Benet’s Luke Bafia is not a traditional cleanup hitter.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior shortstop makes contact consistently and has exceptional speed.
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“For batting in the four hole, I don’t have the most pop on the team,” Bafia said. “That probably is Joe Coffey. But I have pretty good bat and ball skills and can drive them in.”
Bafia is hitting .323 with a .494 on-base percentage, four doubles, a triple and two home runs. But once he gets on base, he becomes more dangerous — and unusual. He leads the Redwings (11-10) with 23 steals in 23 attempts and has scored 26 times.
Benet coach Scott Lawler, who is also the athletic director and is the son of late Naperville Central pitching coach Phil Lawler, agreed Bafia is different from most cleanup hitters but said Bafia fits his team.
Bafia puts pressure on a defense and creates numerous run-scoring opportunities for the Redwings, Scott Lawler said.
“Luke is a different four-hole hitter,” said Lawler, a former assistant at Arkansas-Little Rock, Evansville, Northern Illinois and Notre Dame. “He gets on base and can really run. It’s a different mold. He does an outstanding job getting on base. He can go from first base to third base in an instant.”
Bafia, a rangy shortstop with excellent fielding acumen, was finding his way on the varsity team two years ago. At 5-11 and 160 pounds, he was undersized, but he proved to be a quick study. He hit .286 with eight RBIs and 17 runs scored.
“It was definitely hard in my sophomore year,” he said. “I was too skinny, but I had to grind it out. Now my body is in a better spot. It was a good experience playing as a sophomore. There wasn’t any doubt that I would get taller and stronger.”
As a junior, Bafia showed he belonged as a regular in the lineup. He batted .296 with a home run, 11 RBIs and 14 steals in 32 games.
“Luke is a captain on the team,” Lawler said. “He’s always been a mainstay here. He keeps getting better and better. This has been a breakout year for him.”
Bafia, whose older brother Nick played football at Benet and is a junior cornerback at Butler, has stayed away from the gridiron in high school. He stopped playing football and basketball after eighth grade to focus on baseball.
Still, Bafia does find time to hit a golf ball. He estimates his top range is 290 yards. He noted some similarities between golf and baseball.
“I’ve always been able to drive the ball really far, giving me some power on the golf course that translates to baseball,” he said. “Golf helps me deal with the mental side, to not get too high or down and be where your feet are and what’s going on hole to hole or at-bat to at-bat.”
To prepare for his senior season, Bafia trained six days a week and worked with his travel coaches.
“I’ve been with the coaching staff for three years, so it’s nice to see all the hard work I put in come to fruition and show up on the field,” he said. “I know I can do better in the second half of the season.
“My fielding and arm strength got a lot better, but that was expected. I made a couple of swing changes, adding extra bat speed, which has helped me. The game also doesn’t speed up anymore for me like when I was a sophomore. That’s because of a lot of practices and games.”
His future still up in the air, Bafia said he has one more goal left for his high school career — to win the Class 3A state championship. The Redwings ended defending 3A state champion Nazareth’s 18-game winning streak on April 25.
“We show our potential when we are locked in for seven straight innings, that we can beat anyone,” Bafia said.
Bobby Narang is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.