Baseball: Bazar opens eyes by reaching 100 – Young reliever turning heads with 1st outing – photos

Tim Buckley, Daily Advertiser, Feb. 16, 2014

Click here for UL vs. E. Illinois digital photo gallery Saturday’s doubleheader.

UL coach Tony Robichaux said before the Ragin’ Cajuns’ 2014 season started that true freshman pitcher Reagan Bazar could throw around 95 miles per hour.

It’s true.

It just wasn’t the whole truth, and Robichaux knew it.

Bazar’s first pitch as a Cajun was a strike clocked at 100 miles per hour.

It evidently was legit, too, as he followed it with a 99-mph fastball and two that registered 98 in the ninth inning of UL’s 13-0 opening-weekend win over Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

“We joked about it as coaches,” Robichaux said. “We said, ‘This will be our first guy that I’ve ever coached that might hit 100 miles an hour.’ I just didn’t know it would come today.

“I never wanted to go out and say what he can do. … I didn’t want to put that on his back,” Robichaux added. “Because you start throwing triple digits around – I mean, that’s gonna do nothing but pile more and more scouts in here over his time. One good thing is he’s not draft-eligible until he’s a junior.”

The 6-foot-7, 230-pounder from Salado High in Salado, Texas, actually was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 33rd round of last year’s MLB Draft.

Rather than sign, though, Bazar opted to attend UL.

“We were very fortunate,” Robichaux said, “that he trusted our pitching system, trusted us to come here and try to make him better.”

Bazar actually walked the first batter he faced, pinch-hitter Alex Cain, and finished with seven strikes among the 12 total pitches he threw.

But he followed the Cain walk by striking out Troy Vandenbroek swinging, and ended things by getting Matt Dunavant to hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

Teammates weren’t shocked to see how hard Bazar threw, but at least one had to chuckle when he saw what went up on the video scoreboard at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.

“I just looked over (beforehand) to (associate head coach Anthony Babineaux), and I said, ‘He’ll touch 100 by the time he leaves here.’ And that first pitch was 100, and we just kind of looked at each other and started cracking up laughing,” said second baseman Jace Conrad, who had been replaced in the lineup and was in the UL dugout at the time.

“When we get behind there with our (speed) gun (during practice) he’s 96, 97 – during the fall, with no one in the stands,” Conrad added. “You get your adrenaline going with 3,500 people in there (watching), you might be touching 100 miles an hour.”

Now that Bazar has, Robichaux has one concern.

“It’s like spring training – ‘Hey, that’s the next Mickey Mantle,’ ” the Cajun coach said. “Well, you just saddled that cat with a lot of stuff.

“He’s got to be careful now, because of what has occurred. Now you’ve got some reputation. … You’ve got to really just stay locked down and do what he’s continuing to do, which right now is work to become a better pitcher.”