PINEVILLE – In any family, it's not uncommon for a younger brother to follow in his older sibling's athletic footsteps.

Thus, when current Louisiana College reserve second baseman Ryan Lavergne (Opelousas, La./Opelousas Catholic) followed older brother Kennon into baseball, eyebrows were likely not raised.

When Ryan parlayed his love for baseball into a college career at LC, as his brother had so done as a pitcher and shortstop at Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Belhaven College in Mississippi, the story remained the standard fare.

However, when it's revealed that the younger brother began his college career 14 years after his sibling, the story of the family Lavergne distinguishes itself among all others.

“It's funny,” said Kennon, who graduated from Opelousas Catholic in 1991 then played college ball from 1991-95. “I look back and every time I see him play I think of the little kid in the batting cages and in the dugout at Co-Lin and Belhaven, wearing my jersey and watching me play.”

Sometimes, they never truly grow up. Especially for a parent like Dale Lavergne, who raised three sons, 2/3 of whom played college baseball for four years.

“My wife and I had three sons and we're proud of all three for so many reasons,” Dale said. “We're very proud of the two that played college baseball, of course, but we are most proud of is that all three of our sons have, or will, graduate from college.”

Ryan, a senior, will have to wait until May to get his degree in business management and marketing.
Until that time, he is focused on making the most of his final season with the Wildcats.

“Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to play college baseball,” Ryan said. “I can't believe it's almost over. It's been a heck of a ride.”

Through the midway point of the 2010 season, Lavergne has been a force off the bench for the -16 Wildcats.

In 14 appearances (six starts), he's batted .333 with eight runs scored and three RBI on eight hits. He's also posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.

“Lavergne is a great team guy,” LC coach Mike Byrnes said. “He's not an every day player, but he comes to the ballpark ready to play every day. He's willing to do whatever is asked of him. That's the kind if of player he is. He plays the game hard and is well respected by his teammates.”

At 5-foot-7 and 165 pounds, Ryan is easily the smallest player on the Wildcats roster, but his hard-nosed approach to the game and non-stop chatter from the dugout has endeared him to the rest of the LC baseball family.

“He's a great ballplayer,” Jonathan Ettinger, the senior who generally starts at second base ahead of Ryan, said. “I think he brings a lot to this team. He's part of the soul of this program. When he gets in the lineup, he plays hard and gets dirty. You can't ask any more than that.”

Ryan, who said he learned much from watching Kennon as a youngster, said of his approach to the game, “When I am out there, my hope is that the younger guys can learn a little from how I play the game, which is as hard as I possibly can. I try to play with intensity and heart. That's the only way I know how to do it.”

It was a skill that he likely picked up while tailing his older brother.

“It's cool to see him following in my footsteps,” Kennon said. “He's always been kind of advanced when it comes to baseball. I remember at one of his first tee-ball practices that he was not very happy having to hit it off the tee. He was used to either me or one of my teammates pitching to him. He said tee-ball was for babies.”

Ryan had since graduated to over-hand leagues and made a name for himself as an ideal hit-for-average player.

“He's a gap-to-gap guy,” Byrnes said. “He's not a power guy. He hits the ball hard for his size, but is not going to try to do too much at the plate. He'll lay down a bunt or hit behind a runner … Whatever you need him to do.”

More to the delight his Wildcat teammates that Ryan himself, the soon-to-be college graduate recently hit his first homerun … sort of.

“He hit one out at batting practice the other day,” Byrnes said with a smile. “That really pumped the team up.”

It even pumped up the coach, who presented the ball to Ryan with the inscription, “First Home Run … Practice.”

“Yeah, Coach Byrnes jumped in his golf cart and rode out behind the fence to get the ball,” Ryan recalled with a laugh. “He brought it back and got me to autograph it, but we had to put that it was in practice … It was all in good fun.”

Lavergne might get the chance to go deep for real this Thursday and Friday when the Wildcats host University of Ozarks in a three-game, American Southwest Conference East series.

The teams will play one game a 6 p.m. on Thursday and follow with a doubleheader at noon on Friday.
LC (9-16, 2-4 ASC East) needs to win this series, if not sweep, to keep its postseason hopes alive.

“Since I've been here, we are 0-9 against Ozarks,” Ryan said. “I wouldn't mind winning two or three of these to kind of get back at them.”