Summer League Helping Murr Prepare For Return to Wolfpack
Most of all, Austin Murr is excited about being back on the baseball field playing the game he loves after three months of coronavirus inactivity.
But even as he's hitting line drives for the LaCrosse Loggers of the college summer wood bat Northwoods League, the junior first baseman is already looking forward to getting back to Raleigh and resuming his career at NC State.
"Signing out of junior college, I wanted to play in the ACC and get a chance to compete for a national championship and NC State was a great place to do that," Murr said. "But I had only one weekend in the ACC.
"The championship season was cut short, so I'm looking forward to doing that this year, competing and being back with all the guys. I'm excited about getting back to work with them."
As a draft-eligible player in his third year of college eligibility, Murr has the option of signing a professional contract rather than returning to school for 2021.
It's a career path he might have taken under normal circumstances, especially since he was certain to be drafted based on the numbers he put up at Des Moines Area Community College in Iowa and in 17 games this season with the Wolfpack.
But because the draft was shortened to just five rounds and as a further cost-cutting measure, free agent bonuses were capped at a $20,000 per play maximum, Murr said the decision to come back to State wasn't much of a decision at all.
"I had heard from about eight teams and five or six of them had me in the four, five, six round range," Murr said. "When we heard that the draft was cut to five, we knew it was going to be close.
"A 10-round draft, I probably would have had to make a decision whether or not to go back or to sign. But cutting it to five made my decision pretty easy."
It's a decision Murr said he isn't alone in making.
Although the deadline for underclassmen signing with Major League teams isn't until August 1, Murr said that with the exception of top-two round draft picks Patrick Bailey and Nick Swiney, all of State's other returning players are, in fact, planning on returning.
"We had a pretty experienced roster last year with 21 draft-eligible guys," he said. "I don't know how many teams in the country had more than that. So to have almost everybody coming back again, it's going to be fun to be a part of."
Until then, the left-handed hitting slugger is having fun just being back in the swing of things.
And while he admits to being a little rusty from inactivity, Murr has picked right up where he left off when the Wolfpack's season.
He's hitting .333 with six hits and four walks in his first 18 official at bats over five games with the Loggers. He went 1 for 3 with a double and his first RBI of the summer in Monday's 7-3 loss to the Wisconsin River Rafters.
"I think I have five of six strikeouts already and I think had had only eight in the 17 games down at school, so it's a little bit of a learning curve," he said. "But hitting is something that's always been a strength of mine. It feels great to get back out there, relax and have some fun."
Murr reached base in every game the Wolfpack played in 2020, his first season with the program, while compiling 19 hits, a team-leading seven doubles, three homers and 14 RBI.
Prior to arriving at State, he hit .440 with 62 extra base hits in two junior college seasons, earning All-America honors as a sophomore.
A native of Minnesota, Murr was originally slated to play for his current team's Wisconsin rival in Eau Claire. But he became a summer league free agent when the Express decided not to play during the shortened summer season over coronavirus concerns.
He said he was fortunate to catch on in LaCrosse, since a previous obligation won't allow him to stay through the end of the season in early August.
"I haven't been back down to school since everything shut down, so I've got to move out of my apartment in a few weeks." Murr said. "I'm only able to play until July 20th.
"I played at LaCrosse two years ago when I was a JUCO kid and I hit .450 or something. So when I called them (in mid-June), they said 'of course we'll take you. We've got one more spot open.'"
Murr is one of only three Wolfpack team members playing this summer. Freshman infielders Jose Torres (Amarillo of the Texas Collegiate League) and DeAngelo Giles (High Point-Thomasville of the Coastal Plain League) are the others.
While Murr said he's aware of the risk he's taking by returning to action in the midst of a global pandemic that is still in full bloom, he's comfortable with the precautions his team and league are taking to keep him and his teammates safe.
Although he admits he's still getting used to following some of the social distancing rules.
"There's a new normal with everything," he said. "There's no high five fives around the bases. When you meet around the mound, you have to stay on the other side of the mound and stay six feet apart for the national anthem. Sometimes you forget about those things. You star high fiving your teammates when you get back to the dugout and you're like 'wait, wait, wait.' It's kind of a reality check.
"It's been a crazy three months, obviously. But just to be back out on a baseball field, compete again against somebody else and do what I love on a daily basis, that's why I'm here. It's a long offseason from when I get back to school in August to when we start playing games again in February. I just wanted to get some more games under my belt before another long offseason."
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