BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball program announced Friday the signing of 13 players — 11 high school all-stars and two JUCO prospects — to national letters-of-intent during the fall recruiting period. The signees will be eligible to compete for the Tigers in the 2005-06 academic year.
“We’re very pleased with the quality of this signing class,” said LSU coach Smoke Laval, “though the major league draft will be a factor this summer. We may lose a few signees to the draft, but we feel we addressed our needs with these players. We have a nice blend with seven pitchers and six position players. Since we will be losing several current players after this (2005) season to graduation and professional baseball, we hope the signees in this class can make an impact right away.”
The pitchers announced Friday include left-hander Beau Jones of Destrehan (La.) High School; right-hander Josh Wall of Central Private High School in Baker, La.; right-hander Paul Bertuccini of Rummel High School in Metairie, La.; right-hander Andrew York of Bay High School in Panama City, Fla.; right-hander Jeremy Hellickson of Hoover High School in Des Moines, Iowa; right-hander Phil Lawhorn of Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College; and right-hander Matt Montgomery of Okaloosa-Walton College in Niceville, Fla.
The position players joining the LSU program include catcher J.T. Wise of Apopka (Fla.) High School; shortstop Christopher McGhee of Alexandria (La.) High School; outfielder Jarred Bogany of George Bush High School in Houston, Texas; catcher Robert Lara of Nova High School in Davie, Fla.; shortstop Jason Ogata of Westview High School in Rock Creek, Ore.; and catcher/shortstop Brandon Snyder of Westfield High School in Centreville, Va.
Four of LSU’s signees appear in the Baseball America Top 100 High School Prospects List — Hellickson (#17), Jones (#20), Snyder, (#25) and Bogany (#36).
Jones, a 6-1, 210-pound southpaw, was a 2004 all-state selection at Destrehan High, posting an 8-0 record last season with a 2.14 ERA and 89 strikeouts. He also batted .396 with three homers and 36 RBI.
Wall, a 6-6, 190-pound honor roll student, earned all-state recognition last season at Central Private, recording an 8-2 mark and a 1.47 ERA with 63 strikeouts and a .161 opponent batting average. He hit .377 on the year with six homers and 32 RBI.
York is a 6-2, 200-pound all-state performer in both baseball and football (linebacker) at Bay High. He was 6-0 on the mound last season with a 0.88 ERA, recording 60 strikeouts in 30 innings. York has a 12-4 career record with 180 strikeouts in 88 innings.
Wise is an all-state catcher at Apopka High, where he batted .392 last season with five homers and 35 RBI. The 6-1, 200-pound product also recorded a 5-2 mark and a 2.39 ERA on the mound.
Lawhorn, a native of Virginia Beach, Va., served as the closer last season at Pensacola JC, posting a 6-4 record, a 3.45 ERA and six saves. As a senior at Salem High School in Virginia Beach, the 5-11, 170-pound right-hander was 10-1 with a 0.88 ERA.
Bogany, a 6-3, 199-pound honor roll student, batted .405 in 2004 with four homers and 11 RBI. He also recorded 19 steals and scored 27 runs while registering a .671 slugging percentage.
Hellickson, a 6-1, 182-pound all-state selection in baseball and basketball (guard), posted a 6-0 record in 2004 with a 0.63 ERA and four saves. He fired 100 strikeouts while issuing just four walks last season.