Sports Person of the Week - Landon Victorian

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Landon Victorian put together one of the greatest pitching seasons in Barbe Baseball history as he posted an 8-0 record, struck out 80 batters, and posted a 0.97 ERA.

With all of those accomplishments, MaxPreps presented Victorian this past week with the Louisiana State Player of the Year award.

Victorian has been a pivotal part of the Buccaneers over the past three seasons, and he made it clear that this award just helps solidify that all the hard work that he put in paid off.

“It means a lot because as a kid I’ve been working so hard to get to this moment, and I thank God and my family foot helping me with everything that has got me to this point,” said Victorian. “I still have plenty of work to do, God can pick any kid to be good at something and I’m glad he picked me, so I’m gonna take advantage of it and keep working extremely hard because I’m very honored for that award and it means a lot.”

Head coach of the Barbe Buccaneers Glenn Cecchini has seen plenty of great pitchers on his road to 12 LHSAA State Championships, but he spoke glowingly about Victorian and how it is his work ethic that sets him apart from the rest.

“I’m just so proud and happy for him and you know he’s the best I mean, he’s rated the top right-handed pitcher in his class and in three years he’s pitched and he’s pitched a lot of innings, a lot of games and only lost one game, that is so difficult to do as a pitcher,” said Coach Cecchini. “He’s a fierce competitor and just an absolute warrior and we just can’t say enough good things about him, he just continues to get better every year and we got him one more year that’s the best part.”

Victorian was extremely gracious about receiving the award, but quickly reiterated that the best moment of the season was getting to share a State Title with his teammates as Barbe beat West Monroe 10-4 to capture their 12th championship.

“That’s something we all dreamed of and you know everything we went through in the preseason, working hard every day, all the blood, sweat, and tears paid off for us,” said Victorian. So to just like reach that moment, that’s why I was so emotional, going through elbow surgery, not knowing if I was going to be able to play, getting to pitch in the semifinals, and then winning a State Championship, it just was an incredible experience with my team.”

Landon has one more year of high school baseball left at Barbe, and Coach Cecchini says that he expects the rising senior to be the first pitcher in the program’s history to throw a 100 mph pitch this next season.

After he wraps up his final year of high school in 2024, Victorian will head over to Baton Rouge in the fall to play for the LSU Tigers.

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