Tag: Duke in the MLB

Duke baseball star Joey Loperfido hits first MLB home run on Thursday night

Former Blue Devils baseball star Joey Loperfido smashed one into the stands against Oakland on Thursday night, his first big-league home run in his 11th MLB game.

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.

Loperfido and the Astros won the game 8-1 to round out a four-game sweep of the A’s.

Former Blue Devil Joey Loperfido named Pacific Coast League Player of the Month

Former Duke star Joey Loperfido was named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Month after he hit 10 home runs and drove home 20 runs in 22 games.

Former Duke baseball player Joey Loperfido was named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Month for April on Friday.

Loperfido, who played for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, hit 10 home runs and batted in 20 runs across 22 games in April. He ended the month with a .289 batting average.

The former Blue Devil notably hit three home runs in a single game on April 12. For the season with Sugar Land, Loperfido batted .287 with 13 home runs and 27 RBIs.

Loperfido won’t get the chance to defend his crown, however, as the Houston Astros called him up to the show this week. He drove in two runs with an RBI single in his debut game on Tuesday. He has two hits in his nine MLB at-bats thus far.

Loperfido played for the Blue Devils from 2018-21 before the Astros took him in the seventh round of the 2021 MLB draft.