Two More Cajuns Named Summer League All-Stars
LOUISIANA – Another Ragin’ Cajuns baseball duo has been selected to participate in a summer league baseball All-Star contest. On Saturday it was announced that Chase Compton and Ryan Leonards were selected to the 2012 Alaska Baseball League South All-Star team.
The rising juniors are both members of the ABL’s Anchorage Bucs. The All-Star contest will be held at the Bucs’ home field, Mulchay Park in Anchorage, Alaska.
The ABL All-Star game is set for Sunday, July 22 with a 7 p.m. (CDT) first pitch. The game concludes the Alaska Baseball League Scout Showcase Weekend which featured all of the league’s six squads competing in seven-inning nonleague games Friday and Saturday.
Fans interested in viewing the contest can visit www.anchoragebucs.com/live.htm and click the live baseball coverage icon for Bucs Live Video Streaming.
Compton and Leonards were part of a group of nine Anchorage Bucs players selected to participate in the All-Star festivities.
Compton, who has seen time at first and third base for the Bucs during the summer session, will be at first base for the South on Sunday. Leonards, who has rotated between second base, shortstop and third base, enters the All-Star contest at second base.
They join current Ragin’ Cajuns teammates Jace Conrad and Cord Cockrell as athletes with UL ties who were named to a summer league All-Star squad. Earlier this week, Conrad and Cockrell were selected to appear in the 2012 West Coast League All-Star Game scheduled for Tuesday, July 24 at 9:35 p.m. (CDT) in Walla Walla, Wash.
A Slidell native, Compton is coming off a sophomore campaign with the Cajuns in which he led the team in multiple-hit games (20), base hits (64), slugging percentage (.456) and ranked second with 18 extra base hits. Over the last five weekends, he was one of the hottest hitters in the Sun Belt Conference, hitting .412, slugging .490 and posting a .537 on-base percentage in league games.
Compton has continued to produce at the plate in Alaska. He’s the ABL’s league leader with a .396 average and has rapped out 16 extra base hits (38 hits total).
Compton has had two different nine-game streaks in which his season average remained above .400. He ranks Top 10 in the ABL in runs scored (26), base hits (38), doubles (9) and home runs (6).
Leonards was the Cajuns’ second-leading hitter in 2012 with a .327 average – right behind Compton’s team-best .328 average. The Notre Dame High of Crowley product, named to the Capital One Academic All-District VI First Team, also ranked second in multiple-hit games (16) and played his entire sophomore campaign with a .300-plus average.
Leonards entered the weekend’s festivities coming off a 6-for-13 stretch over the past three games which has raised his current season average to .295. He’s hit safely in five of the past six outings, producing five extra base hits during the timeframe.
For the summer session, Leonards has generated nine multiple-hit games and posted at least one hit in all but nine of 27 games played. He’s collected 10 extra base hits (4 doubles, 1 triple, 4 home runs), the fourth-higest total on the Bucs’ roster.
The Alaska Baseball League, which features six teams, has no playoffs, therefore the regular season winner is the champion. Entering the All-Star Break, the Bucs trail league-leading Anchorage Glacier Pilots by five games with seven games remaining. The season finale is set for Sunday, July 29.
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