Former student-athlete Andrew LaCour ’24 landed his dream job in baseball close to home.
The left-handed pitcher spent four years with Aggie baseball before signing a contract in August with the Yolo High Wheelers, a new team in the Pioneer Baseball League, or PBL. The team just completed its inaugural season at a familiar location, on campus at Dobbins Stadium, where LaCour took the mound throughout his collegiate career.
In September, the High Wheelers won the Pioneer League Championship, finishing with a 58-44 record, with a ninth-inning home run sealing victory.
Bilingual in English and Japanese, LaCour grew up in Walnut Creek and started a relationship with Aggie baseball his junior year of high school. Though he could only briefly tour the UC Davis campus and athletic facilities, LaCour trusted his first impression.
“It felt like a little college town, and the vibes were good,” he explained. “I felt like I could stay here for four years, find some cool people to hang out with and play some ball.”
LaCour graduated this year with a degree in managerial economics. Identifying himself as “more of a math guy,” he said he felt economics encompassed his interest and had “real-world applications that I could connect to.” He added that he hopes to find a position in the finance industry and is preparing for general securities representative exams to earn his Series 7 and Series 66 licenses.
LaCour spent many undergraduate weekends traveling back to share home-cooked meals with his family in Walnut Creek, who attended all his Aggie and High Wheeler games.
“My mom would always have the little [game] ticket, and she would make me sign it,” he said.
Turning Pro
Founded in 1939, the PBL focusses on players with less than three years of professional experience across a 96-game season in May through mid-September. The league joined the MLB Partner League in 2021 and this year expanded with two new California teams: the Yolo High Wheelers in Davis and the Oakland Ballers in West Oakland.
Growing up, LaCour tried every position before he gravitated to the attention — and pressure — of the pitching mound. When he heard about the High Wheelers coming to Davis, he reached out to the team’s pitching coaches, hoping to get their attention on the familiar territory of Dobbins Stadium.
“I would show up when they were practicing so that I could get my throws in and the [High Wheeler] coaches would be watching me,” he explained. “I'd always text them every week, ‘Can I come in?’ Just bugging them for a month.”
He finally got to try out in front of High Wheelers pitching coach Jerome Williams, who, after roughly 30 pitches, notified the team’s manager, Billy Horton, about LaCour. His persistence paid off when he joined the team in August. In his first three games as a High Wheeler, LaCour struck out 10 batters, including the first batter he faced professionally.
“I just enjoyed standing on the mound, all eyes are on me and [I’m] just throwing the ball as hard as I could,” LaCour explained. “Striking out batters, making them look silly, just gave me confidence and was very exciting.”
His favorite pitches are his fastball and curveball, and he is currently developing new pitches to add to his arsenal, including a “slider-cutter that moves away from left-handed hitters,” he said. “It’s a different [ball] movement from any of the pitches I have right now.”
In the wake of their championship season, LaCour said he is hoping to continue with the team in the future while pursuing part-time financial work.
Still, his time with Aggie baseball, particularly the last three-game series of the season in Bakersfield, are fond memories for LaCour.
“A lot of the seniors were pitching, and it was meaningful to watch everyone throw their last inning.” The first two games of the series ended with walk-off home runs in favor of the Aggies, including an epic 13-inning Game 2. “That was really exciting. It brought us all together to send-off the season.”