He’s not one to make excuses but I’m sure the high 30 degree April baseball temperatures at Binghamton’s NYSEG Stadium had to be a shock to Dustin Lawley’s system. Lawley’s hails from the south, Adger, Alabama, in fact, and played his college baseball at West Florida University where he starred in centerfield for the Argonruts baseball team, a squad that won their first ever Division II National Championship in Dustin’s final season.
Lawley’s next stops were with the Kingsport Mets in Tennessee, the Savannah Sand Gnats in Georgia and the St. Lucie Mets in Florida, not exactly cold weather baseball locales. Against that backdrop hitting baseball in April’s snow flurries of Binghamton had to be a bit disconcerting.
For whatever the reason, Lawley’s early season batting numbers fell off the charts. The left-fielder/third baseman ended the month of April batting a meager .176 and saw that average dip to its lowest point of the season .169 on May the 2nd. It was then Lawley began to turn things around finally climbing over the Mendoza line on May the 9th in Akron when a 2-3 night pushed his BA to .209
Lawley’s batting game has been in forward gear ever since. With two hits in Wednesday night’s, 6-1, win over Richmond, Lawley is how hitting .242, a 73 point boost to his batting average in a little over a month.
The B-Met slugger looks more relaxed and comfortable at the plate, swinging at fewer pitches outside the zone and showing some flashes of the power credentials that arrived with him in Binghamton. Lawley, the Met farm system’s home run leader in 2013 and the Player of the Year in the Florida State League, has been red hot as recent temperatures have spiked at NYSEG Stadium going 7-16 (.438) over five games in the current home stand. The recent Lawley batting explosion includes three doubles and a home run.
Lawley flashes some intriguing splits so far in Double-A. A right handed bat, Lawley is hitting right-handed pitching far better than left. The B-Met outfielder hits in the friendly confines of NYSEG Stadium decidedly better than he does in opposing parks and hits for average in day contests much better than at night.
Most intriguing is Lawley’s outputs with runners in scoring position. At present Lawley is hitting .309 in 55 of his 212 at bats in clutch situations. Lawley has also hit five of his 16 doubles, three of his seven home run’s and 21 of his 25 with runners in scoring position.