Baton Rouge Rougarou owner Ronnie Rantz is expanding his minor league baseball holdings, announcing that he has purchased the Lake Charles Gumbeaux Gators along with a pair of minority ownership groups.
Both teams are part of the Texas Collegiate League, a wooden bat summer baseball league for still-eligible college players.
“I am looking forward to bringing all we have learned in Baton Rouge to Lake Charles,” Rantz said. “In partnership with “The Jeaux” at McNeese State University, Visit Lake Charles and thebusiness community in Southwest Louisiana, the sky is the limit for what the Gumbeaux Gators can do.”
Rantz’s Rougarou team won the League championship this summer in its fourth season under his ownership, its sixth season overall, finishing with a 40-11 record.
The Gumbeaux Gators were established in 2024 and play home games at McNeese State University’s Joe Miller Park, affectionately known as “The Jeaux,” which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.
The team reached the Louisiana Division TCL playoffs in its inaugural season, finishing 20-29 and reaching the playoffs. Over two seasons the team has accumulated an overall record of 29-66.
The franchise saw record crowds this summer, topping the 2,000 mark in attendance twice despite the team winning only nine games.
Rantz, an Alexandria native, was a left-handed pitcher on LSU’s 1991 and 1993 National Championship baseball teams and was named to the 1992 All-Southeastern Conference Tournament team in 1992. Rantz pitched for the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers minor league organizations.
Rantz is the Chairman of the Louisiana State Athletic Commission and was named the Chief Executive Officer and President of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
The host of Sports Shorts on ESPN Radio, which is broadcast in Lake Charles, Lafayette and Baton Rouge each Saturday 10 a.m. to noon, Rantz also is a longtime college baseball analyst for the SEC Network, ESPN+ and the Jumbo Sports Network.