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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Former Mercyhurst baseball standout David Lough has been called up to the Major Leagues and will be in uniform tonight when Lough's Kansas City Royals square off against the Oakland Athletics in Oakland, California.
Lough was called up on Friday afternoon by the Royals after center fielder Jarrod Dyson was placed on the 15-day disabled list with an ankle sprain.
The former Laker outfielder was hitting .340 (52-for-153) for the Omaha Storm Chasers, Kansas City's AAA affiliate. Prior to Friday's call-up, Lough had three home runs, three triples, six doubles, five stolen bases, and 17 runs batted in 36 games for Omaha.
Lough was optioned to AAA Omaha in the spring, despite hitting .455 (20-for-44) during Cactus League play. Seven of his 20 spring training hits went for extra bases (six doubles, one triple) and he drove in five runs. Lough was also a perfect 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts this past spring.
He joined pitchers John Costello and David Lee as the only graduates of Mercyhurst to reach the Major Leagues when he made his big league debut in game two of a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins on September 1, 2012. Both Costello and Lee are in the Mercyhurst Athletic Hall of Fame.
In his MLB debut, Lough singled in his first major league at bat on an 0-2 pitch against Minnesota righthander Liam Hendriks. Lough would later score his first major league run after back-to-back singles by Billy Butler and Salvador Perez. After flying out in the second inning, Lough singled off Hendriks again in the bottom of the fourth inning and later scored on an RBI single by Alex Gordon. He wrapped up his historic night by flying out in the sixth and grounding out in the eighth. With his two runs scored, Lough became just the fourth Royal in franchise history to score two runs in their major league debut, joining Al Cowens, Carlos Beltran, and Mark Quinn.
Costello played parts of four major league seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, Montreal Expos, and San Diego Padres from 1988-91. He went 11-6 with a 2.97 earned run average in 116 big league games. Meanwhile, Lee played parts of five seasons in the bigs with the Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, and Cleveland Indians from 1999-2004. He posted a 5-2 record with one save and a 4.37 earned run average.
Lough hit .237 in 20 games with the Royals last September.
In 2009, Lough led the entire Kansas City organization with a .325 average for Single-A Wilmington and Double-A Northwest Arkansas, winning the George Brett Hitter of the Year Award. Lough was an 11th-round draft pick of the Kansas City Royals back in 2007.
