In student-athlete terms, the 2017 baseball season might be likened to study, homework and doing well on quizzes.
Now, it' time for the Morehead State Eagles to take their final exam. That would be the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, which opened Tuesday at Oxford, Ala.
As the No. 2 seed, MSU earned a first-round bye. The winner of Tuesday night's game between seventh-seeded Austin Peay and No. 8 UT Martin will face MSU, Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Morehead has sites set on duplicating what it did two years ago, when it won the tourney title to earn the school's third berth in an NCAA Region event.
Coach Mike McGuire sees plenty of similarities between this team and his 2015 club.
"Two years ago, we finished second in the league, we were 35-21," he said. "This year, we finished second in the league, we're 34-21. We had some really hot stretches in 2015, just like we've had this year. We're a veteran offense, just like that was in '15. We got some contributions from some young arms in '15 and we've gotten some contributions from some young guys on the mound this year. And then we've got a guy, Aaron Leasher, that's a true No. 1, and that's how Luke Humphreys pitched back in '15 as No. 1 for us. So I think there's a lot of similarities in a lot of ways. I think we're pretty offensive, just like that team was. ... It's different personnel. But I think, at the end of the day, this team is very capable of being in a regional, and those are our expectations."
Center fielder Ryan Kent, who started on the 2015 squad, agrees that the MSU teams of 2015 and this year have similarities.
"But, at the same time, it's a whole new team and I feel like we're a really confident group," Kent said. "And one-through-nine in our lineup is dangerous. Our pitching is doing great right now. And I feel like our defense is just as good or a little bit better, so I'm really confident about this year."
Morehead leads the nation in runs per game (8.9), runs (492), hits (681) and on-base percentage (.426). The Eagles ranks second with a .332 batting average and .519 slugging percentage.
Eli Boggess leads the Eagles and the nation with a .434 average, followed by Will Schneider at .385.
Then comes Niko Hulsizer at .353. He ranks second nationally in RBI (74), total bases (178) and slugging (.767), and is tied for second in home runs (24).
Pitching ace Leasher (8-3) is tied for 44th in the nation with 96 strikeouts. Cable Wright and David Calderon share the team lead in saves with four each.
McGuire sees a team that is peaking at the proper time.
"I like the way we've played the last couple weeks," he said. "We've gotten good starts on the mound; that's where it starts. Each of the last two weekends, two out of the three starts were real quality starts. But the bullpen's kind of come back to fruition for us and we've got some good pitching out of the bullpen. Like we were much of the year when we were on such a run.
"I think that's been a key, and then, offensively, I've really liked our at-bats. We haven't taken many at-bats off. We had some periods of time in the middle of the year where you didn't quite know which offense was going to show up. Whereas I think we've really been locked in, had good at-bats pretty much all game long throughout the last couple of weeks here."
MSU concluded regular-season play last weekend, winning two of three road games against top-seeded Tennessee Tech.
"They're a great ball club and I think it was a good confidence boost for us, taking two out of three from the No. 1 team in the conference right now," said Kent, a .298 hitter who has 32 RBI. "We know what we can do and we're excited to go in this tournament on a good note. We're ready to see what lies ahead."
Kent's experience as a key cog on the 2015 championship squad should not be overlooked, McGuire says.
"And obviously Ryan and Braxton Morris have region experience as well," McGuire said. "This is Ryan's fourth conference tournament, this is Braxton's third. But then you look at every guy in my lineup except for one has played in the conference tournament before. And that one guy is Eli, and he's played in JUCO tournaments and so forth, so I think that we're going into it understanding what the tournament's about and not make it bigger than it is, and just have fun and play."
Morehead State split a pair of April road games against Austin Peay, falling 3-1 and bouncing back with a 12-3 victory. The third game of the series was canceled due to bad weather. The Eagles lost all three April road games to Tennessee Martin - 1-0, 9-5 and 18-6.
Whichever potential opponent wins Tuesday, the Eagles will go with Leasher on the mound Wednesday. Then, McGuire says, it will be "TBA."
"We've got to take it a day at a time and, obviously, expect 'Leash' to give us a good start on Wednesday," he said. "And then we'll kind of go from there. Basically, you want everybody available every day and we'll worry about the next day the next day."
If the Eagles pass their tournament tests, they'll go on to "graduate" work - NCAA Region play.
"This is what we've spent so much time - back in the fall and all season long - building for this," McGuire said. "And we're excited. We're confident. I think that we had a good regular season. Like many regular seasons, it had its ups and downs. But we had a good regular season and all of our goals that we set forth before the start of the season, they're all right there within grasp. We've just got to go out and play like we're capable of this week."
