Justin Lavey Wants His Louisville Legacy to be his Influence

By all accounts, Justin Lavey had a solid career at the University of Louisville.

Across 173 games played and 143 starts, the infielder from Kenosha, WI sported a .277 batting average, with 8 home runs, 88 RBIs, 56 walks & 32 stolen bases.

His senior year was slowly shaping out to be a proper collegiate swan song as well. He was hitting for .316 with a team-high 17 RBIs, had recorded a hit in all but two of the 17 games played, and was on a career-high 12 game hitting streak before the 2020 season was halted because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

While Lavey wants to be known as a good player when he was a Cardinal, he wants to be remembered more so by his performance off the diamond.

"I want to be known as a good player, but even more importantly a good Christian and a good person off the field that hopefully had a good influence on the younger generation," Lavey told reporters in a teleconference Tuesday. "Hopefully inspire them to play baseball, go to school at UofL or whatever it may be."

Lavey rememberers back when he was a greenhorn in the Cardinals clubhouse, and how both the coaching staff and the upperclassmen got him acclimated to the collegiate level.

"Going in there as a freshman, I thought I knew a lot about baseball. Then about two weeks in, you're like 'oh my goodness, I knew nothing'," Lavey said. "Just the amount of knowledge that the coaching staff and the older players were able to share with me, that's something I hope I was able to pass onto the younger guys in my junior and senior year."

After going undrafted in the 2020 MLB Draft, Lavey signed a free agent deal with the Seattle Mariners organization, becoming the second Cardinal to do so after Danny Oriente signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

He noted that while it was hard to leave a program like Louisville even with the opportunity to come back next year, like many players before the end goal was always to end up in the professional ranks.

"It was a tough (decision) for sure, but pro ball was always a dream of mine," Lavey said. "I talked to Coach Mac and we both agreed that it was the best thing for me moving forward - to cross the line and start my professional career."

Lavey might be leaving a potential extra year on the table to start his road to The Show, but he has zero regrets in his decision to come to Louisville.

"I wouldn't have traded my time - all four years there - for anything."

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