The Sun Belt Conference baseball champion Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns took home four out of six possible specialty awards. The league office announced five Cajun players also landed on the 2024 All-Sun Belt Conference Baseball team on Monday.
Kyle DeBarge headlined as the junior infielder was named the SBC Player of the Year while Louisiana claimed three other specialty awards with LP Langevin named the SBC Pitcher of the Year, Chase Morgan the SBC Freshman of the Year, and Matt Deggs as the Ron Maestri Coach of the Year.
The Cajuns baseball team finished the regular season with a 40-16 record, giving Louisiana the number one seed in the 2024 Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship presented by Troy University.
Four of the five players who made it onto the All-SBC teams were named to the first team. Those players were DeBarge, Langevin, Morgan, and first baseman Trey LaFleur. The fifth player who made it to the second team was left-handed pitcher Andrew Herrmann.
DeBarge, a Dick Howser Award Semifinalist and SBC Preseason Player of the Year, finished the regular season with a .361 average, a team-high 21 home runs, and 67 RBI. D1Baseball rated DeBarge as the No. 1 shortstop nationally and the SBC’s second-best Draft Prospect. The Kinder, Louisiana native finished second in the league in slugging percentage (.730), OPS (1.159), home runs (21), and at-bats (230). His 83 total hits during the regular season was third overall and he was fourth in RBI.
DeBarge joined the likes of Jace Conrad (2014) and Blake Trahan (2015) in earning SBC Player of the Year honors, recording 13 homers, and driving in 45 RBI in SBC games while becoming the first player in school history to break the 20-home run mark.
Langevin was also a Dick Howser Award Semifinalist and named to the NCBWA Midseason Stopper of the Year Watch List. The right-handed pitcher posted a team-best 6-1 record on the mound in his first season in a Louisiana uniform while leading the team with seven saves. The Quebec native became the school’s sixth player to earn SBC Pitcher of the Year honors joining Scott Dohmann (2000), Austin Faught (2005), Hunter Moody (2006), Carson Baranik (2014), Gunner Leger (2017), and Colten Schmidt (2018).
D1Baseball has Langevin as the fifth-best overall relief pitcher as he finished as the SBC leader in strikeouts with 97 and was 25th nationally. Langevin was also third nationally in strikeouts per nine innings with 15.22 and sixth in hits allowed per nine innings with 5.07. Of his six wins, four came in SBC play and Langevin recorded two games during the season with 10 or more strikeouts. The junior pitcher struck out 10 in 4.1 innings in a win over Old Dominion and fanned 10 batters in 5.0 innings of relief in a win over Coastal Carolina.
Morgan joined Trahan (2013), Gunner Leger (2015) and Nick Lee (2016) in being named the SBC’s top freshman and finished the regular season as the SBC leader in ERA as a true freshman with 2.76 and posted a 4-2 record on the mound with one save. The left-hander was named a Second-Team Midseason Freshman All-American by Perfect Game and was ranked second among SBC pitchers in opposing batting average with .202, runs allowed with 25, and earned runs allowed with 20.
In 65.1 innings on the mound, Morgan allowed the fewest home runs among SBC pitchers with one, and all four of his wins during the season came in SBC matchups. Against Marshall, Morgan allowed one hit and fanned 11 in 8.0 innings and carried a 2.57 ERA in 49.0 innings with opponents hitting .201 in SBC play.
Head coach Matt Deggs was named the Coach of the Year for the second time in his career, the other time being in 2016 when he was apart of the Southland conference. Deggs led a nationally-ranked Louisiana squad which finished with the top batting average of .301 and ERA of 4.24 in the SBC. Joining mentor and four-time SBC Coach of the Year Tony Robichaux, the Texas City, Texas native guided a team that finished as one of 13 teams nationally to win 40 games in the regular season.
Deggs guided Louisiana to its first outright SBC regular-season title since 2016 and its 17th overall 40-win season. The Ragin’ Cajuns won 16 consecutive games, including 14 straight in SBC contests.
Next up is Trey LaFleur, who finished second behind DeBarge in hitting during the regular season at .360 with 10 homers and 37 RBI after a poor 1/25 from the plate in 2023. The senior infielder ranked among the SBC leaders in batting average and slugging percentage with .673 and recorded 15 multi-hit games and nine games with multiple RBI.
The Pensacola, Florida native finished the regular season with eight, three-hit games for the Ragin’ Cajuns and ranks among the team leaders in batting average, home runs, slugging percentage, on-base percentage with .426, doubles with 15, RBI, and stolen bases with nine.
And to wrap up is Louisiana’s Friday night starter for most of the season, Andrew Herrmann. The left-handed pitcher posted a 5-3 record on the mound and finished second behind teammate Chase Morgan in the SBC in ERA with 2.90. Herrmann tied for first in the league in the fewest earned runs allowed with 20 and was second on the team in wins and innings pitched with 62.0.
The Kennesaw, Georgia native was third for the Cajuns in strikeouts with 58 and was tied for the team lead with 12 starts. He led the team with four quality starts on the season, with a season-high 8.0 innings pitched in games against Tulane and Southern Miss.
For the Sun Belt Championships, Louisiana will open play in the 10-team field at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Alabama on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. against the lowest remaining seed from Tuesday’s single-elimination action. No. 10 seed Georgia State and No. 7 seed Coastal Carolina will meet at 3 p.m. on Tuesday with No. 9 seed South Alabama and No. 8 seed Old Dominion facing off at 6:30 p.m.
2024 ALL-SUN BELT CONFERENCE TEAM
Player of the Year
Kyle DeBarge, Louisiana (Jr., SS – Kinder, La.)
Pitcher of the Year
LP Langevin, Louisiana (Jr., RHP – Quebec City, Quebec, Canada)
Newcomer of the Year
Banks Tolley, App State (Sr., OF – Madison, Miss.)
Freshman of the Year
Chase Morgan, Louisiana (Fr., LHP – Cypress, Texas)
Tony Robichaux Leadership Award
Sam Blancato, Georgia Southern (RS Sr., OF – Marietta, Ga.)
Ron Maestri Coach of the Year
Matt Deggs, Louisiana
All-Sun Belt First Team
P – Chase Morgan, Louisiana (Fr., LHP – Cypress, Texas)
P – Bryce Blevins, Marshall (So., LHP – Louisa, Ky.)
P – Billy Oldham, Southern Miss (Sr., RHP – Brookfield, Conn.)
RP – LP Langevin, Louisiana (Jr., RHP – Quebec City, Quebec, Canada)
C – Brooks Bryan, Troy (So., C – Opelika, Ala.)
1B – Trey LaFleur, Louisiana (Sr., 1B – Pensacola, Fla.)
2B – Blake Barthol, Coastal Carolina (So., 2B – Allentown, Pa.)
SS – Kyle DeBarge, Louisiana (Jr., SS – Kinder, La.)
3B – Sam Antonacci, Coastal Carolina (Jr., 3B – Springfield, Ill.)
OF – Banks Tolley, App State (Sr., OF – Madison, Miss.)
OF – Graham Brown, Coastal Carolina (Super Sr., OF – Middletown, Md.)
OF – Fenwick Trimble, James Madison (Jr., OF – Virginia Beach, Va.)
DH – Slade Wilks, Southern Miss (Sr., DH – Columbia, Miss.)
UT – Austin St. Laurent, App State (RS Jr., UT – Elon, N.C.)
All-Sun Belt Second Team
P – Andrew Herrmann, Louisiana (Jr., LHP – Kennesaw, Ga.)
P – Niko Mazza, Southern Miss (Jr., RHP – Madison, Miss.)
P – Luke Lyon, Troy (Jr., RHP – Hattiesburg, Miss.)
RP – Grant Wood, South Alabama (RS Jr., RHP – Georgetown, Texas)
C – Caden Bodine, Coastal Carolina (So., C – Haddon Heights, N.J.)
1B – Will Butcher, Troy (Sr., 1B – Arden, N.C.)
2B – Ethan Kavanagh, Troy (Sr., 2B – Cincinnati, Ohio)
SS – Ozzie Pratt, Southern Miss (Jr., SS – Oxford, Miss.)
3B – Will Mize, Georgia State (Sr., 3B – Snellville, Ga.)
OF – Luke Waters, Old Dominion (Jr., OF – Laurel, Del.)
OF – Dalton McIntyre, Southern Miss (Jr., OF – Jackson, Tenn.)
OF – Kole Myers, Troy (Sr., OF – Lafayette, La.)
DH – Kyle Mock, Troy (Sr., DH – Orlando, Fla.)
UT – Josh Tate, Georgia Southern (So., UT – Peachtree City, Ga.)