There were a lot of expectations for Steven Sensley when he first put on the vermillion and white in 2016. It was justified as he had a stellar 2015 season at LSU-Eunice, hitting an impressive 21 home runs before transferring to the University of Louisiana.
However, Sensley’s first season with the Cajuns left a lot to be desired as he went .252 with six home runs and 23 RBIs. His strength turned out to be a negative when it comes to the jump from Junior College to Division I baseball.
His second season with the Ragin Cajuns has seen the junior return to form with 5 home runs on the year, including two during last Friday’s victory against Arkansas State. The improvement in his game has become evident and head coach Tony Robichaux said that he’s started to change his approach when steps into the batter’s box.
“Steve’s got a great approach right now and because of that, he’s starting to become a good hitter with power instead of a power hitter.” Robe said of the Cajuns DH, “He took his walks when he had to take them. When you have an approach like we did, you walk more and strike out less.”
When it comes to approach in baseball, it’s one of the more important aspects of a player’s performance, especially in the position of designated hitter. You can’t have a guy continually try and pull it. That’s what Sensley had done in the past, but has changed his ways despite still wanting to hit it out of the park every time.
“I’ve just been working on staying inside the ball.” Sensley said of his new approach, “I feel like at the beginning of last year I would get around the ball a lot. I was too pull-oriented, I still want to pull it because of my strength but I’m just working on staying inside of it.”
That approach has seen Sensley improve in a big way with a batting average of .320 and 27 RBIs in 37 games played heading into another crucial Sun Belt series on the road against Little Rock.
One of the biggest things that the Cajuns struggled with early in the season was hitting. You could chalk it up to not getting as much batting practice during the offseason due to the offseason renovations to Tigue Moore Field at Russo Park, but you can’t entirely blame it on that. Sometimes, the Cajuns just couldn’t get anything going at the plate when it matters the most.
However, the Cajuns are starting to finally turn things around as they’re getting red hot at the tail end of the season, currently riding a five game win streak into Arkansas. If they can keep it going as they get towards the end of the season, there’s a slight chance that there might be a regional being hosted at Russo Park.
-Clint Domingue