Speaker 1: Are they staying or will they be leaving?
Speaker 2: There's a lot to be said for Rage Cagen's Baseball
as they are in the offseason. Now let's discuss it
all right 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 guys,
JaMarcus Fitzpatrick, but you know you can always call me Fits.
And in today's episode, we will be talking about some
of the players that have entered their name into the
transfer portal that are now former Raging Baseball players. We'll
talk about the guys that will be coming back. We'll
talk about some of the guys that are going to
be entering the program as commitments already, and then we'll
also look at football prospects that are currently on camp
and that are on their official visits for the football program.
But before we get into any of that, I want
to give a huge thank you to all of you
out there that have supported this podcast. We have recently
eclipsed three hundred subscribers on the channel and it would
have not been possible without you guys. This show has
been a labor of love for me, as I obviously
have a TV job that I do at KATC and
being able to do this, I feel like I've been
able to cultivate an environment and a group of people
that truly want to know what's going on with Raging
Cajun's athletics, and so that's why we started doing this show.
So I greatly appreciate you guys, and now onward and
upward to four hundred. That's the next goal for us
to be able to reach. And if you're a listener, hey,
I appreciate you, but just as much. I don't know
what the numbers may look like over there, but if
you're a listener and you want to support the movement,
go ahead and go over to YouTube and subscribe there
as well. So we talked about it in multiple episodes
on here that there will be guys leaving the program,
and now there is just about a clear cut number
of what those numbers will look like. Obviously, the transfer
portal opened on Junior first, and guys that have announced
their intentions to return can still enter their name into
the portal. Things can change, but as of now, the
nine players that will be entering the transfer portal that
were part of the Cajuns twenty twenty sixteen. Are as
follows Owen Golt He announced earlier today Cason Ballard, Trip Dobson.
He has not publicly said that he will be entering
the portal, but that is what I have been told,
Maddix Mendino, Cole Flanagan, the Sam Houston product, Griffin aber
Coen Alfonso, Jason Lacava, and Wilton Taylor the former STM products.
So there are nine guys that will be moving on
from the program. And obviously them entering their name does
not mean that they can't come back. But typically if
you enter and if you wait too long, you may
not have a left for you to be able to
come back on the team. And I do want to
say also that just because these guys are entering, you know,
there's always been this topic of whether they're being loyal
to the program or they're chasing the dollar or anything
like that. If you look at the names of these guys,
these are a lot of players that were in reserve roles,
meaning they don't have leverage to go and try to
go get some money. Right, It'd be different if we
were talking about Blaze Rodriguez or Cold Brown, guys that
had really exceptional first campaigns and then somebody comes along
and says, hey, here's eight hundred thousand dollars. Come and
be a part of our program. That's a little bit
different than some of these guys. These could more so
be an instance of, hey, man, you didn't play much
this year, you may not play much next year. If
you want to get an opportunity to be able to
go and find a spot where you can become the guy,
go ahead and do what you need to do.
Speaker 1: No hard feelings here. We love you and we wish
you all the best.
Speaker 2: That is what is more so, these guys leaving the
program is an example of so I do want to
clarify that before we get into anything else. So you
have nine guys that will be leaving your program. Now
to the guys that will be coming back, and it's
a it's a list that extends pretty long. You have
Donovan Lasal that made his name public that he would
be returning, Mark Collins, ty Roeman recently announced, cam Riley
Parker Smith saw your Crew, It Landon, Victorian Blaize, Rodriguez,
Bryce Wilson, Haydon Pearson, Noah Lewis and Cole Brown. Now,
there are some players that have not publicly said that
they will be coming back from but from what I've
been told, guys like Steven Splita, Drew Marco Gerritt, Carter,
Chase Morgan also who did not play this past season
because of a back injury, Jr. Toilette, and Josh Liam,
those guys will still more than likely be a part
of the program. Now, Cody Brash, it's kind of the
wild card for you, right, He's probably going to get
an opportunity to get drafted very high and because of that,
you're gonna be outfitted right in terms of the nil
package that you can probably put together.
Speaker 1: The best offer.
Speaker 2: That you may be able to put together is not
going to exceed what he can go and get at
slot value in the MLB draft. This is his draft year.
This is probably the best leverage that he's going to have.
So he's going to probably be a one and done player,
which is understandable. Coach Diggs talked about that after they're
lost to Mississippi State, so we understand that that's how
that will stand.
Speaker 1: But these other players that you have.
Speaker 2: Coming back are all core pieces that were a part
of the success that you had on this team this
past twenty twenty six season. Now as you finished forty
one and twenty five, it's going to be interesting to
see how healthy Chase Morgan will be. He has not
been throwing, but from what I've been told, he will
work to start back throwing and they will slowly work
him in. He'll start back trying to starting next month,
So there is a decent amount of an offseason before
fall ball really gets rolling around, and then we will
see what he can turn into coming into his senior
campaign in twenty twenty seven. But we've talked about we
talked about it in the last episode, the Big Four,
the freshman that will be coming back, the Noah Lewis,
the Cookee Brown, the saw your crew in the Blaze Rodriguez,
that's going to be the cornerstone of what you want
to have on your team. Then you think about a
guy like a Donovan Lasal that led your team in
home runs. You think about Mark Collins that got really
hot on the back end of the postseason with his
career high in RBI in the game against Cincinnati, the
elimination game that you had where he had four in
that game. And then you think about from a bullpen standpoint,
Parker Smith and Hayden Pearson were really big for you.
Land In Victorian didn't get much burned because he's been
working back from injury, but he's going to be able
to help you.
Speaker 1: A lot at some point.
Speaker 2: Cam Riley obviously is a two sport guy, but he
can develop up into a much better picture for you
into the future. Drew Marco was a consistent player for
you on the defensive end and with his bat as well.
And the list goes on and on with these.
Speaker 1: Group of guys.
Speaker 2: So as it stands now, that would be eighteen players
that would be returning and then the nine that we
mentioned that would be departing from your program. So now
the question is who's going to be coming in that
could be able to help the success of this program
and push things forward going to twenty twenty seven. We're
going to talk about that when we come back right
here on Rage and Rundown. Hey, guys, thank you so
much to tuning in to another episode of Rage and Rundown.
We're going to get back into the action in just
a second, but before we do, please do me a
favor if you're watching this video, like it shared and
leave a comment down below. But most importantly, make sure
you're subscribed to the channel. If you're listening, follow the
podcast feed, rate the show, and leave us a review,
because it's going to help us get in front of
more raging Cajun fans, just like yourself. So we know
the eighteen guys that will be coming back for you
in twenty twenty seven. Now it's about looking at the
guys that will be entering your program in twenty twenty seven.
So as it stands, you have eight guys that will
be coming in. Most of them will be out of
the junior college rank, but you have two players coming
out of the high school rank. The first is Miles Ledoux,
who is from bar listed as a second basement. The
second is Evan Vinson, who is a left handed pitcher.
He's a local kid coming from Turlin's Catholic. Ironically enough,
Zach Lafleur, your assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, is going
to be heading over there so that pipeline may remain
just as strong, being able to connect with those two programs.
And then also you have like Justin Robischow, who was
the son of the late grey Tony Robischow is the
head baseball coach at s TM, so that pipeline is
going to continue to stand strong for you in those regards.
I did not pull up stats and how they look
for each of these high school players, but if I
can pull it up really quickly while I'm on here
with you guys, I can see how it looks as
it stands right now. Perfect Game does not have any
statistics for Evan Vinson as I'm looking, but they do
have him standing at six foot two and one hundred
and eighty pounds, so that's a solid sized picture that
you're going to have. And I do see that one
of his best velocity throws if I'm looking at this correctly,
the top end was an eighty nine miles per hour,
So that is really really good coming in for a
true freshman coming into his first season of college baseball.
So that's going to be really fun to watch him
when we get to see that out in fall ball
and what he can be able to develop into for
you in the near future. Meanwhile, you have a Miles
Ladeaux who is from Barb Like I mentioned, he's five
to nine, one hundred and seventy four pounds is what
they have him listed at on Prep Baseball. If I
can get it pulled up on Perfect Game, we'll be
able to see what they have him listed at there.
They do not have five to eleven. One hundred and
seventy pounds is where they have him listed at on
Perfect Game.
Speaker 1: He's played at third base.
Speaker 2: He threw a little bit for you as a right
handed guy second base, catcher, infield, or outfielder, shortstop, all
of those good numbers like that, we know that we
are going to see Blaize Rodriguez be your shortstop, but
after rigo Berto Hernandez went down, or when Galt was
your second basement, and because he's now entering the portal,
you can assume that you'll probably see Miles of Lado
in that position.
Speaker 1: At second base, you'll probably see Donovan Lasal.
Speaker 2: He was kind of being cross trained during the Startville Regional.
At first, Liamede was switching between first and third and
all of those things like that, so you'll probably see
him at first. You'll probably see Drew Markle at third base,
Cope Brown behind the dish at catcher, and then in
the outfield, you'll probably see Mark Collins at left, you'll
probably see Noah Lewis in the center, and then right
field maybe the spot where things could get shaken up
just a little bit, because then Donovan Lasal he played
outfield just a little bit for you as well, so
potentially he could be out there. You still have Josh
Lamb on your roster that can do things for you
as well, so we'll be keeping an eye on that one.
But that's how it stands. With the high school rates.
Then you're talking about the community college and junior college
ranks of players. The first is Eric Fernandez, who's coming
from Tallahassee Junior College. If I can go and pull
up his profile again, I got all these different tabs
opened up. Tallahassee State College is where he would be
coming from. He's six foot three, two hundred and ten pounds.
He's just coming out of his sophomore campaign, so he
will have two years of eligibility. He's a incoming junior
for you this past season. In his career stats, he
played in fifty three games. He had one hundred and
eighty nine at bats. He had fifty nine hits, thirteen
of them being doubles, a triple, and one home run
and he had thirty five RBI and thirteen stolen bases.
That's a three twelve batting average this past season twenty
five twenty six.
Speaker 1: He played in sixteen games the previous season.
Speaker 2: So he could be an infielder for you to be
able to give you some options there with other positions
to see what kind of competition he can either build
to his future, or he can push guys like Donovilla
South or Drew Marco, or maybe you cross train Donnie
and say, hey, you go out into right field, we're
gonna bring him in the infield. He gives you options
and an opportunity to see and it all depends on
how strong the bat is going to be once we
get off into a fall ball as well.
Speaker 1: The next player is a Dagan Kuba.
Speaker 2: If I'm pronouncing that correctly, let me go back and
make sure that I am Bigan Kopat correct. Is the
next guy that we're looking at. He's six foot one,
two hundred and ten pounds. He is coming from Vernon College.
He is a right handed pitcher. This past season, he
had thirteen appearances with one start. He was three and
seven in his one loss record. He pitched in fifty
seven innings. He allowed eighty three hits fifty three earned
runs for an ERA of eight point three seven. Right
can be able to develop that. Once again, he is
a sophomore. You have two more years of eligibility out
of him, so he could be somebody that could be
a back end bullpen guy for you, potentially, someone that
you can develop, because when you're talking about starters going
into the weekends, you still have Ty Roman, you still
have Sawyer Pruit, you still have Jr. Ta Lead, you
still have Chase Morgan potentially coming back for you as well,
So you may be pretty set when it comes to
your weekend starter guys. He could be someone that could
be a midweek starter for you, or, like I said,
a back end bull pen guy for you as well.
The next player is Mattick Sullivan, who is a right
handed pitcher from Iris Central. He committed to the program
back in April. Dagan actually committed back in November. Mattick
Sullivan committed in April. He is coming from Iowa Central.
Like I mentioned in twenty five, it says that he
appeared in fourteen games, but there's no statistic line for him.
Excuse me, I was looking at his hitting stats, so
he appeared in fourteen games. He had six stars. He
was five and three. He pitched in forty two innings,
thirty four hits allowed, twenty two earned runs for an
ERA of four to seven one six foot one, two
hundred twenty five pounds. He was a red shirt freshman
this past season, so he will have three years of eligibility.
He'll be coming in as a sophomore, junior, and then
senior year for three.
Speaker 1: Years of eligibility.
Speaker 2: The next player we talked about him in a previous episode,
Cal Pizzano, was a first baseman and outfielder from Central
Arizona and he is six foot three, two hundred and
twenty five pounds. He was a red shirt freshman this
past season. He came from Oregon, and we talked about
some of those numbers, him being the number one player
at his position in the state of Oregon and number
three overall. He played in thirty six games this past
season with a three eighteen batting average, four home runs,
twenty eight RBI, and two stolen bases. It could be
interesting to see what you will do with him, because
again he has the ability and he bats lefty. He
has the ability to either be an infield or an outfielder,
again an opportunity to be able to cross train.
Speaker 1: A guy.
Speaker 2: Down the line as you build towards the future. The
next player is Jeremy Kiper, who is from Chandler Gilbert
Community College who is listed as a first baseman. He
is six foot two, one hundred and ninety five pounds.
He bats and throws right handed. He played in fifty
five games with a three to six team batting average.
He had nineteen home runs this past season, so he
has a lot of power to his bat. He had
fifty five RBI and two stolen bases, so when you're
talking about some power hitting, this could be a guy
to really keep an eye out.
Speaker 1: For potentially this upcoming season as we go along.
Speaker 2: In the year before, he played in forty three games,
one hundred and fifty five at bat's, seven home runs,
twenty eight RBI, and he had a two forty five
bat in average, so he just continued to grow.
Speaker 1: He is a sophomore.
Speaker 2: He will be coming into his junior year when he
comes to Lafayette, so he'll have two years of eligibility.
And then the last player that we have on the
list is Trent Lake, who is a right handed pitcher
who was at Bowser City Community College or Bolser Parish
Community College BIBCI. He was a guy that was originally
at LSU, if I'm not mistaken, and now he's going
to come into your program. And according to the bow
Your Press Tribune, reading from an article that they had
about him, he began his college career at LSU before
transferring to Bipsy this fall. His fastball consistently sat in
the upper nineties this fall and is drawing attention from
MLB teams. We all know this is a quote from
BIBS head coach Bobby Gillam. We all know Trent had
an elite arm talent, but his dedication to his craft
has been impressive. He's been up to ninety eight this
fall and worked hard to develop complimentary stuff to go
along with the fastball. Trent had other options from SEC schools,
but UL came in with an offer that was really special.
Speaker 1: We were counting on.
Speaker 2: Him to be a force in reaching fourteen this spring,
so that was prior to the upcoming season. So that's
going to be an interesting piece there as well, because,
like I mentioned, you have guys that were we can
start this for you. But when you're talking about competition
and trying to build a winning program, if you bring
in a guy and he beats out someone that you
already have on your roster, you just got to tip
your cap to them and be able to go with
the person that's.
Speaker 1: Working best for you.
Speaker 2: So those are the eight guys that you have that
will be coming into your program. You have eighteen guys
that are returning, so your number is up to twenty six.
From what I've been told, there could be a potential
another arm or another pitcher that could potentially be committing soon.
They may be working to try to get a catcher,
an infielder, and a couple of more arms as they
work through the portal and the summer before getting to
fall balls. So it's gonna be very, very exciting. I
could probably see the roster numbers getting somewhere around So
if you add three or five six plus the twenty six,
so that would be somewhere around thirty two to thirty
three guys on your roster coming up in twenty twenty seven.
You got a lot of talent and based on some
of these guys that we've talked about that are going
to be coming into the program adding to what you
already have on your roster. Now, obviously it's going to
have to buil down to culture. How do they culturally
fit into your program? First of all, that's going to
be the main thing. How do they work into that?
But also how will they gail with the system in
the way that you do things there in Lafayette. So
it'll be interesting to see how it all turns out. Now,
I have one more thing that I need to talk about,
and that's going to be the official visits that are
happening this weekend. As it's going to be a busy
month for the football program. We'll get all into that
right after this break here on.
Speaker 1: Rage and Rundown.
Speaker 2: So official visits are set to start this month this
weekend to be exact. As Louisiana is on the recruiting trail,
as we know, they are already up to six guys
that are committed. They are Shadow Creek tied end Bryce
Coleman of Oyos, defensive lineman, Kobe Smith, Faraday wide receiver,
Rob Taylor, Westbrook quarterback, Tam Anderson, Angleton, offensive lineman Noah Ernst,
and Plaqumin wide receiver John Walker. So you have six
guys already committed. All of them will also be on
official visits. And essentially what that is the football program's
on their dime, on their dollar to take care of
the players, to bring them in, to allow them to
be able to tour the facilities, places that they've already
been around, and kind of get that full lean in,
a full court press, so to speak of trying to
get those guys to either commit or further solidify their
commitment as they head deeper into the summer months and
get ready for their senior seasons. And here in twenty
twenty six, on the back of twenty twenty six, will
there'll be a part of the twenty twenty seven class.
So the guys that will be coming in this weekend
that are already in laugh yet for their official visits
as they started here on June the fourth of me
recording this episode. The first is Summer Creek defensive back
Caleb White, Robert Taylor, the guy that I just mentioned
that's committed to your program already, University lab Old lineman
d Liman, Mason Smith, Saint Ogg Edge, Jacques Robushow, Shadow
Creek tight end Bryce Coleman, who I mentioned is already
committed to your program. And then stm safety Land and Orty.
So starting things off just to give you a rundown
of each one of these guys on what they will
bring to the table. The first is Caleb White, who
is five ten, one hundred and seventy one pounds. His
highlights show him lined up at a cornerback position, which
can be very very big for you to add depth
to that room. This past season, he had just seventeen
targets thrown his way. These are all according to what
he put on his Twitter account and his pen tweet.
Seventeen targets, two catches allowed the entire season, zero touchdowns allowed,
five interceptions and a pick, six, ten pass breakups, two
tackles for lost, and twenty one tackles. So essentially it
sounds like where he is he is a shutdown cornerback,
meaning he can lock down one side of the field,
and to have something like that man is going to
be huge as you're building towards the future because when
you look at the cornerback room, obviously you have Brent
Gordon Junior, who is a sophomore for you coming into
this season, Avery Dimrie, who had a lot of great
plays for you in then.
Speaker 1: You have some young guys.
Speaker 2: Cam Riley is also a cornerback for you, even though
he's on the baseball team as well. He's doing a
little bit of a Deon Sanders if you will. Curly Reid,
Kevin Malone, Jeremiah Moses, and so many other guys in
that room. So you're just adding youth to that room
along the way. So he could be someone that if
you're able to get a commitment out of him, that
can add depth to that room. The next is Faraday
wide receiver Robert Taylor. We've talked about him on this
show before, so I won't get deep into his numbers
and anything like that. You can go and check that
out on some previous episodes that we've talked about. But
just looking at the wide receiver room, right Sheldon Sampson,
I believe it's going into his junior season, so he's
going to be a developed and much older receiver. You
have Landon, mattis Landon Struther, Trenton Cheney, Russell Babino, Jaden
Johnson will be your lone senior I believe out of
your receiver room. Rogie Dennis Jacorian Norris, and then you'll
bring in Christian Brooks, who is a freshman that will
be on campus and should be on campus for you
already entering the summer. So you're just going to continue
to load up that receiver room. We know that offensively,
UL likes to use a lot of receivers, rotating guys
in and out. And it's not just three guys and
this is all we're using, or just two guys and
it's all we're using. They like to use multiple guys
in their offense, so having more pieces throughout will be
good for you. You high offensive lineman Mason Smith, and
has him listed on his Twitter account as if I
can pull it up again, I got a lot of
tabs open. Like I said, he wears the number sixty,
so he's listed as a left tackle and defensive tackle,
and he also says he plays first base for their
baseball team. He's six foot three, two hundred and eighty
pounds and runs a five flat in the forty yard dash,
So a big guy with a lot of speed. I'm
gonna assume that he's going to be brought in on
the offensive line, which is going to help you a
ton because you have a lot of older guys on
the offensive line at your tackle spots, like a George Jackson,
like Isaiah Alexander Jamari and guj but then you have
younger guys and behind them, so he's going to be
able to come in and push some of those other guys. Obviously,
you brought in Jace Mitchell out of the transfer portal
from Tulane, and then you have a young freshman like
Javal Mays Hudson and then Michael abouten Bowen's junior, so
you have some young guys there in the tackle spot.
Bringing him in will also be good. Saint Ogg edge
Jock Robischow pulling up his Twitter account, he is six
foot four two and thirty pounds and this past season,
his junior campaign, he had nine and a half sacks,
a pick six, four forced fumbles, sixteen quarterback hurries, twenty
three tackles, twelve tackles for lost in five pass deflections,
really really good numbers for a solid pass rusher. And
we know that in this defense based out of a
four to three, you kind of have that jack position
that you could be working.
Speaker 1: So you're talking about.
Speaker 2: More like Ashley Williams, an AJ spencer kind of guys
like that that can stand up as a linebacker put
their hands in the ground. It just kind of depends
on where they feel they can utilize him at that position,
if they're able to get a commitment for him. Shadow
Creek tight end Bryce Coleman. We've talked about him. He
was the first commit of your twenty twenty seven class.
Will be seen if they can hold the rope and
keep him throughout the summer. But him being your first
commitment is going to be one of the strongest bit
of advantage that you have because he's going to be
on the visit during the weekend. Him and Robert Taylor,
two commits that you already have. They can be able
to say, hey, guys, we know what it takes, we
have seen what this program can do. We know these
coaches are genuine, we know these guys really believe in
what we're trying to do. Come here to UL and
let's go win and be something special here in Lafayette.
The lastest STM safety land and Ortie, who is a
local product, and getting a local guy is always going
to be huge.
Speaker 1: The conversation is always on social media.
Speaker 2: That ULL doesn't recruit local players and that's just not
true because either the guys are out of their range
like a brayln cale, or they go and get them
maybe on the back end or anything like that. But
Landing it's six foot two, one hundred and ninety pounds.
He was All District as a safety and he was
a first team All State safety as well. This past season.
He played in twelve games. He had two interceptions, ten
pass breakups, one hundred and twenty two tackles, forty eight
of them being solo. So he found his way around
the ball and was able to make a lot of
plays for the Cougars this past season. So it's gonna
be interesting to see how things go over this over
official visit weekend. They'll have more official visits for the
remaining month as they have quite a few guys coming
up in the week of from June eleventh to June thirteenth,
so they'll be in town from June fourth should June sixth.
So if you see them around town, you see them
with a coach, hanging out eating somewhere or something like that,
and make them feel at home because this could potentially
be their home for the next three to four five years,
depending on if they commit to this program. So that's
gonna wrap up this episode of Raging Rundown. It's been
an extended one for sure, but we had a lot
that we had to get into in this one. If
you've made it to this point in the video, thank
you so much. Please do me a favorite, like it,
share it, and leave a comment down below. But most importantly,
make sure you're subscribe to the channel. If you're listening,
please 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.