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On Sept. 28, former Troy Trojan Brandon Lockridge belted his first career home run in the Major Leagues.

Lockridge, who was an All-Sun Belt and Rawlings Gold Glove athlete at Troy from 2016 through 2018, spent seven seasons in Minor League Baseball before being called up to the San Diego Padres’ Major League roster earlier in September.

He’s made 12 appearances at the plate so far with the Padres and on Saturday, he hit a solo home run in San Diego’s 5-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the regular season series finale.

Lockridge was drafted in the fifth round of the 2018 MLB Draft by the New York Yankees, becoming the sixth Trojan ever to be selected in the first five rounds of the draft. During his career in the minors, Lockridge played for the Staten Island Yankees (A-) and GLC Yankees West (Rookie) in 2018, the Charleston RiverDogs (Single A) in 2019 and both the Somerset Patriots (AA) and Hudson Valley Renegades (A+) in 2021. In 2022, he played for Somerset and then made the move to AAA – the highest level of play in the minors – for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Lockridge started 2024 with Scranton/Wilkes Barre, playing 72 games there. He had been a member of the Yankees’ minor league for his entire career before being traded to the Padres in July of 2024. He then began playing for the Padres’ AAA affiliate, El Paso. In 32 games with the Chihuahuas he’s boasted a .325 batting average with a .423 slugging percentage and .420 on-base percentage. He’s earned six doubles, two homers, 13 RBIs and 24 runs. He became the first Trojan since 2016 to be called up the “Big Leagues.”

Lockridge and the Padres will play in the NL Wild Card Series Oct. 1-3.