A lot is expected of Lake Forest senior outfielder Luca Royer, the third of three brothers to go through the program.
But the Northern Illinois recruit has kept the outside noise at bay and channeled his internal drive to be the Scouts’ offensive catalyst.
“When I’m hitting well, I feel like the spark plug that I need to be,” he said. “I’m not trying to hit the ball out of the park every time. I’ve said to myself that I don’t want to do too much, to just stick with my game.”
Royer is winning that game, hitting .452 average with nine doubles, two home runs and 21 RBIs for the Scouts (11-10). During a recent six-game stretch in which Lake Forest went 5-1, Royer was 12-for-17 with five extra-base hits and nine RBIs.
“He’s the kind of hitter you want coming up as many times as possible, and you wish he was up in every key situation,” Lake Forest coach Mike Nilles said. “The success he’s having doesn’t come automatically. It comes through a lot of hard work.”
Royer has grown up around the sport with older brothers Rocco, a 2021 Lake Forest graduate playing at Wittenberg, and Gianni, a 2023 Lake Forest graduate playing at Holy Cross, preceding him.
A good chunk of their shared baseball experience were the countless trips to the batting cages at Lake Bluff’s Artesian Park. It was a place where they got thousands of productive reps and where their competitive spirit inevitably surfaced.
“That’s always been the spot,” Luca Royer said. “We would compete to see who could have the best round, and there were obviously some fights. That’s something that separated us from other people and one of the things that made us all better.”
Lake Forest’s Luca Royer slides into third base as Lake Zurich’s Luke Bajerski tags him during a North Suburban Conference game in Lake Forest on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Rob Dicker / News-Sun)
Royer not only saw his older brothers play at a high level but also learned it was in his best interest to tap into their knowledge.
“I really looked up to them as a kid,” he said. “I’ve tried to take every little piece of advice they’d give me and use it to my advantage.”
The most valuable advice had nothing to do with hitting or fielding but instead revolved around the mental side of baseball.
“They taught me to have confidence in myself, and when things don’t go your way, you don’t just quit,” Royer said. “If you’re afraid of failure, you’re never going to succeed.”
Royer might be making it look easy this season, but he had to overcome a few obstacles along the way. He missed his entire sophomore season after knee surgery, which made him question whether he’d ever return to top form. Then he began last season in a big slump.
Royer went to work on his swing, specifically addressing a habit of getting too far under the ball. Enter the two-tee drill.
“If you hit the first tee, that means you’re getting too far underneath your swing,” he said.
Royer’s father, Sean, has helped too. A Lake Forest graduate who played football at Valparaiso, Sean Royer coached each of the brothers at times during their careers, and he has seen how they differ. With the 6-3, 200-pound Luca Royer, the biggest of the brothers, his dedication and work ethic stand out.
“That includes all the different aspects, whether it’s nutritional, mental or physical — a willingness to put in what we call the ugly hours where nobody sees you working your tail off,” Sean Royer said.
There was an ugly hour after Lake Forest’s season-opening loss to St. Viator on March 12. Luca Royer struck out twice and said he didn’t feel particularly comfortable at the plate. During the game, Sean Royer went to his car to fetch two buckets of balls. Afterward, Luca Royer saw him stationed near the team’s practice cage, and neither had to utter a word to know what to do next.
“I knew he wouldn’t be pleased with his performance,” Sean Royer said. “The look we gave each other meant, ‘We got this. Let’s get this worked out now.’ We hit until we couldn’t see.”
Luca Royer’s next stop will be Northern Illinois, which will see what he can do on the college level.
“I’ve always wanted to be my own unique self,” he said. “But I’m also proud to continue carrying the talents of my brothers.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.
