Believe it or not, Owen Lucas is just a year removed from thinking his collegiate baseball career was over.
Back home in Ontario after trying to make it onto the Prairie Baseball Academy roster, he was fully expecting to start his non-sports life.
However, playing some summer baseball reignited Lucas’ passion for the game and led to a phone call to head coach Todd Hubka, hoping for another shot.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pound infielder took full advantage of the opportunity, jumping out of the Canadian College Baseball Conference gates in 2024 by collecting at least two hits in each of his first nine games.
He still had a batting average of .514 on April 20, admitting he knew it wouldn’t last forever.
Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, Lucas is still pacing the league in both average (.393) and stolen bases (11).
The Newmarket, Ontario joined us recently for an episode of Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast, which helps us form the latest installment of 1 Thru 9.
1. What’s been key to your success and consistency through the course of this season?
I think just staying loose and relaxed and not getting worrying about getting two hits a game. Kind of just going with it and going hard. That’s really it.
2. You’re leading the league in stolen bases as well. What’s your recipe for a successful swipe?
I’m not even too sure to be honest. I think you just have to be confident in your speed and don’t hesitate. For me, if they’re really picking their flow up or slide-stepping, I usually don’t go. But it depends. We know how quick they are to the plate and we got the coaches on that. I’m just trusting the coaches in that situation. I’m happy they have the confidence in me to just let me go.
3. Put on your scout’s hate for a second and when you look at this team, what do you see?
I think we have a really deep lineup. We have no bad players on our team at all. We’re just so deep. I’m really confident in this group and it’s the best team I’ve ever played on by far. I’ve played on some really good teams and I have a lot of confidence in this group.
4. What has PBA taught you so far and what kinds of things are you hoping to get out of this experience?
It’s taught me a lot. It’s taught me more than I ever thought to be honest. I came here, I didn’t know what to expect really. But I think hitting has been the biggest thing that’s changed. When I got here, I was taking too many pitches, I wasn’t very aggressive, my swing wasn’t great and I didn’t have that much confidence. I think that’s why I’ve had so much success.
I feel really comfortable here. If there’s a first pitch that’s a curveball and I swing and miss at it to lead off a game, maybe other places I’m playing, they’re saying that I should take it because I’m a lead-off guy.
Here, they want you to be aggressive. If it’s 0-0 and you swing at a curveball and you miss it and it’s in the dirt, then whatever, you were being aggressive sitting on a fastball. There’s nothing you can do. That’s why I’ve had so much success is just having confidence, the coaches have confidence in us and it just keeps me loose, I think.
5. Was that a weird transition to make in becoming more aggressive, especially if you’ve been doing it a certain way for so long?
It was definitely difficult. I remember live at-bats, we were doing them inside the first couple of weeks there and I was struggling. I couldn’t even swing. I don’t even know what was going on. I was just used to seeing so many pitches. I think it was a tough adjustment for me but just buying into the team’s system and everything, after a while you get used to it and now I feel like I swing a lot. It was tough at first but I like it better now. I feel a lot more comfortable at the plate now.
6. Has that thought crossed your mind that you were so close to hanging them up just a short time ago and, yet, here you are having as much success as you are now?
Yeah, I think about that quite often now. I didn’t really think about it much at the start of the year because I didn’t know how I was going to play. You have to make varsity here too, which is tough because we have a lot of guys here who are really talented. So I wasn’t really sure, I was just playing for fun. But being here and competing, yeah for sure, realizing that I could have been at home working a normal job and not being here at all. I definitely think about that sometimes.
7. When you’re at the ballpark like Rogers Centre, what’s your go-to food?
I’d say the hot dogs, to be honest. Probably just mustard and ketchup.
8. You get to play tour guide in Ontario. Where are you taking us?
Toronto – that’s my favourite city. I grew up in Newmarket but I always loved Toronto. It’s a big city, there’s so many people there, lots of different things, lots of sports teams there and the CN Tower, too.
9. Finally, when you’re out chatting with young kids who are just starting out on their baseball journeys but they want to get to the next level, what are your go-to words of wisdom or that one piece of advice?
You just have to stay consistent. If you want to outwork guys and be at practice every day, then hit after practice. You can do that once a week or whatever and it’ll make you a little bit better. But if you do it every single day, you’re going to get a lot better. Consistency…that’s baseball. I think that’s the name of the game. You look at the big leaguers and those guys are consistent. You’re not going to throw an under-3.00 ERA if you’re not consistent with it, so I think that’s the biggest thing.
The CCBC World Series is set for May 16-20 in Lethbridge.
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