton Taylor
were all players that were not with you in the
Startville regional. They have officially entered into the transfer portal.
And on the same day that Tuesday, as all of
these players were announcing that they would be coming back
and it was a lot of excitement, Maddix Mendino slipped
in that he would be entering the transfer portal after
three seasons with the program, having one year of eligibility
and while this may come as somewhat of a shock
for me, I think that it makes a lot of sense.
Maddix was fourth on your team in batting average with
two seventy eight. He played in fifty one games, while
starting in thirty five of them. He had thirty seven hits,
seven doubles to triples, no home runs, and eighteen RBIs
for you. He also had eleven stolen bases out of
fourteen attempts. And the reason that I say that this
is not a huge shocker for me is because of
the role that Noah Lewis played right there were a
lot of instances where they were kind of mixing and
matching back and forth. You'd have Maddix there, you'd have
Noah there, and it was back and forth. I know
that it may seem like he's not being loyal, but
you had a lot of guys to leave after the
twenty twenty five season, and Maddix decided to return and
come back, and he is entitled to have the opportunity
to see if the grass is greener on the other side.
We don't know if that will be the case for
him or not, but he definitely had some big moments
for you not just during the season, but in the
postseason as well. You think about when Noah Lewis initially
got hurt there in the Sunbelt Conference tournament, Maddix was
inserted in the lineup, and he had some really big
moments for you, hit some big moments in the regional
as well, and so losing that will hurt just a bit,
but you know that you have a ton of upside
with a younger player in Noah Lewis. In previous instances,
you typically will go with the younger player that you
have on the roster because they have more of an
upside and more of an opportunity to get better for
you and your programs. So as it's now, you have
five players that will not be returning, and then you
have five seniors that will be out of eligibility Leamine,
Ricoberto Hernandez, Andrew Herman, Tyler Papenbrock, and Jose Torres, so
ten total players that could potentially not be back. You
have seven that have announced their intentions of returning, and
I've listed the multiple guys that could potentially still be
coming back as well. So if I'm counting one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen.
Other guys have not made it clear of what their
intentions are as well. And as you see, I'm looking
down on my phone quite a bit because I'm trying
to make sure that I don't miss anybody announcing while
I'm recording this episode and potentially having to redo it
for a second time. But it's gonna be big to
see what you can get to add from the guys
that are going to return. You can potentially have twenty
four guys to come back. Two of those twenty four
are already going to be draft eligible. We know Ty
Roman and Cody Brash as well. We will see exactly
what they decide to do, whether that's for the next
level or not, or if they're gonna be willing to
bet on theirselves and running back one more time for
one more year to try to potentially improve their draft
stock even more so and and go further in the
postseason with the Raging Cagen's program. So we'll see about
that also. Of note, the Cajuns also have already added
someone out of the portal as Kaylee Pizzano. I think
that's how you pronounce his first name. At some point,
we will definitely be able to figure out for sure,
he announced back on May. The second Going Down South
was his post on his Instagram. Shout out to Talking
Teague on Twitter for putting the post up and bringing
that to light, and then shout out to beer Hose
boys instead of water holes boys for forgetting the nuggets there.
He's a former Oregon Duck commit. He was the number
three player in the state of Oregon and the number
one first baseman. He's sixty three two and twenty five
pounds and had a three eighteen batting average last year
in the JUCO ranks. So you've already added a player
out of the portal. The two players that I know
off the top of my head from your high school
class are Evan Vincent from Turlin's Catholic who wass a pitcher,
and Miles Ldeaux, who's an infielder for you. So you're
loaded up and you you could be looking really really
strong for the twenty twenty seven campaign, and it's going
to be exciting to see how things will develop for
you over this offseason and towards the future. And while
it is still very early in the in the process,
the transfer portal coming open on June the first, and
all of these players that have announced that they could
come back still have a till June thirtieth to potentially
be given an offer and could change their mind, and
they would be entitled to be able to do that.
So it's going to be important for Mad Daggs and
company to hold the rope and continue to hold onto
those relationships and only hope that these guys will stick
true to the word that they have given and committed
to that they will be willing to stay in the
Vermilion and White. One final note, there also will be
a change among the coaching staff as assistant coach and
recruiting coordinator Zach lafleur I was told that he would
be taking the head coaching job at Turlin's Catholic, which
is also his alma mater. Zach is also an alum
of the Raging Cagen's baseball program and he's been a
part of the program since he was done in his
playing days. We're serving as the recruiting coordinator, helping to
find so many talented guys that should think about throughout
the program. Carson Rocketford's Blaze Rodriguez Kyle de Barge, LP
loadj Event, so on, and so for so many different guys.
He was one of the main pieces to help you
to be able to bring in some of those guys
and recruit them to this program. So he will be
truly truly missed, But this was an opportunity for him
to go and lead a program and to lead his
alma mater because he is a Turlin's Catholic alum as well.
He had some great experience as well as after the
James Madison series, head coach Mac Diggs went more into
the dugout and allowed Zach to take the third base
coaching position, so he was waiving everybody home and having
good moments with plays at the plate and all of
those things like that. So had tip to Zach for
a job well done and good luck to him, and
Turtland's Catholic will definitely be touching bases with him, especially
on my day job at KATC, and it'll be exciting
to see what he can do with that program as well.
So that's going to wrap up this episode of Rage
and Rundown. We'll be keeping our eyes to make sure
that no other player announces in the time that I
fit recording this episode or in the next couple of hours.
If it does, we'll try to give you an update
as well. Thank you guys so much. If you made
it to this point in the video, please like it,
share it, and leave a comment down below. But most importantly,
make sure you subscribe to the channel. If you're listening,
follow the podcast feed, rate the show, and leave us
a review, because that's going to help us get in
front of more raging Cajun fans. Just like yourself, I'm
your guy, Ja Marcus Fitzpatrick. We'll see you guys next time.