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‘I know I can play in that league’: Ashton Larson is ready for stardom in the SEC
CHATHAM, Mass. — In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the ballplayer often comes before the person. It’s a byproduct of LSU’s chaotic athletic environment. An unforgiving fanbase, a cynical mediasphere and a coaching staff that demands the world from you cultivates a setting akin to what professionals face. There, you’re engulfed by the fire and expected to be molded by it.
Ashton Larson loved it.
The 20-year-old outfielder craves the spotlight, and isn’t bothered by his surroundings pushing for excellence that he already expects of himself. His goal is to win games and show he’s a five-tool player. While outside pressure initially affected him — Larson said he had to learn to “block out” the unnecessary noise — he appreciated being in a place where greatness is the standard. It allowed him to quickly mature, he said.
Though — as well as he adapted to life in Baton Rouge and, as the numbers show, made strides from year one to year two — that progression didn’t translate to playing time. From 2024 to 2025, his at-bats decreased from 141 to 39. Larson, a year after earning All-SEC Freshman Team honors and batting .316 for Chatham in the summer, was no longer an everyday starter for LSU.
During the Tigers’ College World Series title run, Larson mostly watched from the dugout.
“It was an interesting year,” Larson said. “Definitely faced some personal adversity. I learned a lot about the mental game and how to handle failure — failure that was extremely public and criticized and watched by a lot of people.”
From the outside, Larson’s benching was perplexing. He says being at LSU was necessary in his personal growth, but as someone who totaled a .845 OPS in 87 games with the Tigers, a nagging feeling lingered over his lack of opportunity. Knowing greener pastures were ahead, Larson entered the transfer portal on June 30 and committed to Texas two weeks later. It was a priority for Larson to remain in the SEC, he said, because he’s got unfinished business to attend to.
As Larson walks away from LSU with battle scars, a national-title ring and a gargantuan chip on his shoulder, he’s using his second summer in Chatham to usher in the next era of his career.
“I think he’s just trying to prove that he can play, you know?” Chatham manager Dennis Cook said of Larson. “He’s got to get at-bats and show everybody that he can still play.”
Larson’s off to a scorching start. He earned starting honors in the 2025 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game as the East Division’s designated hitter. In a place where he’s received consistent opportunities, Larson only needed to play in nine games to cement his status as a Cape League All-Star for the second consecutive season.
“I just want to keep getting better. I’m always trying to get better. And, I want to win,” Larson said of his motivations playing for Chatham this summer. “To continue to showcase who I am as a player, who I am as a hitter; a guy that can hit for average, a guy that can hit for power, a guy that competes every single at-bat and doesn’t make mistakes.”
Larson originally committed to LSU out of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, Kansas, where he unleashed a career .356 batting average across three varsity seasons. He was rated the No. 1 high-school baseball prospect in the state of Kansas, and after joining the Tigers’ 2024 freshman class, it seemed the midwest kid would soon make a splash down south.
But Larson’s “Welcome to the SEC” moment showed him patience is a virtue. After arriving in Baton Rouge ahead of the team’s fall ball practices, Larson faced big right-hander Thatcher Hurd, an eventual 2024 third-round MLB draft pick by the New York Yankees.
It’s safe to say Larson wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
“He struck me out on three pitches,” Larson said. “I wasn’t particularly close to (any) of those pitches.”
The outfielder acknowledged adapting to the SEC’s intense competition level is a challenge. Baseball is a game of failure. Facing MLB-ready arms on a weekly, even daily basis, only exacerbates that reality. In his freshman season, Larson remembers being rung up twice in a game by former Alabama righty Ben Hess, a Yankees’ first-round draft selection. He also recalls being mystified by Jurrangelo Cijntje, a former Mississippi State hurler who pitched from both the right and left side — Larson had never seen a “switch pitcher” before.
However, while going through the wringer of playing SEC ball, Larson flipped a switch. He appeared in 53 games as a rookie for head coach Jay Johnson’s LSU squad, tallying a .298 batting average with three home runs, 16 RBI and a .401 on-base percentage. In the outfield, he didn’t make a single error.
Though he saved his best for SEC play. Larson finished the 2024 campaign with a team-high .337 batting average in SEC games, going 28-for-83 at the plate and crushing all three of his homers in conference competition.
“You get better and better just because of the talent that’s around you,” Larson said of the SEC. “That kind of forces you to improve.”
Ashton Larson batted .316 for Chatham last summer and earned a Cape League All-Star nod. This year, he's already been named an All-Star for the second straight season, getting selected just nine games into his campaign. Photograph by Ella Tovey
He humbly credited repetition for his smooth jump from high school to Division I. Yet, this was simply Larson displaying the elite pedigree he’s shown all his life.
This was nothing new for him. The only difference was who he was up against.
“You have a pretty good chance of facing a guy that’s going to go in the first round pretty much every weekend, so you’re always in a situation where the talent on the mound is going to be phenomenal,” Larson said of hitting in the SEC. “You definitely get used to that being the bar.”
His success carried over into his 2024 summer in the CCBL with the Anglers. Playing in the SEC shrank the learning curve he had to face when seeing a lot of unfamiliar arms; he’s already seen the best the country has to offer. Thirty-seven hits in 31 games later, Larson established himself as one of the sweetest swingers on the Cape last summer and earned Chatham’s Thurman Munson Most Outstanding Player award.
Larson’s steady progression from LSU to the Cape made a sophomore-year rise seem inevitable for him.
But he didn’t get the chance.
Circumstances caused Larson to get relegated to a reserve/pinch-hitter role. Larson said the Tigers had a loaded 2025 roster, evidenced by their College World Series victory, and he took pride in contributing when he could off the bench. Additionally, a quad injury Larson suffered on April 22 against Northwestern State hindered his ability to run and play in the field. He’s been working through it ever since, he said, which didn’t help him find more playing time with the Tigers.
In a clogged outfield — filled with highly-touted guys like Derek Curiel, Jake Brown, Ethan Frey and Chris Stanfield — sometimes bad luck can force an odd man out.
“We’ve been very fortunate with our outfield situation,” Johnson told the Johnson County Post in June. “To have four, and even I would throw Ashton Larson into that, too, five guys that you can run out there. Not many programs have that.”
Larson put his head down and thrived in a pinch-hit role, boasting a .910 OPS with two home runs and 12 RBI in 39 at-bats. He didn’t enjoy sitting in the dugout, but he calls his LSU teammates “brothers for life” and takes immense satisfaction in the work they put in coming to fruition. Larson recalled the euphoric feeling he experienced in Omaha as he rushed onto the field after LSU’s national-title Game 2 win over Coastal Carolina, saying it was the pinnacle of accomplishing something “bigger than himself.”
Still, Larson hit the transfer portal a week after the College World Series ended.
“I was kind of put to a sudden end to a tough situation,” Larson said. “But I’m proud of how I played through those things.”
As Larson opted to shift into a new phase of his career, he had recently arrived in a place where he’s quite comfortable: Chatham.
He decided back in the fall that he’d make a return to the Anglers. Last summer, he said he strongly connected with the local community in Chatham and made timeless memories with the boisterous personalities and elite talents of the 2024 A’s squad.
Ashton Larson is using his summer in Chatham to prepare for the next era of his career in the SEC, where he looks to carve out a starting role in Texas' outfield. Larson transferred to the Longhorns on July 15 after spending two seasons at LSU. Photograph by Ella Tovey
Larson fondly remembers playing Mafia in the team bus and laughing with former teammates Kyle Lodise and Luke Cantwell, who typically led the game. He also still implements hitting philosophies he learned from Ike Irish, an Orioles’ first-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, which revolve around showing patience at the plate and never giving away at-bats. Larson didn’t see any reason to forgo the chance to gain similar experiences, albeit with new faces this year.
While he was in the perfect location to take his time and make his transfer decision, it’s not like Larson really needed to be relaxed in order to hone in on his process.
“Coming from LSU, where there are already a lot of things that you’re balancing that don’t have anything to do with the actual game, has prepared me to separate what goes on before and after stepping on the field,” Larson said.
On July 14, the Anglers had an off day, which Larson used to mull over what school he’d call home next. He decided between a final list of four SEC programs — he wasn’t settling for anything less than the SEC — but thought Texas offered him the best shot at proving his value as an everyday player in the conference.
“I know I can play in that league,” Larson said of the SEC. “I feel like the opportunities are going to be to where I can play every day there, too.”
This summer in Chatham has been a preview for what Larson hopes to achieve with consistent opportunities. And it’s come with him overcoming Anglers’-related adversity, too.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Larson last year. The way the season ended — with Larson misplaying a fly ball in right field in the ninth inning of a first-round playoff game against Harwich as Chatham blew a late three-run lead — isn’t a moment he thinks about. Larson doesn’t think it’s wise to dwell on mistakes, because that leads to overcompensating in future opportunities.
It’s a mentality he had to implement on July 6 against Falmouth at Veterans Field. In the third inning, Larson dropped a high-arcing fly ball out in left field, which allowed a Commodores’ runner to score one batter later.
After flushing the mistake, Larson stepped to the dish in the fifth against Falmouth right-hander Robby Porco (West Virginia) with Chatham down 7-6 — the difference being Larson’s error. One pitch later, Larson emphatically erased his own blunder, throttling a fastball over the middle that landed in the grass extending beyond the right-field wall at Veterans Field.
His grand slam gave the Anglers a 10-7 lead and served as the game-winner. Larson’s moonshot might not have happened if he was at LSU; would he have remained in the game after his error? The answer is irrelevant, because Larson continues to deliver in Chatham when given plentiful opportunities — a glimpse into his future in Austin, Texas.
“I put in a lot of work throughout the season, even though I wasn’t in the role that I would have liked,” Larson said after belting the game-winning grand slam. “But to be out here and to put together at-bats every single day, put together full games, it means the world to me.”
Ashton Larson loved it.
The 20-year-old outfielder craves the spotlight, and isn’t bothered by his surroundings pushing for excellence that he already expects of himself. His goal is to win games and show he’s a five-tool player. While outside pressure initially affected him — Larson said he had to learn to “block out” the unnecessary noise — he appreciated being in a place where greatness is the standard. It allowed him to quickly mature, he said.
Though — as well as he adapted to life in Baton Rouge and, as the numbers show, made strides from year one to year two — that progression didn’t translate to playing time. From 2024 to 2025, his at-bats decreased from 141 to 39. Larson, a year after earning All-SEC Freshman Team honors and batting .316 for Chatham in the summer, was no longer an everyday starter for LSU.
During the Tigers’ College World Series title run, Larson mostly watched from the dugout.
“It was an interesting year,” Larson said. “Definitely faced some personal adversity. I learned a lot about the mental game and how to handle failure — failure that was extremely public and criticized and watched by a lot of people.”
From the outside, Larson’s benching was perplexing. He says being at LSU was necessary in his personal growth, but as someone who totaled a .845 OPS in 87 games with the Tigers, a nagging feeling lingered over his lack of opportunity. Knowing greener pastures were ahead, Larson entered the transfer portal on June 30 and committed to Texas two weeks later. It was a priority for Larson to remain in the SEC, he said, because he’s got unfinished business to attend to.
Hook Em! @TexasBaseball pic.twitter.com/VsgYLIBh49
— Ashton Larson (@Ashton_Larson11) July 15, 2025
As Larson walks away from LSU with battle scars, a national-title ring and a gargantuan chip on his shoulder, he’s using his second summer in Chatham to usher in the next era of his career.
“I think he’s just trying to prove that he can play, you know?” Chatham manager Dennis Cook said of Larson. “He’s got to get at-bats and show everybody that he can still play.”
Larson’s off to a scorching start. He earned starting honors in the 2025 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game as the East Division’s designated hitter. In a place where he’s received consistent opportunities, Larson only needed to play in nine games to cement his status as a Cape League All-Star for the second consecutive season.
“I just want to keep getting better. I’m always trying to get better. And, I want to win,” Larson said of his motivations playing for Chatham this summer. “To continue to showcase who I am as a player, who I am as a hitter; a guy that can hit for average, a guy that can hit for power, a guy that competes every single at-bat and doesn’t make mistakes.”
Larson originally committed to LSU out of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, Kansas, where he unleashed a career .356 batting average across three varsity seasons. He was rated the No. 1 high-school baseball prospect in the state of Kansas, and after joining the Tigers’ 2024 freshman class, it seemed the midwest kid would soon make a splash down south.
But Larson’s “Welcome to the SEC” moment showed him patience is a virtue. After arriving in Baton Rouge ahead of the team’s fall ball practices, Larson faced big right-hander Thatcher Hurd, an eventual 2024 third-round MLB draft pick by the New York Yankees.
It’s safe to say Larson wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
“He struck me out on three pitches,” Larson said. “I wasn’t particularly close to (any) of those pitches.”
The outfielder acknowledged adapting to the SEC’s intense competition level is a challenge. Baseball is a game of failure. Facing MLB-ready arms on a weekly, even daily basis, only exacerbates that reality. In his freshman season, Larson remembers being rung up twice in a game by former Alabama righty Ben Hess, a Yankees’ first-round draft selection. He also recalls being mystified by Jurrangelo Cijntje, a former Mississippi State hurler who pitched from both the right and left side — Larson had never seen a “switch pitcher” before.
However, while going through the wringer of playing SEC ball, Larson flipped a switch. He appeared in 53 games as a rookie for head coach Jay Johnson’s LSU squad, tallying a .298 batting average with three home runs, 16 RBI and a .401 on-base percentage. In the outfield, he didn’t make a single error.
Though he saved his best for SEC play. Larson finished the 2024 campaign with a team-high .337 batting average in SEC games, going 28-for-83 at the plate and crushing all three of his homers in conference competition.
“You get better and better just because of the talent that’s around you,” Larson said of the SEC. “That kind of forces you to improve.”
Ashton Larson batted .316 for Chatham last summer and earned a Cape League All-Star nod. This year, he's already been named an All-Star for the second straight season, getting selected just nine games into his campaign. Photograph by Ella Tovey
He humbly credited repetition for his smooth jump from high school to Division I. Yet, this was simply Larson displaying the elite pedigree he’s shown all his life.
This was nothing new for him. The only difference was who he was up against.
“You have a pretty good chance of facing a guy that’s going to go in the first round pretty much every weekend, so you’re always in a situation where the talent on the mound is going to be phenomenal,” Larson said of hitting in the SEC. “You definitely get used to that being the bar.”
His success carried over into his 2024 summer in the CCBL with the Anglers. Playing in the SEC shrank the learning curve he had to face when seeing a lot of unfamiliar arms; he’s already seen the best the country has to offer. Thirty-seven hits in 31 games later, Larson established himself as one of the sweetest swingers on the Cape last summer and earned Chatham’s Thurman Munson Most Outstanding Player award.
Larson’s steady progression from LSU to the Cape made a sophomore-year rise seem inevitable for him.
But he didn’t get the chance.
Circumstances caused Larson to get relegated to a reserve/pinch-hitter role. Larson said the Tigers had a loaded 2025 roster, evidenced by their College World Series victory, and he took pride in contributing when he could off the bench. Additionally, a quad injury Larson suffered on April 22 against Northwestern State hindered his ability to run and play in the field. He’s been working through it ever since, he said, which didn’t help him find more playing time with the Tigers.
In a clogged outfield — filled with highly-touted guys like Derek Curiel, Jake Brown, Ethan Frey and Chris Stanfield — sometimes bad luck can force an odd man out.
“We’ve been very fortunate with our outfield situation,” Johnson told the Johnson County Post in June. “To have four, and even I would throw Ashton Larson into that, too, five guys that you can run out there. Not many programs have that.”
Larson put his head down and thrived in a pinch-hit role, boasting a .910 OPS with two home runs and 12 RBI in 39 at-bats. He didn’t enjoy sitting in the dugout, but he calls his LSU teammates “brothers for life” and takes immense satisfaction in the work they put in coming to fruition. Larson recalled the euphoric feeling he experienced in Omaha as he rushed onto the field after LSU’s national-title Game 2 win over Coastal Carolina, saying it was the pinnacle of accomplishing something “bigger than himself.”
Still, Larson hit the transfer portal a week after the College World Series ended.
“I was kind of put to a sudden end to a tough situation,” Larson said. “But I’m proud of how I played through those things.”
As Larson opted to shift into a new phase of his career, he had recently arrived in a place where he’s quite comfortable: Chatham.
He decided back in the fall that he’d make a return to the Anglers. Last summer, he said he strongly connected with the local community in Chatham and made timeless memories with the boisterous personalities and elite talents of the 2024 A’s squad.
Ashton Larson is using his summer in Chatham to prepare for the next era of his career in the SEC, where he looks to carve out a starting role in Texas' outfield. Larson transferred to the Longhorns on July 15 after spending two seasons at LSU. Photograph by Ella Tovey
Larson fondly remembers playing Mafia in the team bus and laughing with former teammates Kyle Lodise and Luke Cantwell, who typically led the game. He also still implements hitting philosophies he learned from Ike Irish, an Orioles’ first-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, which revolve around showing patience at the plate and never giving away at-bats. Larson didn’t see any reason to forgo the chance to gain similar experiences, albeit with new faces this year.
While he was in the perfect location to take his time and make his transfer decision, it’s not like Larson really needed to be relaxed in order to hone in on his process.
“Coming from LSU, where there are already a lot of things that you’re balancing that don’t have anything to do with the actual game, has prepared me to separate what goes on before and after stepping on the field,” Larson said.
On July 14, the Anglers had an off day, which Larson used to mull over what school he’d call home next. He decided between a final list of four SEC programs — he wasn’t settling for anything less than the SEC — but thought Texas offered him the best shot at proving his value as an everyday player in the conference.
“I know I can play in that league,” Larson said of the SEC. “I feel like the opportunities are going to be to where I can play every day there, too.”
This summer in Chatham has been a preview for what Larson hopes to achieve with consistent opportunities. And it’s come with him overcoming Anglers’-related adversity, too.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Larson last year. The way the season ended — with Larson misplaying a fly ball in right field in the ninth inning of a first-round playoff game against Harwich as Chatham blew a late three-run lead — isn’t a moment he thinks about. Larson doesn’t think it’s wise to dwell on mistakes, because that leads to overcompensating in future opportunities.
It’s a mentality he had to implement on July 6 against Falmouth at Veterans Field. In the third inning, Larson dropped a high-arcing fly ball out in left field, which allowed a Commodores’ runner to score one batter later.
After flushing the mistake, Larson stepped to the dish in the fifth against Falmouth right-hander Robby Porco (West Virginia) with Chatham down 7-6 — the difference being Larson’s error. One pitch later, Larson emphatically erased his own blunder, throttling a fastball over the middle that landed in the grass extending beyond the right-field wall at Veterans Field.
His grand slam gave the Anglers a 10-7 lead and served as the game-winner. Larson’s moonshot might not have happened if he was at LSU; would he have remained in the game after his error? The answer is irrelevant, because Larson continues to deliver in Chatham when given plentiful opportunities — a glimpse into his future in Austin, Texas.
“I put in a lot of work throughout the season, even though I wasn’t in the role that I would have liked,” Larson said after belting the game-winning grand slam. “But to be out here and to put together at-bats every single day, put together full games, it means the world to me.”
