From .153 average to four-year college for MCC player

mccindians.com

McCOOK, Neb. — McCook Community College sophomore Julio Seperich (Las Vegas) has signed a letter of intent to play baseball for Benedictine University at Mesa, Ariz. next season.

Seperich, who graduated from Bonanza High School in Las Vegas has strong family ties to Mesa, including his mother, who recently moved there, and most of his family. After spending the spring in Nebraska he is looking forward to the weather in Mesa.

For Seperich, the chance to continue playing baseball with any school let alone a highly rated NAIA school, seemed extremely unlikely after an underwhelming freshman year at MCC.

Last year, Seperich played in 41 games and had 131 at bats, but only batted .153 – one of the lowest batting averages in all of Region IX. Of his 20 hits, only two were for extra bases and those were doubles.

“Last year was the most frustrating one ever for me hitting-wise,” Seperich said. “At the end of the season I had to make a decision whether to just give up playing baseball.”

He is grateful to his coach, Jon Olsen for letting him come back for his sophomore year. “He could have given up on me, but he didn’t -- so I didn’t either.”

The decision to come back turned out to be a rewarding one for both coach and player as a whole new hitter emerged – midway through this spring.

Even though he’d improved his batting average by 61 points on March 10 he was still only hitting .214.

That’s when the hits started coming, and haven’t stopped since -- and not just singles, his extra-base hit totals have exploded too. In the past five weeks, Seperich has batted .440 and slugged .760.

He hit his first home run March 18 and smacked three since then, including a dramatic pinch-hit, walk-off grand slam last week in an 11-7 win over Colby Community College.

The hot streak has lifted the former .153 hitter into the Region IX batting leaders. His .351 batting average is fifth best among players from all seven schools in the region. His .444 on-base percentage is ninth best and his .545 slugging percentage is 11th best.

All this from a player who is 5-7, 145 pounds.

“I’m just proud of Julio, he’s worked hard and has shown a big improvement between his freshman and sophomore year.”

Seperich is at a loss to target any one reason for the improvement but his coach has seen it before.

“I think it was important for him to get a lot of at bats as a freshman plus he’s worked hard to improve and always learn,” Olsen said.