Lucek Finds What He Wants In A School At Toledo

STRONGSVILLE - The Top Prospect Games in June turned into a monumental, and as it turns out, life-changing experience for Brandon Lucek.

“I was expecting the normal PBR showcase where you run, get your velo, throw as hard as you can and do an AB or two,” reflected the Strongsville senior. “It ended up being a lot more than I ever imagined. I met some new kids that I’m friends with to this day. I played a game and got six or seven at-bats. I was so comfortable with the friends and coaches that were there. I was facing the top uncommitted pitchers in the state and I did really well.”

The 14th-ranked 2023 outfielder in the state certainly got the attention of Toledo.

“There were so many coaches there, I never thought of them wanting me,” Lucek said of the June 14-15 PBR event. “But one of my friend’s coaches was there and said he was by the Toledo coaches and that I should email them. I ended up talking to them about my recruitment and I set up a date and went on a visit. My father went there to school and he said it was great.

“I ended up loving the campus and the coaches and I talked to some of the players. Everything I dreamed of when it comes to baseball and a school was at Toledo. I talked an hour or so later with my parents and called the coaches and told them I wanted to come there.”

Gannon, Ashland, Seton Hill and Lake Erie were among the other colleges enamored with the recently-turned 18-year-old.

“I went on six or seven visits and they all stemmed back to the Top Prospect Games,” Lucek noted.

Toledo liked what the 94th-rated 2023 in Ohio had to offer.

“They love how I play the game,” Lucek said. “I’m just out there having fun and picking up my teammates. They also like how I swing it and they like how I run the bases.

“I was talking to them and they said that I was a little small to play D-I but it was a risk they will take with how I play bigger than I really am.”

Now 5-9 and 165 pounds, Lucek has always been a smaller guy.

“Going into my freshman year I was 5-foot, 95 pounds,” Lucek explained. “I knew what it took to compete and I started working out with my summer coaches, Nick and Max Carevic. I was put on a good eating schedule, I put on 40 pounds and I grew a couple of inches. I did the same thing the next year and here I am now a lot bigger and stronger.

“My coach always told me it would be worth it and I trusted him,” Lucek added. “I hated being that small scrawny kid so I kept going and that pushed me.”

It has made Lucek the player he is today.

“I like to say I’m a scrappy player,” Lucek said. “I rarely strike out, I put the ball in play, I stretch a single into a double, I love to run the bases, I love to force pitchers to throw bad pitches being aware of me being a menace on the bases. I think I love defense more than offense. I love making plays and rooting on my pitcher. I’m a vocal player, always cheering someone on or picking someone up.”

The idea of taking his game to the next level, admittedly, was only a recent development.

“Before this past high school season I was talking to my coach and I was pretty sure I wanted to play in college but I didn’t make the decision that I wanted to until the first day of June,” Lucek related. “I missed my team when the season ended and I realized I loved this. That’s when I made the decision that this was what I wanted to do and I went 100 percent in.”

Now Lucek is a Division I college commit.

“It’s a big relief,” Lucek said of making a commitment. “Between emailing, texting and making college visits it was a daily thing taking up hours of each day talking to my parents about it. To commit took off a lot of stress, but I can’t change anything now. I’m pushing harder than ever to get stronger and better.”

By next year at this time, Lucek, who carries a 4.63 GPA at Strongsville, will be at Toledo as a pre-med major and, hopefully, ready to make an impact in the Mid-American Conference program.

“I’m looking forward to making a new family with my team, meeting a bunch of people from all around Ohio and the country and going from strangers to brothers the next couple of years,” Luck concluded.