OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – As the Big Ten's league leader in batting average and top-10 performer nationally entering the weekend, Purdue Baseball's Lukas Cook earned a place on the watch list for the Brooks Wallace Award, which recognizes the nation's top shortstop.
Cook is batting .430 thanks to a team-high 49 hits. He has 15 multi-hit games, including eight with three or more knocks. His most impressive weekend was a 10-for-14 showing vs. UCLA in which he had at least three hits in all three games.
It marks the second year in a row Boilermaker made the Wallace Award watch list. Camden Gasser advanced to the list of semifinalists a year ago.
Presented by the College Baseball Foundation, the Brooks Wallace Award is named in honor of former Texas Tech shortstop Brooks Wallace, who played for the Red Raiders from 1977 to 1980. Wallace died of leukemia at the age of 27.
Cook is the fourth Boilermaker selected to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list since it evolved to spotlight shortstops in 2009. Along with Gasser last year, David Miller (2012) and Evan Albrecht (2022) were also recognized among the nation's elite captains of the infield.
Cook missed the 2024 season due to Tommy John Surgery on the elbow in his throwing arm. He played his way into the lineup this year and emerged as one of the most improved players in the Big Ten. The Knoxville native demonstrated his defensive versatility in the 2023 – his first season of at the NCAA Division I level – by playing all four infield positions in the span of eight games. But at the plate he batted just .135 (7-for-52) and admitted he was trying to hit the ball as far as possible on every swing.
This season, a mature all-fields and base-hit approach helped make Cook a tough out. He went 5-for-10 over the season-opening weekend and had taken over at shortstop by the time March arrived. A 10-game hit streak from March 1-18 helped give Cook a .475 batting as of March 7 and he was still batting .465 as Purdue headed out to Seattle for the first weekend of April.
Cook's .463 batting average entering the month of April was the best by any lineup regular for Purdue in the BBCOR bat era (2011-present).
Defensively, Cook has committed just three errors in 93 chances this season and helped turn 13 double plays.
Cook was one of eight shortstops in the Big Ten on the Brooks Wallace Award watch list, joining players from Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Rutgers, UCLA and Washington.
Cook is batting .430 thanks to a team-high 49 hits. He has 15 multi-hit games, including eight with three or more knocks. His most impressive weekend was a 10-for-14 showing vs. UCLA in which he had at least three hits in all three games.
It marks the second year in a row Boilermaker made the Wallace Award watch list. Camden Gasser advanced to the list of semifinalists a year ago.
Presented by the College Baseball Foundation, the Brooks Wallace Award is named in honor of former Texas Tech shortstop Brooks Wallace, who played for the Red Raiders from 1977 to 1980. Wallace died of leukemia at the age of 27.
Cook is the fourth Boilermaker selected to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list since it evolved to spotlight shortstops in 2009. Along with Gasser last year, David Miller (2012) and Evan Albrecht (2022) were also recognized among the nation's elite captains of the infield.
Cook missed the 2024 season due to Tommy John Surgery on the elbow in his throwing arm. He played his way into the lineup this year and emerged as one of the most improved players in the Big Ten. The Knoxville native demonstrated his defensive versatility in the 2023 – his first season of at the NCAA Division I level – by playing all four infield positions in the span of eight games. But at the plate he batted just .135 (7-for-52) and admitted he was trying to hit the ball as far as possible on every swing.
This season, a mature all-fields and base-hit approach helped make Cook a tough out. He went 5-for-10 over the season-opening weekend and had taken over at shortstop by the time March arrived. A 10-game hit streak from March 1-18 helped give Cook a .475 batting as of March 7 and he was still batting .465 as Purdue headed out to Seattle for the first weekend of April.
Cook's .463 batting average entering the month of April was the best by any lineup regular for Purdue in the BBCOR bat era (2011-present).
Defensively, Cook has committed just three errors in 93 chances this season and helped turn 13 double plays.
Cook was one of eight shortstops in the Big Ten on the Brooks Wallace Award watch list, joining players from Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Rutgers, UCLA and Washington.