The Duke baseball team beating North Carolina wasn’t the only good diamond news in Durham on Thursday night.
Joey Loperfido, the former Duke star, hit his first MLB home run on Thursday night. In his 11th MLB game, the newest Houston Astro drove a low bullet into the stands against the Oakland Athletics in front of his home crowd.
The two-run shot made it a 6-0 ballgame.
Loperfido got called up at the end of April shortly before being named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Month for his performance in the minors.
Across 34 career at-bats in the big leagues now, Loperfido is batting .324 with an on-base percentage of .378 due to his three walks. His home run on Thursday was the second extra-base hit of his career after a double two games before, and he’s already compiled five RBIs in the young season.
A seventh-round draft pick in 2021, Loperfido played for the Blue Devils from 2018-21. He was named ACC Baseball Tournament MVP when Duke took home its first conference tournament title during his senior season.
JOEY COOKS
First Major League homer for Lope pic.twitter.com/qlsraQLdgG
— Houston Astros (@astros) May 17, 2024
Loperfido and the Astros won the game 8-1 to round out a four-game sweep of the A’s.