La Crosse, Wis. – The La Crosse Loggers front office announced today that they have secured a pair of players from Long Beach State University for the upcoming 2017 summer season with the signings of Luke Rasmussen and John Sheaks.
Junior Luke Rasmussen has already put together a prolific collegiate career over his first two seasons as a Dirtbag. As a freshman in 2015, the 6-3, 220 pound right-handed slugger earned Collegiate Baseball Freshman all-American and all-Big West honorable mention honors after leading the team in hitting at a .315 clip along with adding six home runs and 17 RBI’s over 108 at-bats. The Los Gatos, Calif. native followed that up with another impressive campaign last season as a sophomore when he earned first-team all-Big West honors as a designated hitter after hitting .305 with 14 doubles, five home runs and a team-best 46 RBI’s. Rasmussen was also named to the Coral Gables all-Regional team after collecting seven hits for Long Beach State during last season’s NCAA tournament run.
Joining Rasmussen will be fellow Dirtbag John Sheaks, who is about to embark on his first season at Long Beach State after two dominant seasons at Saddleback Community College (Calif.). The 6-5 righty posted a 7-2 record with a 3.03 ERA while striking out 56 in 74.1 innings as a sophomore in 2016, while earning second team all-conference honors in helping Saddleback to an Orange Empire Conference Championship. Sheaks, a San Clemente, Calif. native, was stellar as a freshman at Saddleback as well when he posted a 1.93 ERA over 18.1 innings of work out of the bullpen.
Following a 2016 season that saw Long Beach state advance to an NCAA Regional for the 21st time in school history, the Dirtbags are ranked as high as #20 in Baseball America’s pre-season poll and will open their 2017 season at home on Friday, February 17 against Oklahoma.
The La Crosse Loggers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 160 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.greenbaybullfrogs.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Bullfrogs as your favorite team.
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