UL Baseball Duo Named Preseason Award Winners
Two members of the Louisiana Ragin' Cajun were recently named preseason award winners by a major website prior to the 2021 college baseball season.
Earlier this week, D1Baseball named Connor Cooke the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the year, while tabbing Hayden Durke as the Freshman of the Year.
A sophomore right-hander, Cooke posted a 4.26 ERA. over 12.2 innings of work last season, after going 3-0 as a freshman in 2019.
A native of Sulphur, Cooke attended Sulphur High School, where he was named an All-District, All-Southwest, and All-State First Team performer as a senior.
Durke, a native of Abbeville who attended North Vermilion High School, was ranked as the 89th-best overall prospect in the country and the best prospect in the state of Louisiana by PerfectGame.org coming out of the prep ranks.
In addition, Cooke, along with Conor Angel and Julian Brock were tabbed as some of the top MLB Draft prospects in the conference, while Durke, along with Carson Roccaforte were rated as two of the most impactful freshmen in the Sun Belt Conference.
Angel compiled a 3.74 ERA. in 2020, to go along with 26 strikeouts over 21.2 innings pitched, while Brock hit .243 over 11 games as a true freshman last season.
Louisiana will open its 2021 regular-season schedule on Friday, February 19 when they travel to New Orleans to take on the Tulane Green Wave in the opening game of a three-game non-conference series.
The Cajuns are slated to open the home portion of their schedule on Tuesday, February 26 when they play host to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in a non-conference affair.