Kentucky’s Nick Lopez ascended from not receiving any NCAA Division I baseball scholarship offers out of high school to being named an All-SEC first-team player this season all thanks to an unrelenting belief in himself.
A belief that stayed constant through being told he had a spot at Illinois-Chicago only to be asked to delay his enrollment a year.
A belief that remained the same after he tore his ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow and his pitching career was done.
An unwavering belief that squashed his internal doubts while he played a season in his hometown at Santa Ana College while watching his friends prosper at major college programs.
“I’m the kind of person that, whatever I want, I’m gonna do whatever it takes to get there,” Lopez said. “So it kind of just kept me motivated, like, all right, I’m going to prove to these guys if they don’t think I’m good enough. I’m going to prove to them why I am.”
He’s proven plenty batting cleanup for the Wildcats, as they prepare to face Texas A&M on Monday night in the College World Series.
Many times Lopez could have been sidetracked along the way, from the gap year he took after graduating high school before enrolling at UIC. To the year of playing at home in junior college. And especially after reaching his dream school only to have the coaching staff that recruited him to USC get fired and replaced.
It took his final year of eligibility where his belief in his self was finally paired with a coaching staff that believed in him also.
UK’s coaching staff recognized Lopez’s potential despite his unconventional journey and has helped bring out the best in him this season.
“We felt like he was a guy that we would be able to help not only make better, but he would fit in,” UK coach Nick Mingione said. “And this is a guy who, at times, he bats in the eight spot last year at USC, and all of a sudden he turned himself into a first-team All-SEC performer.”
Lopez didn’t turn into a great player. It was in him all along. It just took a coaching staff having the same belief in him as he had in himself.
As a native of Santa Ana, California, USC was the dream school for Lopez. So late in the season, after tearing through JUCO and nearly batting .400, he shunned the opportunity to play at other places on scholarship to be a preferred walk-on for the Trojans.
He made good on his chance to play, starting 47 of 49 games in his first season and hitting .282 with 33 RBIs, which was good for fourth on the team. But that would be as good as it got for Lopez at USC.
The volunteer assistant coach who helped bring him to USC was gone before the season started and so was head coach Jason Gill after the 2022 season. Gill was replaced by Andy Stankiewicz, and the new staff ushered in the wrong changes for Lopez.
They convinced Lopez that he needed to bulk up as a first baseman and turned the switch-hitter exclusively into batting left-handed.
The resulting makeover didn’t help elevate his play or keep him in the lineup. Lopez ended up being underutilized.
“I felt like I was playing to be somewhat like what someone else wanted me to be,” Lopez said. “And so when I came to Kentucky, I just wanted to be my true self.”
Lopez had career highs in batting average (.350), on-base percentage (.407), slugging percentage (.553), doubles (22) and RBIs (50) through 56 games.
He immediately dropped close to 20 pounds to play at more of his natural weight between 195-200 pounds. UK tweaked his technique at batting right-handed to make him more effective and turned him back into a switch-hitter. The results have been undeniable.
“Everything that coach Ming preaches, like every single day, he does,” Lopez said. “He’s honestly the best coach I’ve ever played for. So I’m so happy to be at Kentucky.”
UK is happy to have him, no matter how many stops he had to make along the way to get here.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at [email protected], follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
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Publish date : 2024-06-17 05:19:36
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