John Szefc expected good things from John McCarthy when Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun baseball team signed him last year, but he didn't know how good.

But UL's assistant coach in charge of hitting knows now.

"He wound up being exactly what we needed and what we hoped he would be," Szefc said. "We knew what kind of player he was, but I'm not sure we knew he'd do what he's done for us."

What he's done is lead the club in hits and record multiple-hit games 15 times in 32 games while starting every game in right field. Only six times in those 32 games has he gone without a hit.

"He's a tough at-bat for pitchers," said Szefc, whose hitters are at .320 as a team heading into tonight's opener of a three-game non-conference series against Texas-Pan American. "He's consistent, he's able to go deep in the count and he's not afraid to hit with two strikes. He hasn't hit with a lot of power yet, but he will before it's over."

It's hard to be disappointed considering the Palos Park, Ill., native is hitting .371 with eight doubles and a .444 on-base percentage. But McCarthy might have provided Cajun coaches with some of those hopes with the power exhibition he put on early in fall drills.

"I'm not sure where all that came from," McCarthy said of his early fall. "I was just trying to make good contact and have some good at-bats."

His numbers might be even higher right now had he not missed the latter part of the fall with surgery on his hand, but any physical problems obviously didn't carry over to the spring season. He got hits in the Cajuns' first five games and was 9-for-19 in the first week of the season.

"He probably adapted quicker than any juco guy we've had since I've been here," said Szefc, who recruited McCarthy out of Mesa Junior College in Arizona. "We've been lucky in a lot of our guys adapting quickly, but he's just a tough-willed guy.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com