ASC Tournament Central:
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ABILENE, Texas - For the third-straight season the McMurry War Hawks baseball team has finished the regular season as the No. 4 seed in the American Southwest Conference West Division, and for the third-straight time McMurry will meet the No. 1 east seed UT-Tyler in round one of the ASC Baseball Championships in a best-of-three series in Tyler.
All three seasons, the Patriots have been nationally-ranked. In 2009, UT-Tyler was ranked No. 7 in the country, last season the Patriots were No. 10 and this season the hosts enter with a 33-4 overall record, a 14-4 league record, and a No. 5 ranking in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA National Top 25.
In each of the previous two seasons, UT-Tyler has advanced to the championship round of four, and McMurry forced the third game of the series once in 2009 with a 3-2 win in game one of the series.
McMurry head coach
John Byington, who has been at the helm of these series all three times with his first season as head coach in 2009, said that McMurry (15-25, 11-10) has learned some lessons in the past, and has a plan for improving in 2011.
“We've learned that umpiring is tough on the road, and we need to fight for ourselves because we may not have a whole lot of help that way,” he said. “We'll have to pull together as a team. It's important to win the first game, if we can get that one it takes pressure off on the second day.”
During practice in preparation this week, Byington said that McMurry will use small ball to be aggressive on offense, and the team has made adjustments to help prevent the big innings on defense.
“We prepared this week to be the aggressor instead of being on the defense. We're trying to attack in our approach,” he said. “On offense, we are going to try to manufacture runs and not wait for big inning. The big inning sometimes happens with the small-ball approach because things begin to open up for you.
“We're going to do our best to move runners and think it will move us into some big innings. If we get win some of those small innings we've got a chance I know. From a defensive standpoint, we are working on bending not breaking to do some things prevent big innings from happening,” he said.
If it's working to put pressure on the two-time defending ASC champions, McMurry will look to ride the hot streak of sophomore right-hander
Spencer Smith in Friday night's 6 p.m. matchup.
Smith has won his last three starts on the mound, has just one earned run in his last 21 innings pitched, and enters the contest with a 5-1 record, and a 3.68 ERA.
“He's been a big lift for us down the stretch, and one of the keys to us getting us in the playoffs, you have to have guys like that step up; excited about him continuing that,” Byington said.
UT-Tyler will likely go with senior transfer Chad Sherman, who enters the game with an 8-1 record and a 1.35 ERA. The Texas A&M University transfer picked up his first loss of the season in his last start April 15 where he surrendered nine runs and four earned in his only loss of the season.
Saturday's game two is scheduled for 2 p.m. with game three immediately following if necessary.
McMurry Baseball Notes
• The trip to the ASC Tournament is McMurry's eighth consecutive appearance, and the War Hawks carry an all-time tournament record of 24-14 with four ASC championships in 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2008.
• McMurry's all-time record against UT-Tyler is 5-11, 0-3 in 2011, and head coach
John Byington is 3-8 all-time against the Patriots.
• Since bringing back baseball in 1996, McMurry has never suffered a losing season; last season in 2010 was the first non-winning season at McMurry as the War Hawks finished 21-21; McMurry enters the ASC Tournament with a 15-25 overall record.
