Baseball team moves to second
Published May 1, 2007
With some changes this weekend, the MU baseball team has improved all the way to second place in the Big 12. The Tigers have scored runs more frequently and all around look like they're playing better ball.
Junior designated hitter Jacob Priday broke out this weekend with three home runs, including a two-home run game on Sunday, which earned him the Co-Big 12 player of the week award. After a slow start, Priday has improved. He hit .545 this weekend against the Texas Tech Red Raiders and raised his batting average to .289.
Priday said though he hasn't changed anything, he is seeing the ball better.
"I think I just feel better at the plate, seeing pitches a lot better," Priday said. "Earlier in the season, I wasn't seeing those pitches away or down and out of the zone, and now I'm seeing the ball better."
Priday is helping produce in the lineup again, and sophomore Ryan Lollis is glad to see his cleanup man driving in runs again.
"He's been coming on strong," Lollis said. "It's great. I'm really proud of him. He really needs it. He started off slow. He's been kind of down about his shoulder, and everything happening last year. He's been swinging the heck out of it, and he's helping the team out a lot."
The Tigers have had several recent high-scoring games, and the reason might lie in MU's new approach. Coach Tim Jamieson said the Tigers were too patient at the beginning of the year and are now more aggressive.
"We were taking too many pitches we could hit," Jamieson said. "We still want to get good pitches to hit, but we were taking too many pitches. In that situation, you have to be more aggressive. And it's obviously helped because since we've been a little more aggressive, we've swung the bats better and scored more runs."
Lollis has taken to the new approach well and enjoys seeing more crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
"We changed our whole approach to everything," Lollis said. "Instead of seeing a lot of pitches — we still try to do that — but if there's a pitch that you are sitting on, he said just jump all over it, and we've done that the past couple weeks, and it's been working for us."
Priday said the old approach wasn't working because the team's competition was throwing strikes earlier in the count.
"I think we've kind of adjusted to what they are doing to us," Priday said. "Everybody was throwing first-pitch strikes every time, so when they give it to you, you have to adjust and make them mix it up and get ahead in the count that way. I think they were just getting ahead of us, and we decided that we need to change our approach. If it's there you drive it. If it's not, just let it go."
After leading the team with a .338 batting average last season, junior Brock Bond fell in a slump midway through this season, batting .285 going into this weekend. Bond started the season strong, but somewhere along the way, something changed. The reason could be the second baseman's stance. Bond normally takes a low, power stance in the batter's box, but this season was standing up too tall.
The problem was pointed out to Bond, who corrected the problem this weekend. The results were an improvement to 5-for-10. Bond said his lower stance this weekend contributed much to his improvement this weekend.
"I've been working on it all week," Bond said. "Staying low and driving the ball, using my legs and that helped. I don't think in my old stance I would have hit that ball as good as I hit it to center field."
