LG foreign hitter Austin Dean’s hitting feeling is hot. His batting average soared to the 4th season.
Even during the demonstration game, Austin, who received concerns with a batting average of 10%, played a big role as the 4th hitter at the beginning of the season, leading LG’s hard hitting line.
On the 20th, against Hanwha in Daejeon, Austin started as a 4th hitter and 1st baseman, and continued to hit 3 hits in 4 at-bats. He recorded the team’s first hit in his first at-bat in the second inning with a clean base hit. He connected a chance by picking a walk from 2nd out and 1st base in the 0-0 tight 4th inning. Afterwards, Moon Bo-gyeong’s 2 RBI double hit the left line.
After two outs in the sixth inning, he went on base with a right-handed hit against left-hander Jung Woo-ram. In the 8th inning, in the 1st and 2nd bases, he pushed the fastball of Kim Seo-hyun, a newcomer to Hanwha, and hit the ball between 1st and 2nd base.
The second baseman managed to catch it, but missed it while withdrawing the ball and was unable to throw to first base. It became an infield hit. In the ninth inning with two outs loaded with a 4-2 lead, he struck out.
Austin recorded 3 hits that day, bringing his season batting average to 40% (26 hits in 65 at-bats). It is second after KT Alford (batting average of .418), the first in batting. 2 homers, 12 RBIs, OPS 1.007, 3rd in the league.
We are already looking forward to a successful season breaking LG’s history of foreign batter cruelty. It is the main driving force behind LG, where foreign batters failed in succession over the past two years, to run in first place at the beginning of the season.
In 12 exhibition games, Austin recorded .581 OPS with 1 home run, 3 RBIs (7 hits in 36 at-bats) in 12 exhibition games. He was in the process of adjusting to an unfamiliar league, and he was a bit worried.
However, as soon as the season started, he was showing off his concerns and showing great success. Coach Yeom카지노 Gyeong-yeop said, “Austin seems to have confidence as he got hits at the beginning of the season. He said, “It seems that he is doing better as he is less burdened and has more time to spare.”
Director Yeom thought the probability of failure would be low when he recruited Austin. He said, “Austin has the basic framework. He could have gotten a little lost if he hadn’t hit early. However, he has few absurd swings on his breaking ball. He thought he would not fail,” he said.
Austin went 0-for-3 (one walk) in the opening game, but went 3-for-5 in the second game and went 2-for-4 and multi-hit in the third game. He subsequently followed this up with a 6-game hitting streak. He hit his first home run of the season against Jamsil NC on the 18th, and is recording two home runs in the last four games.
Austin, who had been silent since the opening with no hits in 8 at-bats against left-handed pitchers, recorded his first home run from left-handed pitcher (NC Lim Jeong-ho). Since then, he is also overcoming the weakness of lefties with 3 hits and 2 home runs in 5 at-bats against left-handed pitchers.
In addition, Austin, whose main position was in right field, is playing first base. Due to Lee Jae-won’s injury and Song Chan’s sluggish performance, he moved from right field to first base, and his contribution to the team is high in defense. The first base defense is more stable than expected. Manager Yeom revised the plan to use Austin as the first baseman even if Lee Jae-won returns from injury.