It’s been a while since Arizona softball had a star freshman. No Wildcat has one a conference Freshman of the Week award since Regan Shockey
took the honor four times in the final year of the old Pac-12. That drought has ended and Kez Lucas is the reason.Lucas was named the Big 12 co-Freshman of the Week in her return to the starting lineup. She had only appeared as a pinch hitter once since her last start against BYU on Mar. 7.
The first baseman helped the team take its second Big 12 series this
year in a 2-1 win over ASU over the weekend. She went 4-for-9 with a walk in 10 plate appearances. She had a .444 batting average, a .556 slugging percentage, and a .500 on-base percentage during the three-game series.
The strong weekend at the plate helped Lucas raise her batting average by 50 points to .229. She had a difficult start to her freshman campaign after recovering from a knee injury suffered her senior year in high school. She didn’t get a hit until facing Utah Valley on Feb. 14. She raised it as high as .240 after going 2-for-3 against Texas on Feb. 20, but it soon fell below .200 again and hovered at or below that mark until the second game against ASU.
The Big 12 honored a total of five players this week. Iowa State’s Sydney Malott was the Player of the Week. Fellow Cyclone Lauren Schurman shared co-Pitcher of the Week with Oklahoma State’s Ruby Meylan. Lucas split the Freshman of the Week honors with Utah freshman Danika Wilson.
Lucas gets an opportunity to build on her success at 6 p.m. MST on Tuesday, Mar. 24 against GCU. The game will stream on ESPN+. The radio call will be on 1400 AM (KTUC).
