Lockwood's power on display in Princeton
Hunter Lockwood's baseball career has taken him many different places over the past few years. As a senior at L.D. Bell High School in Texas in 2011, Lockwood was drafted in the 17th round by the Los Angeles Angels. However, he decided to delay the start of his professional career and instead enrolled in classes at the University of Oklahoma.
"At the time, I felt like going to college was the best choice for my situation," Lockwood explained. "Being able to work toward my degree for three years was what I wanted to do."
As a freshman with the Sooners, Lockwood clobbered 11 home runs, tying him for second in the Big 12 Conference. Despite his early success at a high-profile college baseball program, he decided to transfer to a school where he would have the opportunity to catch, as Oklahoma wanted him to play first base.
Lockwood decided upon Weatherford College. Because Weatherford is a junior college, Lockwood was able to play immediately without having to sit out a year. It also meant he was eligible to be drafted after his sophomore year, and the Tampa Bay Rays picked him in the 11th round.
Everywhere Lockwood has played, his power has been evident. The 5'10" righty routinely belts batting practice pitches over the tall wall at Princeton's Hunnicutt Field in centerfield, 396 feet away from home plate. Of his 30 hits this year (through games of August 6), 12 have gone for extra bases, and his four home runs are second on the P-Rays' team, behind only Travis Flores.
Never this season has his power been more apparent than on Friday, August 2. The P-Rays were locked in a 3-3 tie with the Burlington Royals when Lockwood strode to the plate in the bottom of the tenth inning.
"We just needed a runner on," Lockwood stated about his approach in this crucial situation. "I was just trying to put a ball in play, hit something hard."
And hit it hard, he did. Lockwood cranked the first pitch he saw deep over the scoreboard in left field for a walk-off home run. His teammates mobbed him at home plate and dumped the water cooler on him in celebration. "It was a great feeling," the hero remarked. "Being able to come up in a situation where the team's counting on you and then to come through, it's a rush just to be able to do that for everybody."
The blast enabled the P-Rays to win their fourth straight game, a season-high to date. When asked what the difference has been for the red hot Rays, Lockwood replied that the team has been "doing some of the small things right: getting guys over, getting two out base hits for RBIs, some of the things that we weren't doing earlier in the year." He also noted that a little bit of luck has helped, adding, "those short fly balls or seeing eye ground balls that would seem to always get caught for us are now starting to fall in."
And, to prove his power in the clutch was no fluke, on August 6 the Hurst, TX resident broke a 2-2 deadlock versus Princeton's cross-county rivals, the Bluefield Blue Jays, with another four-bagger to deliver a 3-2 victory for the P-Rays in Mercer Cup play in front of a vocal Princeton crowd.
Will there be more fireworks in Lockwood's offensive arsenal by the end of the 2013 Appalachian League season? It will sure be fun finding out!