Apr 2, 2025 4 min read

Name: Lucas Judy

School: Belle Vernon

Grade: Senior

Sport: Baseball

Judy’s week: It didn’t take long for Judy to find a feel for all four of his pitches on the mound Thursday and that spelled doom for Uniontown. Judy pitched a complete game one-hitter with a dozen strikeouts to lead Belle Vernon to a 12-0 victory and finish off a Class 4A Section 2 sweep of the Red Raiders.

“Pretty much everything was working for me,” Judy said. “Normally I have trouble with something, but Thursday was the first time I felt comfortable with everything. It was a great feeling to go out and finish off a sweep.”

Judy showed he can hit as well.

During the two-game series with Uniontown, Judy had six hits, including a 3-for-4 effort when he pitched Thursday. He had a double in the first game, an 11-2 win, and drove in three runs in each game.

“I’ve been working on finding my groove pitch where I see it and attack it,” Judy said. “I’ve really adopted that this year and It’s working out well. When you’re pitching, you know the zone, so that helps too.”

Help from Big Brother: Judy has four pitches in his arsenal: a fastball, curveball, slider and changeup. The changeup is a pitch he’s developed with the help of his older brother, Deven, a former standout pitcher for Belle Vernon and Gannon University. Deven holds multiple records at Gannon, including the most wins by a pitcher in program history.

Judy adopted his older brother’s changeup and said it’s more of a circle change and it’s been a big help on the mound.

“I’ve been working on it for a year and I’m now getting to the point where I can throw it more consistently,” Judy said. “My brother is a great coach. We always work on pitches and tweak things. He has a great eye for seeing things that I can’t see.”

Throwing a curve: Judy said his best pitch is the curveball. A lot of pitchers play off their fastball, but having confidence in his curve allows him to pitch backwards in a sense and work everything else off it.

“The coach who calls our pitches, coach (Nate) Raffle, always jokes that I can throw 75 percent curveballs and mix in everything else off it and I’m the only guy that does that,” Judy said.

Full swing: Judy is also a member of the Belle Vernon golf team, which won a WPIAL Class 2A title in 2023. He plans to play both golf and baseball at Pitt-Greensburg next year.

He will major in business management at Pitt-Greensburg with the goal of obtaining a master’s degree in construction management once he’s done with his bachelor’s.

Judy plays golf right-handed and pitches right-handed, but swings a baseball bat left-handed. Swinging different directions is unique, but Judy said it has been beneficial.

“I know it’s weird, but I interchange things,” Judy said. “When I was younger my dad worked with me to try to be a lefty pitcher. I picked up lefty hitting, but couldn’t pick up throwing lefty.

“Whenever I started playing golf, my brother always said that golf messed up his baseball swing, but since I swing a baseball bat lefty, I taught myself to golf righty and it’s worked out well for me.”

Handyman: Judy’s step-father owns a general contracting business, and he helps him over the summer with different projects. That’s part of what has inspired his college major. It’s given him some excellent experience, but also a few calls from friends.

“Anytime something happens at one of my buddies’ houses, they call me and ask me to come fix it,” Judy said.

Compiled by Jerin Steele