Lucas Rizzi

• Bats Both, Throws Right

• Born August 18, 1999

Biographical Information

Lucas Rizzi has played in the First Division and for the Belgian national team.

He debuted at age 16 for the 2016 Hoboken Pioneers, hitting .302/.398/.358, fielding .931 (primarily an infielder) and posting a 5.40 ERA. He made the Belgian national team for the 2016 European Championship, their youngest position player (Drew Janssen was younger among the pitchers). He went 0 for 8 with 2 walks, a hit-by-pitch and 2 runs while handling 3 putouts and 3 assists error-free. In his debut, he replaced Dennis Ribbens late in a loss to Spain and hit into an error by Jesús Ustariz his first time up.

In 2017, he moved to the Mortsel Stars and batted .359/.478/.510 with 43 runs and 28 RBI in 37 games. He stole 25 bases without being caught and was 2-1 with a save and a 5.56 ERA on the hill. Defense was the only major negative as he fielded .849 and his 28 errors led the First Division by six. He was also among the leaders in average (7th, between Hans Heyrman and Robin Roevens), slugging (6th), OBP (7th), runs (2nd, 10 behind Stephen De Lannoy), hits (tied for 3rd at 52), triples (1st, 4), homers (3, tied for 3rd), total bases (74, 2nd, 2 behind Joannes Ochoa), hit-by-pitch (1st, 16, 6 ahead of Yves Poesmans) and steals (tied for 3rd with Leonel Reina Viant).

Rizzi produced at a .538/.727/.769 clip in the 2018 Federations Cup, fielding .667 and scoring 10 runs in 5 games. He was 4th in the event in average (between Blake Ochoa and Emmanuel Febles), 6th in slugging, first in OBP (by .045), tied Febles for 2nd in runs, tied for first in walks (6), tied for first in hit-by-pitch (2), tied for 4th in steals (3) and tied for 2nd in errors (5, 2 behind Daniel Johnson). He represented Belgium again at the 2018 Super6.