Baseball season starting to turnaround

After McMurry just completed a 3-game sweep of Schreiner this afternoon and went 4-0 for the week (also taking a game from nationally-ranked Trinity Tuesday), the grim 1-6 start for the team has started to distance itself from the improvement the team has made over the past 18 games. The struggling Schreiner team came to Abilene at a good time for McMurry's sake as the team was able to reach nearly .500 overall at 12-13 and moved to 5-4 in the American Southwest Conference West Division. Below are some notes that I listed after the Schreiner series and pitcured to the left is Zack Hewitt who threw the only complete nine-inning game since Dakota Smith's complete game victory in 2008 in the ASC Tournament Championship game.

Here are the tidbits:

• Jeff Jackson's three combined RBI in the series Saturday gives the senior catcher 71 for his career and puts him at 17th place all-time passing Hank Casey's mark of 70.
• The McMurry pitching staff did not walk a single hitter in all 25 innings of work on the mound against Schreiner.
• Greg Erickson has the McMurry school record for strikeouts with 14 against the University of Dallas March 4, 2003. Erickson accomplished the feat in 7.1 innings in an 11-7 win over the University of Dallas. The ASC record is 15 strikeouts for a pitcher in a single game. Chris Semchenko struck out 13 in seven innings Saturday.
• Several players for McMurry are stringing together hitting streaks; among the players on the list are: Jake Mullin (9), Derek Saltzgaber (7), Andrew Bell (6), and Matt Thompson (5). Saltzgaber has also recorded at least one RBI in six consecutive games.
• Since McMurry's 1-6 start, the team is 10-8 in its last 18 games and has raised it's team batting average from .250 to .292. Also, the team's ERA during the 18-game span has been lowered from 9.40 to 6.21.
• Friday night's start by Zack Hewitt, which the sophomore turned into a complete game was the first nine-inning complete game thrown by a McMurry pitcher since Dakota Smith had done so in the 2008 ASC Tournament Championship game May 4, 2008.