Ryan Loehnert is a local 2011 UK baseball commit; he just graduated from St. Xavier HS in Louisville. I asked if he had ever met fellow 2011 commit (and fellow Louisvillian) Spencer Drake. He said yes, they had been playing together in the same leagues since little league.
Like Jeff Boehm who I profiled this morning, Loehnert is a renaissance man: he pitches (right hand), hits, plays infield and outfield. He also plays (or played) football. Ryan was a wide receiver for St. Xavier his freshman, sophomore and junior years, until he decided to concentrate solely on baseball for his senior year. He said he’s not interested in playing football in college.
St. Xavier’s baseball team had a good year, going to the state semifinals where they lost to eventual champion Central Hardin. The game I was interested in though was the mercy-rule win over Clay County. Ryan said “We came out focused, but loose. We just went out there and had fun.” Fun to the tune of a 10-0 mercy-rule shutout.
Loehnert had interest from MTSU and an offer from Eastern Kentucky, but he said UK was an “easy choice”. He has two cousins who are currently sophomores at UK, it was close to home, and they have a great campus.
Loehnert finished his senior year with hitting stats of .325 BA, 2 HR and 23 RBI. He finished pitching stats with 17 strikeouts and 11 walks in only 12 innings pitched (1.17 ERA). Ryan’s pitching was cut short by a bout of tendinitis in his rotator cuff. Before that (and hopefully after it heals), he was burning in fastballs at 91-92 mph. He is ranked the #4 player in Kentucky by Maxpreps.
Thanks for the interview Ryan, stay focused and loose.
