By Lori Lyons
Rougarou Writer
Rougarou pitcher Hayden Stallings is learning to adjust as a member of the Baton Rouge Rougarou. He’s also trying to make up for some lost time.
After a stellar high school career at Pasadena Memorial High School, where he was the football team’s quarterback then a star pitcher on the baseball team, Stallings hitched his star on Lamar University where he could continue his baseball career and still be close to his family.
But, as happens with many idealistic freshman, Lamar redshirted him and the other four freshmen. So Stallings ended up watching more baseball than he played. That wasn’t fun.
“But once you realize they’re doing it in your best interests it changes your perspective,” said Stallings, who calls Santa Fe, Texas, home. “And I am so grateful because honestly, I kind of transformed myself and the way I pitch. It’s a great thing for me. It was an adjustment.”
Now he’s learning to adjust to the grind that is Texas Collegiate League baseball, with games six days a week. Or, in the Rougarou’s case this week, sometimes two a day.
“It’s been like zero to 100,” he said. “I think that’s why I’ve enjoyed being here so much. I’m getting to pitch again. You forget what it’s like there for a while. I like that about it. It kind of increases the competition level so it’s kind of a good thing. But it’s like, man, it’s eye-opening. You’ve got to succeed. That’s a good thing.”
Stallings said that, because of his extended layoff from pitching, he felt he had to prove to himself – and others – that he was up to competing at the college level. And he has done that. He has pitched in seven games, throwing 27.2 innings with a 1.30 earned run average. He has given up 24 hits, six runs (four earned), walked nine and struck out 26.
He was especially happy with his performance on Wednesday, July 10. With his parents in attendance in Lafayette, Stallings got the start against Acadiana and pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up three hits and striking out 10. It was a performance that earned him TCL Pitcher of the Week honors. But the Cane Cutters walked it off in the bottom of the 10th inning.
“I think I’ve done well for the most part,” Stallings said. “I didn’t really have much of an expectation. Obviously, I knew what I could do physically, I was just kind of ready to prove myself. No one has seen me throw. I haven’t really pitched a whole lot at the college level so that was a big kind of question mark for people I know, like what can this guy do at this level? That’s been super good for me and the competition has been pretty good. There’s a lot of good players in the league. I think what I’ve don, I think I’d mark it up as a successful summer so far.”
Rougarou coach James Dillard said he has seen the improvement in Stallings, which he hopes will help the team as it heads into the final stretch of the season. The Rougarou have 12 regular-season games remaining and must stay ahead of the Acadiana Cane Cutters to reach the playoffs.
“Each outing Hayden has gotten better and that will only help us over the final 12 games of the regular season,” Dillard said. “Hayden is a guy that you can always count on to do the right thing and will always be a great representative of the Rougarou. That speaks volumes about our organization. We obviously want good baseball players for our roster, but also good quality young men off the field and Hayden fits those qualities.”
Stallings said he is grateful for the experience he has gotten as a member of the team.
“I think the goal was just to gain experience,” he said. “Being a freshman at the college level is so different from the high school level. And being a freshman I didn’t have a whole lot of experience facing hitters. So this was big to just get some innings under my belt. The experience has been huge.”
The Rougarou return to action Tuesday night at Brazos Valley then return to Goldsby to face the Bombers on Wednesday and Thursday.