GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - Gridley High School graduate Lance Santerre has officially committed to the University of San Fransisco baseball team.

Santerre’s interest in the USF baseball program began his senior year after visiting “The Hilltop” campus but the left-handed pitcher says he wanted to explore junior colleges in the area that would help navigate him towards USF. “I thought the best decision was to go to a JC and prove myself and show them that I was deserving of that extra money.” Said Santerre. He was eventually recruited to San Joaquin Delta College out of high school by Coach Mat Keplinger, where he has spent the last year and a half working with Delta’s new pitching Coach Joey Skracic to hone his skills and prove himself academically.

The extra year of training and academic achievement paid off and on November 11^th, Santerre signed the national letter of intent to play Baseball on scholarship for USF. Due to COVID, there was no elaborate signing event, which usually accompanies such commitments but regardless, Santerre is over the moon.  “I love the school; I love the coaches!” he says. Santerre is looking forward to joining a few friends that will also be teammates at USF and Coach Keplinger, who was hired on in 2020 as the new USF pitching coach.

As far as his craft, Santerre says that he is currently pitching in the neighborhood 88 to 90 mph and has topped out at 91 mph so far. “I feel like I manage the game pretty well” says Santerre and on a good day, not many get on base. Delta has used him both as a starter and out of the bull pen. So far, USF is looking to implement a “bubble” keeping all players isolated together in order to conduct a somewhat regular 2021 playing season after the short 2020 year. Only time will tell what the future will look like, but Santerre is hopeful that he will be able to start conditioning soon with his team.

Santerre remains ever grateful for the support he has received throughout his baseball career. “I just really want to thank all the coaches and parents and family and friends from around the area, up in Chico, all over the place, that helped me get to where I am. Coach Dan Crabtree, Lance Franks and Omar Aguilar at the Chico Bullpen, Coach Joey Skracic, Coach Reed Peters too” and of course, his own loving parents.

As for his future “I feel really good. I mean, it’s such a great academic school…I know they’re going to set me up really well for life.” Says Sancerre. “I definitely have aspirations of playing as long as I possibly can, whether that be in the MLB or any other types of leagues around. That’d be fun for sure. We’ll see what happens!”