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St. Cloud State University
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Sports
Durham leading young pups
By Ryan K. Dale
Published:
Thursday, May 1, 2003
Media Credit: scott theisen
First baseman Joe Duram hits a single to left-centerfield in the bottom of the fifth inning Sunday at Dick Putz Field against North Dakota State.
Media Credit: scott theisen
Joe Durham�s slide is called safe as he goes into second base in the fifth inning against North Dakota State University Sunday. Durham has been one of the lone bright spots in an otherwise disappointing season for the Husky baseball team.
The Husky baseball team came into this season with only a handful of potential everyday starters on their roster and a plentiful amount of young and underdeveloped freshman and sophomores.
One of the starters that the Huskies knew would excel right from the beginning is Joe Durham. The junior first baseman is 6-3, 205 pounds and the closest thing the Huskies have to a power hitter and an experienced infielder.
"It's kind of been a trying year," Durham said. "I'm the only one in the infield pretty much with any experience. It's been a long year but all the guys get along well and that's made it fun."
He started his journey to SCSU in Twin Falls, Idaho, where he grew up and was a stellar high school athlete. Durham especially prospered in baseball as a catcher and first baseman and knew he wanted to continue to play after high school.
Durham took up an offer to play junior college baseball at Treasure Valley Junior College in Ontario, Ore. Durham's dreams of playing ball were almost ruined his first year there. He suffered a torn rotator cuff, which is considered a career threatening injury, especially in baseball.
He had to work hard to rehabilitate the injury and continued to work to get back to 100 percent. Durham even surprised himself by getting back into playing shape within the year and was back playing for Treasure Valley last season. He did so well that he started to get noticed by scouts and Division I, II and III coaches.
One of the coaches that took special interest in Durham was Shane Quesnell, an SCSU assistant coach.
"Shane [Quesnell] is the reason I came to St. Cloud," Durham said. "He's the guy that called me up and talked me into coming here. They needed a first baseman and he thought I would be a perfect fit."
There were drastic changes in scenery when Durham first came to St. Cloud.
"It's interesting. It's a little different environment from Idaho," he said. "I was a little disappointed when I showed up and there were no mountains. I could see a lot of lakes, but no mountains."
Durham has adjusted and he's glad he decided on SCSU.
"The faculty and staff here are awesome," he said. "The coaches have been great and everyone at the university has been nice to me."
Durham has been disappointed in the 9-30 season, but he knows the Huskies can only get better with experience. Next year's team will have five seniors, 12 juniors and 12 sophomores. This year's squad only had one senior on the roster.
"We have a lot of seniors next year," Durham said. "It will be an amazing turnaround next year. The freshmen have an unbelievable opportunity to play together for four years. I think there's like eight or nine of them that get to stay together and build this team into a winner over the next few years."
This season Durham has been by far the Huskies most productive hitter. He is batting .352 with 45 hits, 12 doubles, four home runs and 28 RBI.
Although he started out slow in the beginning of the year, he has turned it on of late. Someone who has noticed Durham's improvement is head coach Denny Lorsung, who is in his 25th year of coaching at SCSU.
"Joe [Durham] is hitting the ball a lot better," Lorsung said. "He's using better decision-making in his at-bats lately and he's using the whole field."
Durham has stopped trying to be a pull-hitting power hitter and has started to use the whole ballpark, going with the pitch when he needs to. That's not to say that Durham has lost his power, he has just become a more complete hitter.
"I think the last eight games or so he has gotten five to seven hits to the opposite field," Lorsung said.
"That means he's staying on the ball. Before he was trying to pull the ball, or jerk it to left field. If he misses the first strike, he closes up the strike zone and protects himself better. He's giving himself a better chance to get on base."
Durham will be a senior next season, and according to Lorsung, he has to become a leader on-and-off the field.
"What we need from [Durham] is consistent at bats," he said. "We also need leadership. We're going to continue to have a young club for one more year. His role is to keep teammates in line and to help them understand what it's all about."
Next year students and fans can look forward to the Huskies having a successful season, largely in part to the bat and leadership of Durham.
Hopefully his teammates will follow suit and do the same.
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