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College  | Story  | 3/13/2018

Quick Take: Louisiana

Photo: Brad Kemp



Perfect Game College Player Database

During the season Perfect Game scouts will be traveling to some of the top series to watch the very best players in college baseball. Those observations, captured with both written notes and video, will be shared in the College Player Database as linked above, notes that can also be accessed on the players' individual PG profile pages. Throughout the season select reports will be shared in feature format to promote the players, the teams and college baseball as a whole.


 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns

What Happened: Louisiana went 1-2 over the course of the weekend at the Shriners College Classic, losing a close one to Mississippi State, shutting out Vanderbilt and then dropping the weekend finale to Kentucky. They showed a combination of things to like, but also showed the effects of preseason injuries to go along with a fair bit of inexperienced youth. 

Carrying Tool: Ace of the staff. Despite being without Hogan Harris for the majority of the season thus far, as well as losing Gunner Leger for the year before the season began, Louisiana has a bona fide ace in righthander Nick Lee. Lee shows the stuff and ability to match up with anyone on Friday nights, with three pitches that all flash plus to go along with big-time arm speed. 

Concerns: Offense. At the time of this writing, Louisiana is hitting .189 as a team. Their team-wide OPS is a paltry .529, which means not only are they not hitting, but they aren't getting on base nor are the hits they do get doing much in the way of damage. Hayden Cantrelle is a promising freshman who has a chance to get up to speed and contribute quickly, but the main issue for this team focuses on a handful of upperclassmen who will need to step up at the plate over the course of the season to help this team accumulate more wins. 

Best Player on the Field: Nick Lee. As mentioned above, Lee's stuff is high-octane, and, from a pure stuff standpoint, is up there with most of college baseball's elite. He has some work to do from the standpoint of consistency and command of the arsenal, but on pure stuff alone, he's one of the best. The fastball is in the mid-90s and the curveball and changeup both flash plus, giving him three weapons with which to miss bats. 

Fearless Forecast: There's almost no logical or statistical way that Louisiana could hit worse than they have thus far this season, so it's only logical to believe that as water finds its level they'll begin to swing the bats better and better and have a bit of an offensive renaissance, so to speak. Their pitching is doing a fair job of holding them above water right now, but with the injuries mentioned before, the pitching can't do it alone for much longer. They need that offense to come along quickly. 


Database Player Reports (6):

• Jack Burk
• Hayden Cantrelle
• Hunter Kasuls
• Nick Lee
• Austin Perrin
• Logan Stoelke


Prospect Spotlight: Hayden Cantrelle, SS



Cantrelle, who came to campus with a fair bit of hype having torn up the Cal Ripken Summer Collegiate League as an incoming freshman, has struggled a bit to start his collegiate career. Regardless, he's a switch-hitter with a lot of tools, and it's only a matter of time before he figures it out and becomes an offensive force for the Cajuns.

He has lots of athletic twitch in the middle infield with good range and athleticism throughout his actions, highlighted by a very quick first step. The arm, while maybe a touch light to project at shortstop long term, is fine right now at the collegiate level due to the quickness of his release. A very good runner as well, he's quick out of the box and gets up to top gear quickly, which will allow him to create more havoc on the bases once he starts to get on base more. 

Offensively Cantrelle is a switch-hitter who looks, at this juncture at least, to be a bit more comfortable from the left side. There's good looseness to the stroke with quality bat speed, and he demonstrates the ability to move the barrel around the zone a bit. He has feel to hit from the right side as well, it's just a bit more stiff at present. There's power there, and he's most definitely not a slap-and-run type of hitter despite his speed and athleticism. He made some of the hardest contact for the Cajuns all weekend, barreling up a couple doubles down the right field line and showing some whole-field ability as well. 

With Cantrelle it's just a matter of a collegiate true freshman going through the adjustment period of facing really good college pitching for the first time. He shows lots of tools and athleticism and his feel for the game is obvious, so once he's able to make the necessary adjustments we should see him take off in a loud way.
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