BATON ROUGE - Ezra Pate is not playing his collegiate baseball in the south, but there's a reason he's playing for the Baton Rouge Rougarou this summer.

Pate, who just finished up his freshman season at Bates College in Maine, is the grandson of LSU coaching legend Skip Bertman.

"Ezra is very good about thinking that I'm a very good coach," Bertman said. "He asks me a lot of questions, particularly about pitching, which is what Ezra does; he's a student of the game."

Bertman had four daughters, so it's Pate carrying the baseball torch in the family.

"I have an older cousin and older brother, who are both boys, but they do not play baseball, so I was the final hope, but thankfully I made it," Pate said.

When the Rougarou aren't playing, Pate's spent almost all his summer with his grandpa.

"It's truly a blessing to still be 19 years old and have my grandpa be in my life still, and very close with me, and I never take any moment for granted," Pate said.

While pitching is Pate's immediate future, his goal is to follow in his grandfather's footsteps.

"He wants to be a baseball coach, Ezra is really into it, he's smart, knows more than most kids at 19," Bertman said.

"It's great to hear what he thinks about certain situations and what he would do in that situation, and that helps me, and I aspire to be a coach one day, so hopefully I can use this information to help whatever I do in the future," Pate said.

The Baton Rouge Rougarou start Texas Collegiate League playoffs on Tuesday night against the Acadiana Cane Cutters.