March 24, 2011

WASHINGTON - Back in August, we brought you the story of former Georgetown baseball Matt Bouchard, who was in the midst of coming back from an injury with the hope of continuing his dreams of playing professional baseball.

If you were watching ESPN on Wednesday afternoon, you were able to see Bouchard get his first at-bat of the 2011 spring training for the New York Mets, the team that drafted him in the 11th round of the 2007 Major League Draft.

Bouchard, pinch-hitting in the eighth inning, wasted little time in making an impact, as he hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning of the Mets 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

A video link to home run can be seen here: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13261273&topic_id=16704844&c_id=nym&tcid=tw_video_13261273

When he was selected, he became the eighth player to be drafted in Georgetown history. Bouchard's selection, however, was something special. He was the first Georgetown player selected since Sean Maloney was taken by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1993 and he was the highest Hoya drafted since Steve Iannini was selected in the sixth round of the 1985 draft by the Oakland A's.

In 2007, Bouchard finished second on the team in batting average (.329), hits (72), doubles (12), home runs (6) and total bases (104). He also ranked third in runs scored, slugging percentage and stolen bases. During his three years on the Hilltop, Bouchard played in 148 games, starting 133 of them. He raised his career batting average 32 points to .287 and scored 89 runs while knocking in 77.

"I can't really describe how much those three years at Georgetown meant to me," Bouchard said over the phone. "I'm glad I went there, and in addition to becoming a better all-around player, Georgetown helped me improve in so many other facets of my life, off the diamond."