Recruit Profile - Blake Hardegree

Recruit Profile - Blake Hardegree
Position - Catcher
Class - Junior
Transferred from Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Goodwell, Okla.—It is not often that a true freshman is named to a college All-Conference team, but Oklahoma Panhandle State's Blake Hardegree has accomplished just that with his inclusion on the league baseball honor teams recently released by the Heartland Conference.


Standing 6'1" and weighing in at 175 pounds, Hardegree was named as the catcher on the second unit of the 2011 All-Heartland Team. An excellent all-around athlete, Hardegree is from Amarillo, Texas.
OPSU head coach Steve Appel personally recruited Hardegree, who had an excellent prep career at Tascosa High School.

Hardegree is one of the best underclassmen players in the conference and is a fine defensive catcher. With the bat, he was the Aggies top hitter with a solid .333 batting average, and was also the OPSU leader in on-base-percentage at .400.

According to Appel, Hardegree is a "Very coachable kid, who works hard and continued to improve all season." Big things should continue for Hardegree, who is also a very polite young man and one who is well respected by his teammates and coaches.

Blake will compete for playing time with Luke Lawyer, Derek Meyer, Zach Douglas, and Michael Lavasseur this fall.  The starting catcher position is up for grabs after the graduation of last year's starter JJ Baccari.  Blake transferred to Northwest in the spring of 2013 and sit-out 2013 NCAA season due to transfer rules.  Derek Meyer enters the fall, likely, as the front runner for the starting job based on the 25 games he played in last year, batted .310 with a .397 slugging, .333 on-base, .984 fielding, and 5 past balls.  Physically, Blake is the biggest catcher on the squad and can hit with power. 

Go Cats!!
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