Former Hickman star makes Major League debut

Former Hickman football and baseball standout Blake Tekotte made his Major League Baseball debut Wednesday in the St. Louis Cardinals' 3-1 loss at the San Diego Padres. Tekotte came to bat in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter for the Padres and flew out.

Tekotte, a 2005 Hickman graduate who won state titles in both football and baseball with the Kewpies, played college baseball at the University of Miami.

Tekotte  joined the Padres' roster Monday when he was called up from Double-A San Antonio after San Diego sent leadoff batter Will Venable to Triple-A Tucson.

According to a report posted at MLB.com Tekotte, a left-handed-hitting outfielder, was batting .291 in 39 games with San Antonio with 24 RBIs. Sixteen of his 43 hits went for extra bases, including six home runs.

In the report, Tekotte said friends from Missouri had asked him to take it easy on the Cardinals when they learned he might be in the Padres' lineup for the Cardinals' trip to San Diego.

"I told them, 'I don't think I can do that,'" Tekotte said in the report.