Baseball: Lucroy’s Bat Speaks

Cajuns’ Battery Struggles, But Catcher Makes Up For It.

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. Jonathan Lucroy took responsibility for allowing
Arkansas State¹s Indians to hit as well as they did Wednesday.
³I made some bad calls,² the University of Louisiana catcher said. ³We
shouldn¹t have let them have the outside corner like we did.²
The sophomore more than made up for that, and then some. In fact, the
sophomore almost personally hit the Ragin¹ Cajuns into the second round of
the Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament.
Lucroy¹s second swing of the game resulted in four runs, with his second
grand-slam home run of the season giving the Cajuns a lead they never
surrendered. Mostly, UL didn¹t surrender the lead in what became an 8-7
victory over Arkansas State because of his two-run double in the fourth
inning.
His six runs batted in was a high for the Cajuns this season, and it tied
his career RBI high he set last year against Lamar.
All that came after the underdog Indians had gotten three runs from their
first six batters off UL starter Hunter Moody.
³It was big for us to rally like that,² Lucroy said. ³We had to be
aggressive after the way they came out, and to bounce back like that was a
big momentum shift.²
Lucroy also had a grand slam at Florida International back on April 22 in a
12-2 win over the Golden Panthers in support of Cajun pitcher Buddy Glass.
At the time, that was only the second slam of his baseball career, and the
other one had come off Glass for his Umatilla, Fla., high school team.
This time, Glass was on the bench preparing for his 4 p.m. start today
against Middle Tennessee, and has now had a good seat for all of Lucroy¹s
four-run shots. Now, Glass (8-2, 1.95) will hope that the Raiders don¹t come
out as hot as the Indians did Wednesday, since reliever Danny Farquhar won¹t
be available following four innings Wednesday.
³Hunter¹s the definition of a soft-tossing lefthander,² Lucroy said. ³I
should have called for him to bust them in some more. But that was a great
set-up for Danny … he came in and shut them down.²
He had plenty of help from his catcher.
³Luke stepped up and got the big hit,² said senior shortstop Jameson Parker.
³If he doesn¹t do that, I¹m not sure we come back and win.²

Originally published May 25, 2006