Heyer Remains Red-Hot in Tuesday Victory

To say that Kentucky’s Luke Heyer had a big week last week would be quite an understatement. The senior from Lithia, Florida, hit .667 and slugged 1.400 over the course of four games, hitting three home runs, two doubles and knocking in six runs as the Cats earned four wins, two of which were against nationally-ranked opponents.

Heyer reaped the benefits of his big week, as he was named SEC Player of the Week as well as NCBWA National Player of the Week.

What would he do for an encore? Heyer did not rest on his laurels in UK’s 16-5 win over Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday at Cliff Hagan Stadium. The third baseman merely collected three hits, including a double and a grand slam in the victory.

Heyer is taking a simple approach at the plate, one that is producing outstanding results.

“For the most part, just trying to get a good pitch to hit, find one early, no one likes hitting with two strikes,” Heyer said. “Just going out there and trying to barrel some balls.”

With his home run on Tuesday, Heyer is now tied for the national lead in home runs with eight so far this season. Teammate T.J. Collett, who also homered on Tuesday, also has eight home runs so far in the 2018 campaign.

For Heyer, his early-season production is a far cry from his performance last season. In 2017, Heyer played in 37 games with 18 starts. He hit .262 with six doubles and three home runs for the entire season.

Heyer has at least two hits in each of UK’s last seven games, and the senior is hitting .654 during that stretch and is slugging 1.462 during the same span. Heyer is simply trying to enjoy his senior season.

“To be honest, I just want to have fun,” Heyer said. “I’m not guaranteed anything. I’ve got one year left, guaranteed, of baseball. I just want to have the best time with this team and these brothers. Just go out there and compete every game and just enjoy it. You never know how long it’s going to last and everybody has a time when it’s going to end and mine could be at the end of the year. So I just want to go out there and have fun.”

If Heyer continues to mash the ball like he has the last two weeks, both he and the Wildcats will have plenty of fun this season.

Thanks to Darren Headrick of the UK Sports Network for contributing to this article