GENESEO – Geneseo Blue Devil Ryan Lagrou is one of those players whose weapon of choice is pure, dominant speed. Lagrou hasn’t been caught steeling a base over the span of his entire 10-year baseball career.
The feat is not only impressive, it demonstrates how great base running really helps a baseball team win games, be it the major leagues or high school baseball. Blue Devil’s Head Coach Nick Drollette is a coach who emphasizes on this aspect of the game and uses his multiple persistent base stealers such as Lagrou to have the edge over other teams.
“Ryan always has the green light to go, he is a confident, smart player who reads the pitcher well and knows when it is the right time to steal a base,” said Coach Drollette.
In his high school career while playing for Drollette, Lagrou has gone 24-24, 22-22, and 14-14 in stolen bases. That’s a total of 60 stolen bases within a 3 three year span, and those are the ones that have only been recorded during his high school career. The true number must get into the hundreds from the 7 years that are unaccounted for.
“I just try to get good jumps and good reads while watching the pitcher and take off when I feel the time is right,” said Lagrou.
The Blue Devils recently won their third straight Division III Title and have one more game left on their regular season schedule before entering sectionals.
“I think he’s going to go through his entire baseball career never getting caught,” said Drollette. “We have our one regular season game left and sectionals coming up, but I really believe he is never going to get caught.”
In the games coming up there are many good teams in which the Blue Devil’s will be facing, many of them have great catchers with great arms. To watch Lagrou steal bases off them will be interesting in knowing how he plans to work his magic and keep his streak alive.
Lagrou is planning on attending SUNY Brockport to play on the football team as a wide receiver. It seems that his baseball career may be coming to an end after this final year, which makes these games even more important.
To see all that this young man has accomplished not only gives his community a great reason to root for him, but reminds all players to cash in on their talents as well as build their weaknesses.
Never getting caught stealing a base is something that most ball players could never dream of. It takes physical talent and sharp wits on the base paths to keep a streak like that alive. We ball fans will be watching him closely as he takes on the chance to lock down his reputation as Geneseo’s uncatchable base thief.
PHOTO CAPTION: (L-R) Ryan Lagrou and Head Coach Nick Drollette. (Photo/Sean Russell)
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