Featured Rookie - Jay Hrdlicka
Maryville, Mo. - Today's featured rookie is red-shirt freshman Jay Hrdlicka. Jay stands 5'11" and weighs 180 lbs. He is a proud graduate from Valley High School in West Des Moines, Iowa. Jay's best position is Catcher but his bat is so good he has been playing designated hitter in most of the games this season. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed. Off the field, Jay is as engaging a young man as you will find who is great with kids, seemingly always with a smile, and just a great person with a kind heart. He is a humble person that works very hard for everything he gets. Jay has been blessed with a wonderful and talented family. The B2R learned about Jay's younger brother and it wouldn't surprise anyone to see him on the big stage one day in the future.
On the field, Jay's passion and intensity burns inside him leading to a remarkable focus and athletic-maturity rare for his age. Great teammate. Popular with the guys. High baseball IQ. While you will find Jay standing on the edge cheering on his teammate, he is not a demonstrative or rah-rah kind of player. Jay is great at the plate initiating contact with the baseball. He has struck-out 14 times in 25 games as a freshman with a terrific on-base percentage of over .350 meaning he finds a way on base more than 1 out of 3 times.
In Jay's first year at Northwest Missouri State University, he red-shirted and did not see any game action.
So far in 2016, Jay is 9th on the team in batting average among regular players and appeared in all but one game. In total, Jay is batting .242, appeared in 25 games with 25 starts, 91 at bats, 13 runs scored, 22 hits, 6 doubles, 15 RBIs, .308 slugging percentage, 17 walks, 14 strike-outs, .355 on-base percentage, 4 sacrifice hits, 2 stolen bases in 2 attempts, only committed 1 error for a fielding percentage of .979.
While West Des Moines, Iowa, may not have a Runza, they gave us #13 Jay Hrdlicka and that is even better. Bearcat Nation, I introduce to you, Jay Hrdlicka.
Go Cats!!
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