Wolfpack College Summer Baseball Update
It was once said of Smoky Burgess, a North Carolina native and one of the best pinch-hitters in Major League Baseball history, that you could wake him up at 3 a.m. on Christmas morning, with two inches of snow on the ground, throw him a curveball, and he’d hit a line drive.
Austin Murr is following in those footsteps as a natural hitter.
No, it's not Christmas and with temperatures hovering into the 90s -- even in Wisconsin -- there's no chance of snow in the forecast. But in keeping with Burgess' legacy, Murr has picked up his bat after a three-month coronavirus crisis layoff and has immediately begun hitting a lot of line drives for the LaCrosse Loggers of the Northwoods League.
The NC State first baseman had a pair of doubles, a walk and four runs scored Wednesday in the Loggers' 17-5 rout of the Green Bay Booyah. He has recorded at least one hit in all seven games he's played since the start of the summer wood bat league's delayed start.
"Hitting is something that's always been a strength of mine," Murr, a junior who has indicated he'll return to school in 2021 rather than signing a pro contact, said in an interview with SI All Wolfpack last week. "It feels great to get back out there, relax and have some fun."
Murr is hitting .348 for the Loggers with eight hits in 23 official at bats, with three doubles, five walks and six runs.
He was the only one of three Wolfpack team members playing summer ball to be in action Wednesday.
Freshmen Jose Torres with the Amarillo Sod Squad of the Texas Collegiate League and DeAngelo Giles of the Coastal Plain League's High Point-Thomasville HiToms are scheduled return to the field for their respective teams on Thursday.
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