Snappy summer for Martin
Michael Martin is spending this fall and winter in San Diego.
"It's great," he said. "I love the weather here."
Fans of the Beloit Snappers loved seeing Martin step to the plate this summer.
He led the Oakland Athletics' Class A affiliate with his .304 batting average.
Martin was the first Beloit player since 2014 to end the season with a .300 average with at least 250 at-bats.
He also led the Athletics organization with 27 total steals, second most in a season during the Athletics era in Beloit.
The last time he led a team in hitting was when he batted .404 as the leadoff batter for Stevenson in 2011, his senior year in Lincolnshire.
"I wish I could still hit .404," said Martin with a laugh.
Martin had a .528 on-base percentage for coach Paul Mazzuca that season and also led the Patriots with 40 hits and 28 stolen bases. While in high school, he was teammates on a Top Tier baseball team with 2011 Antioch graduate Paul DeJong, who is having a stellar rookie season for St. Louis.
This season was one of Martin's most consistent of his career which also includes four seasons playing center field at Harvard where he majored in economics.
"But now I'm putting all my time in baseball," he said
The big key to his successful summer with the bat was avoiding slumps.
"It's the nature of baseball to go through slumps," he said. "There's times you are doing really well, and times not so well. The most important thing is to make sure the slumps never go to three of four games, just try to limit them to one or two. You don't want to keep piling up bad at-bats game after game."
It was Martin's first full healthy season in the minor league after injuries limited his time the previous two seasons.
He was drafted by the Athletics in 2015.
Martin plans to continue training in San Diego until next March when he returns to spring training with the A's in Mesa.
"You just try to keep working your way up," he said. "And getting better and better every day."
Women's soccer
Augustana junior Karleen Gomez (Grayslake Central) is tied for the Vikings scoring lead through five matches. She has 2 goals for 4 points.
Men's soccer
Carthage senior defender Jamie Tausend (Barrington) was named a men's soccer player of the week in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.
Tausend, an accounting and finance major, helped lead the Red Men to a 2-1-0 record as their only loss was to ninth-ranked University of Chicago. He tallied an assist on a Freddie Martinez goal during a 4-1 win over Kalamazoo. Carthage held the Hornets to just five shots (three on goal).
During a 2-1 win over Hope, the Flying Dutchmen were also held to 5 shots (two on goal).
• Augustana sophomore Jeremy Klaber (Stevenson) went the distance in goal for the Vikings, recording 7 saves, in a 4-0 loss at Aurora University. Junior Jack McKearnan (Warren) had one of the Vikings' shots on goal.
• Please email Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com