Murdoch commits to Mccook Community College baseball program
2020 ended on a high note for Ethan Murdoch as he found a post-secondary baseball home. The Swift Current native will be headed to the Cornhusker State next year after committing to Mccook Community College Indian Baseball.
Despite his impressive baseball resume, Murdoch wasn’t having much success in finding a place to play until he connected with MCC assistant coach Kregg Snook.
“I stayed patient and eventually found their assistant coach on Twitter and followed him, he followed me back. He’s actually the coach of the Lethbridge Bulls now. He sent me a message on Twitter and I got his number and we started talking on the phone. We had a pretty good connection and I trusted him. That’s all you can really do with COVID, you can’t go visit places, so you just have to trust relationships.”
MCC plays in the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference of the NJCAA.
“I know it’s a smaller town. I think it’s about 7,500 people, maybe 8,000, so it’s not too big. I like that about it, it’s going to be a nice size for me, not too much driving and a pretty tight knit community. The school is pretty small I think. I think the dorms, about 140 people live in the dorms, so that will be cool too to have a smaller atmosphere and lots of people who are there to play sports. They have all kinds of sports there. I’ve seen their facilities and I know they compete and they like to work hard, so that’s something I want to do and I want to earn some playing time there and I think I will be able to,” explained Murdoch.
Murdoch was named the Saskatchewan Premier 18U AAA Baseball League
South Division Top Hitter last summer. He finished second in the 13-team league with a .457 average as the Swift Current 57’s finished with a 5-8 record.
Murdoch was also second in the league with a 1.363 OPS and a .743 slugging percentage. The second-year catcher also finished 12-for-12 on stolen base attempts.
Murdoch, like so many athletes in Saskatchewan, has been stuck in neutral as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect all facets of life.
“For now I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing in school, hopefully keep doing well there. I’ll stay in the gym and stay physically in shape as much as I can just because we can’t really do much baseball stuff. I’m able to throw here and there and get into places and do as much as I can, but it’s pretty hard as we can’t really have groups of people in places so we can’t really do any structured baseball stuff.”
He remains hopeful that the spring will allow him to get back on the diamond.
“Hopefully once the weather gets nicer I’ll get outside and sharpen up the baseball part of things before I head down. Just for now I’m trying to keep myself as physically strong as I can, as fast as I can just to maintain what I can until I can get outside and starting working on the baseball skills again.”
Murdoch was a talented multi-sport athlete growing up, but has focused on baseball in recent years. He said that one experience likely pointed him in that direction when he was named the Top Hitter at Peewee Western Canadians in Saskatoon.
“I don’t know, just something from there, just the switch flipped and I knew that baseball was going to be what I was doing for awhile. That just kind of opened my eyes to it. I knew I had a good year and I knew I could play, but something like that, when you win an award like that at a high level tournament, I knew that I could play for real. That year was probably when I realized it.”
Murdoch has made a big commitment to baseball over the years, including a semester at the Baseball Saskatchewan Academy in Saskatoon when he was in grade 11.
“Obviously my parents have been really supportive. They’ve always done what they could for me. I’ve had a tonne of opportunities. Last year I got to go to Saskatoon. They paid a lot of money for that for one thing, but also they just supported me leaving home. I lived with my sister, so obviously her too, but my parents just have supported me from day one no matter what I wanted to do.”
Murdoch also thanked his local coaches such as Neil Hogg, Elden Moberg, Brad Bell and Joe Carnahan, as well as his teachers, including Mr. Kelln.
With Snook coaching the Lethbridge Bulls, Murdoch was unsure whether there would be any pressure to suit up for a Western Canadian Baseball League team other than his hometown Swift Current 57’s in the future.
“I haven’t really thought about that,” he laughed. “I think this was supposed to be his first year in 2020, so it was obviously a tough year for him to start there because he never actually got there. I haven’t thought about it. I’m sure there wouldn’t be any pressure there.”