By Lori Lyons, Rougarou Writer
When Colin Foil took the mound for the Baton Rouge Rougarou’s final game of the season Sunday night, most people probably didn’t realize they were seeing a real-life Hollywood movie moment.
Just two weeks ago, Foil, 20, a Baton Rouge native and a rising sophomore at Elon University in North Carolina, was “just” an intern for the Rougarou, taking his turn working the gate, selling concessions, wrangling children in the Kid’s Zone and selling merchandise. With just a few weeks left in the season and no playoffs on the horizon, Foil was just biding his time through the final two weeks of his summer gig.
But the next thing he knew, he was on the roster and hitting the road with the team.
After a few long nights and rain delays with seeing no action, Foil made his first appearance in relief on July 23. He threw four pitches, getting a Victoria General to ground into a double play in a 9-8 loss.
On July 28, the final game of the season against the Lake Charles Gumbeaux Gators, he was the starting pitcher.
“That just sounds like a Hallmark movie waiting to happen,” said Rougarou coach James Dillard.
It was a night Foil will never forget.
“I was probably a little bit nervous, but nothing crazy,” he said. “Obviously I wanted to go out and throw well, but I knew I probably wouldn’t get to throw that much. Probably not more than two or three innings. I was just trying to go out there and compete. I knew it was going to be fun. I just wish I’d thrown more, to be honest.”
Foil pitched three innings, giving up just two singles and striking out two, getting in win in a 7-2 victory that gave the Rougarou its first winning season in franchise history.
And perhaps no one was more excited about it than Rougarou General Manager Casey McKenzie, the man who discovered that Colin the Intern really was a baseball player in disguise.
“I told (team owner) Ronnie Rantz, “See? I told ya!” It really is a story,” McKenzie said. "I probably never watched a meaningless game so intently before.”
Foil, McKenzie said, stood out as one of the hardest working interns this summer. So, when he needed some help for an event he was working on, he asked Foil to help him out. During the event, the two got to talking.
“I asked him, ‘So what do you do?’” McKenzie said.
Foil replied that he had been working out every day, trying to improve his baseball skills. Foil had been a pretty good baseball player at Dunham School in Baton Rouge, but not really good enough to be recruited or play for college. So, he played club ball at Elon. Somewhere along the way Foil decided to take his shot at making the “real” baseball team as a walk-on. He didn’t make the cut.
“My velocity really wasn’t that good,” he said.
But Foil wasn’t giving up. So, besides his summer job to appease his parents, and his internship for the Rougarou, and hanging out with his friends like all college kids do, Foil has been throwing every day to try to get better so he can go back to Elon and try out again.
He told all this to McKenzie.
“I said, ‘Wait. You play baseball?’” McKenzie said.
Anyone who watches Rougarou baseball – or Texas Collegiate League baseball as a whole – knows how vital pitchers are to a team’s success. And finding the strike zone is a skill many struggle with, especially during those long, late-night road trips. The Rougarou is no exception.
“I told him, ‘Have you seen how many one-run games we’ve lost because we ran out of pitching?’” McKenzie said. “He told me, ‘No. I was selling merch.’”
McKenzie then arranged for Foil to throw for Dillard and assistant coach Cody Jamison, but he had to face some good hitters.
“I had to throw to basically our whole starting nine,” Foil said. “But I threw well.”
After being told “We’ll let you know,” Foil went home to shower, then reported back to Pete Goldsby Field for his regular shift. He was handed a BP shirt.
“I was confused because they told me they would have me come back and throw again, but they were giving me a shirt,” Foil said.
“I told him, ‘You’re on the team,’” McKenzie said.
Alas, it was only for a few weeks and, because the Rougarou were still fighting for a playoff spot until the very end, he didn’t get to pitch as much as he might have liked. But at least it happened.
“He waited and waited and finally got his chance and seized it,” Dillard said. “He has been a breath of fresh air and it was a neat moment to watch him help to end our season on a high note. We took a chance on him and I’m so thankful we did. This league is about giving student athletes a chance to prove themselves and have success and Colin has done that.”
Foil hopes his short time on the Rougarou will help him as he tries out for the Elon team this fall with hopes to become a Phoenix. He’s got a nice stat line and some video to show them.
“It definitely helps, no matter what happens,” he said.