By STEVE KRAH
Luke Leverton has pitched a baseball for teams based in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina and is bound for Kentucky — all before his 21st birthday.
The 6-foot-1, 215-pounder right-hander was born and raised in Richmond, Ind., and attended Seton Catholic Schools from start to graduation in 2021.
In high school, Leverton was a slugger and star pitcher for the Dave Marker-coached Cardinals and selected to part of the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches North/South All-Star Series after his senior season.
He made three appearances for the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League’s Richmond Jazz that summer then headed to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
With the Redhawks in 2022, Leverton appeared in 16 games (11 in relief) with a 5.36 earned run average, 35 strikeouts and 19 walks in 45 1/3 innings. He split that summer between the Richmond Jazz and Coastal Plain League‘s Wilmington (N.C.) Sharks.
He transfered to Wabash Valley College in Mount Carmel, Ill.
In 2023, the righty made 22 mound appearances (19 in relief) and went 4-4 with five saves, a 3.98 ERA, 58 strikeouts and 17 walks in 52 innings.
Leverton, who turns 21 in February, delivers five pitches from a high three-quarter arm slot — four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, change-up, slider and curveball.
His four-seamer has more carry and two-seamer more arm-side run and sink. They both top out at 92 mph and sit at 88-91.
Leverton says his “circle” change has “a lot of depth and a little arm-side run.”
The sweeping slider has more horizontal than vertical break.
The curve is a true 12-to-6.
Whether starting or relieving, Leverton is up for the challenge.
“Whenever it’s time for be to perform I’m just going to do my thing,” says Leverton. “I’ll do whatever the team needs.”
Wabash Valley (57-13) finished second in the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colo.
“It was amazing,” says Leverton. “It was probably the most fun I’ve had on a baseball field in my entire life. The energy there was nuts. The fans there were awesome. We signed autographs before and after the game.
“It was a really cool experience with all my friends.”
At WVC, Leverton played for Warriors head coach Aaron Biddle and pitching coach Jared Proctor.
“He’s a great coach,” says Leverton of Biddle. “He knows what he’s doing. He keeps people in-check. He pushes us to do our best day-in and day-out.”
Leverton appreciated that Proctor would answer all his pitching questions while letting him do this own thing.
“If something’s working for you he says if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” says Leverton.
This summer, Leverton has been honing his craft at PRP Baseball in Noblesville, Ind.
Next month he goes to Western Kentucky University to begin his time with the NCAA Division I Hilltoppers.
Marc Rardin was very successful at Iowa Western Community College, winning three NJCAA World Series championships and making 12 World Series appearances in 20 years. He took a WKU team that won 18 games in 2022 to 33 victories in his first season on 2023.
“I really just believe in his coaching,” says Leverton of Rardin. “I felt it was in my best interests to go there to develop as a player and a person.”
Daylan Nanny, who played at Plainfield (Ind.) High School and Western Carolina University, join the WKU coaching staff as a volunteer in 2023.
Leverton plans to major in Sport Management and minor in Kinesiology at WKU.
“Eventually I want to be a pitching coach,” says Leverton. “Sports Management is like getting into the coaching world and seeing how that whole process works. Kinesiology, which is the study of how your body moves, is a really important factor in pitching.
“They kind of go hand-in-hand.”
As a grade schooler, Leverton played youth league T-ball and for Seton Catholic. His first travel team was a Seton team.
He was then with the Stateline Sluggers, Hitters Hangout, Midland Redskins, Dayton Sluggers, Canes Midwest and the Greg Vogt-coached 18U PRP Mambas.
Curt and Mary Leverton have two sons — Jake (24) and Luke (20).
Curt Leverton is a detective captain for the Richmond Police Department, where he has worked 27 years.
Mary Leverton is a longtime fifth grade teacher at Seton Catholic.
Jake Leverton played soccer at Seton Catholic, worked at the Indianapolis Zoo and is now a librarian in Indy.
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