By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director
Baseball is a game where hope springs eternal. Players from T-ball forward dream of playing in the big leagues, but the odds are steep. Even for the top-shelf high school and college talent, it’s a long shot.
Once in a while, a long shot comes in. Centenary product Seth Lugo is a case in point. He played for the Diamond Gents from 2008-11, with a second-team All-Summit League recognition in 2010 as his individual top career accomplishment.
Fourteen years later, he’s on top of the baseball universe.
A 34-year-old pitcher for the Kansas City Royals, Lugo is a leading candidate to start on the mound next Tuesday for the American League in Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game in nearby Arlington.
The right-hander, a Shreveport native, is in the midst of a career year on the hill in his first season with the Royals. In his ninth MLB campaign, he is 11-3 with a 2.21 ERA and has struck out 110 batters in 122.0 innings pitched with just 29 walks. He is tied for the MLB lead in wins and in ERA.
Lugo, a Parkway High School product, was a 34th round draft pick of the Mets in 2011 and made his MLB debut in 2016 with New York. He was exclusively a relief pitcher with the Mets, before signing with San Diego for the 2023 season. There, he finally was given the chance to start, and posted a very solid 8-7 record with 3.57 ERA, striking out 140 in 146.1 innings pitched over 26 starts.
That helped him cash a big check. He signed a three-year, $45 million deal with Kansas City in the offseason.
His success with the Royals has helped a complete turnaround for that franchise, which already has crossed the 50-win mark after getting only 56 all of 2023.
Lugo’s story provides inspiration to every Gents’ player. Perhaps the best one on the current roster, sophomore left fielder Carson Livesay, can draw on Lugo’s example to know that there is a route from Kings Highway and Virginia Shehee Park to the major leagues.
Livesay was named to the 2024 Louisiana Sports Writers’ Association All-Louisiana Baseball team, earning honorable-mention honors, the organization announced on Tuesday. Livesay, a native of Lafayette, was one of 13 honorable mention selections on this year’s team. Livesay is the second straight Centenary player to be named honorable mention All-Louisiana after Parker Primeaux made the team last season.
Livesay had a stellar sophomore season as he established himself as one of the conference’s and country’s top all-around NCAA Division III players. Livesay led the team and ranked fifth in the SCAC with a .370 batting average as he earned first-team All-SCAC honors and was the league leader in both hits (64) and runs scored (52) and ranked in the top five in both OBP (.486) and slugging % (.555). He was named to the 2024 D3baseball.com All-Region Team (third team) in May.
Livesay belted six home runs (second on the team) and added 12 doubles and a triple and finished with 32 RBI. He was the conference leader in total bases (96) and ranked in the top five in walks (30) while only striking out 32 times in a team-high 173 at-bats. Livesay stole a team-best 19 bases and was only caught five times as he ranked in the top five in the league in the category.
Livesay was red-hot for the Diamond Gents in the conference tournament as he finished 9-18 (.500) at the plate with three multi-hit games and was named to the SCAC All-Tournament Team. He hit a homer and a double, scored eight runs, had four RBI, walked twice, stole two bases, and only struck out once in five games in the tournament. He posted 20 multi-hit games including six 3-hit games, a 4-hit game, and one game with a career-high five hits.
Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu