La Grange’s Austin Colon Excited for His Senior Year of College Baseball

Austin Colon excelled in his first year starting for the Texas Lutheran University baseball team.

The La Grange High School graduate wasn’t able to duplicate his performance from 2019, when the sophomore was an all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference first-team selection, because COVID ended last season early.

But the senior enters this spring prepared to make an impact.

To make up for the lost playing time during the shutdown, Colon played for the Texarkana Twins of the Texas Collegiate League the past summer. In 24 games he batted .273 with 10 runs batted in.

He expects the experience will benefit him. “A lot of the pitchers I was facing were Division I type,” he said. “The skill level’s definitely a boost. I was just trying to stay in the game and get reps.”

Colon will play second base, where he posted a .953 fielding percentage in 192 chances, third most on the team, as a sophomore. He helped turn a teambest 19 double plays.

“Hitting has gotten me where I am now,” he said. “Without the defense I’m playing, I probably wouldn’t be in the position I’m playing.”

“I’m making routine plays a lot more,” he said. “I make the non-routine plays even more.”

He isn’t sure where he will be in the batting order this year, though he has occupied the second spot the past two years. He batted .314 with 29 RBIs in 42 games during 2019 and had 16 multihit efforts, including nine with at least three hits.

He has switched from an open stance to a closed one to make harder contact. “My swing has slowly progressed,” he said. “I’m being a lot more simple and trying to gain more power.”

“I’ve always wanted to drive the ball more in the gap,” he said. “I’ve really been trying to work on hitting more to the other way.”

Men’s indoor track and field

Senior Joshua Brown of Texas A & M University won the weight throw in two consecutive meets to open the spring season. The Schulenburg High product set a personal best of 67 feet, 5 1/2 inches in placing third in the event at the Texas Tech Invitational. He also finished third in the next meet.

Softball

La Grange alumna Lauren Little batted .333 in her two starts for Rhodes College. The sophomore singled and doubled in two at-bats and drove in one run as the designated player in her season debut.

Send updates about area athletes to Barbara Boxleitner at jdanddoc@gmail.com.