Relaxed Murton finds way to success

Maybe the moment came during a meeting with his coach last year.

Or maybe Luke Murton has the Arizona Diamondbacks to thank.

Or maybe it came during a two-mile run last summer.

Or maybe it's just part of maturing.

Whenever the moment, however it happened, Murton has found his peace as a baseball player at Georgia Tech. He's no longer giving away at-bats, no longer taking bad at-bats with him the next trip to the batter's box. He now knows what works and what doesn't. He has relaxed.

Murton, an outfielder, is batting .394 with 15 home runs and 48 RBIs in 155 at-bats. He has already bettered his career-high total for homers by three and needs to drive in just four more runs to surpass his RBI high, which could come against Florida State this weekend in a key series at Russ Chandler Stadium that opens tonight.

"I've just tried to be myself and I've had success doing that," Murton said.

Being himself had been working pretty well, but over time, the pressure he was putting on himself was becoming too much.

After a successful freshman season (.339 with six homers), he began tinkering with his swing in an attempt to improve. A change here and a change there and suddenly, he says, he was lost.

The results showed: .239 average as a sophomore with nine home runs in 55 at bats.

"Sometimes it's so easy in life, and in baseball, to try to accomplish things in terms of trying to do too much and trying to put added pressure on yourself," said Matt Murton, Luke's older brother. A freshman All-American at Tech in 2001, Matt currently plays for the Rockies. "You don't live in the moment. You get caught up in the end of the year or what's to come."

Luke's junior year started the same way his sophomore year ended. His average dipped below .250 and he hadn't hit a homer.

So coach Danny Hall sat down with him in mid-March of last year. Hall said he told him to relax and that until he decided to get comfortable with how he did things, he was going to struggle.

"I think sometimes too much information in baseball is bad," Hall said. "It can confuse you. A lot of times expectation are bad because it puts undue pressure on you. The game's hard enough as it is."

Murton listened and soon enough, the hits started coming. He finished the season hitting .332 with career highs in homers (12) and RBIs (51). But mentally, he still had his doubts.

The Diamondbacks drafted him in the 33rd round, not much higher than when the Yankees selected him in the 40th round after his subpar sophomore season. Undecided on whether to sign, Murton didn't play a full season of summer ball, which gave him plenty of time to think.

At first, he determined to come back to Tech and prove everyone wrong. But during a two-mile run one day later that summer, he realized that if that was why he was coming back, it was for the wrong reason. It was then that he recognized that being Luke Murton was good enough.