Article

Baseball Runs Streak to Eight
In front of vocal “World Series of Reading” crowd, Maverick starters silence Wayne State bats en route to two-game sweep; home-and-home battle with SCSU on horizon.

by Garret Felder
April 20, 2006

For the Mavericks, baseball isn't just about winning. It's about reading, too.

About a month ago, the men's baseball team traveled to Eagle Lake Elementary School and read to students in support of the school's “World Series of Reading” program. As a reward for the students' efforts, Principal Jason Scherber packed up the whole school into buses and brought his students to the men's doubleheader with Wayne State to cheer on the Mavericks.

With more than 200 students cheering and singing songs from the grandstand, the Mavericks swept No. 23 Wayne State 10-0 and 9-5 Tuesday.

“The students were so enthusiastic, and our guys were commenting about it, too,” said head coach Dean Bowyer. “It's always fun to play in front of a crowd and when you get kids like that, they are going to make noise. They are not just going to sit there so that was even better because they had homer hankies and they had some cheers. It was great.”

Last year's theme for the reading program was about racing, but thanks to the help of Bowyer and the baseball team, Scherber said, this year's program would be focused around the national pastime.

“The idea was an incentive to have a school wide reading program and getting both the parents and kids on board with the common theme. This year the common theme was focused around baseball,” Scherber said. “We wanted to have some sort of school wide field trip that revolved around this theme and coach Bowyer has some grandchildren in our building. So, the idea came up for us to come out and enjoy a MSU baseball game.”

After each student was required to read 100 minutes a week for the last month to earn their “Reading Hankies,” the Mavericks gave them so many reasons to stand up and wave their hankies Tuesday that fans could have confused the MSU Baseball Complex for the Metrodome during a Twins playoff game.

Senior tri-captain Matt McMurtry got the Mavericks off to a quick start as he mowed down Wayne State's offense during the first four innings. Before junior Dane Secott was brought in the fifth inning, McMurtry had only allowed one hit and struck out 10 batters. Secott would continue to hold the bar high as he only allowed one hit during his three innings of relief.

“I just had total control of both sides of the plate and I established it early,” McMurtry said. “You might think it's bad cause I hit a guy in the first inning, but that is going to back the hitters off the plate so I can just hit the inside corner and they are just going to back off even more. Then the outside corner is wide open and they're not going to be able to touch me if I throw it there.”

But McMurtry's start wasn't the only thing that was getting the “Reading Hankies” flying. Thanks to a strong wind blowing out to right field, the Mavericks blasted four home runs during their 10-run route of WSC. Junior tri-captain Adam Sudbeck and junior Mark Dolenc continued to lead MSU's offense with home runs complimented by homers from senior Dane Allen and senior tri-captain Ryan Greene. Sudbeck leads the team with eight home runs on the season.

“The best part was that if you hit it up high, it was going to go out if you hit it to the right side” Green said. “I didn't try to, but everyone on the team was trying to hit the other way because if you got it up in the air Tuesday, it was going out.”

After all the students ran the bases and slapped high-fives with the team and coaches between games, Greene continued his slugfest by hitting another home run in the first inning of the second game. Freshman Tony Altavilla soon followed with his first career home run just two batters later. But for the Mavericks, Greene said, it was vital that the veterans got off to a hot start and led the team offensively against WSC.

“All year, the guys are looking up to you because you've played the most and it helps the younger guys realize what they need to do when they are at that stage,” Greene said. “Having the [veterans] step up makes the whole team better and makes us work harder. We're in a lot of these games because of that.”

In retrospect, the Mavericks' sweep of WSC was much greater than what most realize. Although not a conference opponent, Wayne State is in MSU's region and a sweep like this could be bigger than any remaining doubleheader for the Mavericks this season.

“We've been having trouble getting up for the non-conference games, but we told them how important this doubleheader was when it comes to [regional] seeding,” Bowyer said. “We had to at least split but we won twice and that's twice as good. Plus, we beat them 10-0 and 9-5 and that is really important for the regional selection committee. This was a really important doubleheader and I told the guys it was probably more important than our conference games.”

Besides WSC being a top-25 regional opponent for MSU, Wayne State also snapped Nebraska-Omaha's 18-game winning streak Monday. Last season, UNO ruined the Mavericks' dreams of another conference title during the last week of the season and their chance to win the NCC postseason tournament.

The Mavericks will head to St. Cloud, Minn., in hopes of adding to their eight-game winning streak Friday and will return home to host SCSU at the MSU Baseball Complex 1 p.m. Sunday.