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OXFORD — If professional baseball scouts have any interest in Miami University's Tommy Nurre, they've disguised it well. They haven't talked with Nurre, haven't called, haven't left a business card. There is no proof they even know he exists.

A few words of advice to those scouts: It's time to jump on the bandwagon. Good seats are available.

The junior first baseman from Cincinnati has been a bright spot in a gloomy season for Miami. While the RedHawks are struggling to stay out of last place in the Mid-American Conference East Division standings with a 7-14 record (17-30 overall), Nurre's batting average is rising almost as quickly as gas prices.

He extended his hitting streak to 14 games during Miami's 8-7 victory over the Akron Zips on Sunday, May 4. During the streak, he has batted .466 to boost his season average to a team-leading .365. Over those 14 games, he also has led the RedHawks in doubles, RBIs, slugging percentage and sacrifice flies.

"I feel really confident at the plate," Nurre said. "I've done some things to shorten my swing."

"In high school, I had a really strong swing and not the fastest hands," he added. "My first year in college was a real transition year for me, working with the coaches (head coach Dan Simonds and assistant coach Jeremy Ison) day in and day out so I could be successful."

Nurre won a state championship as a sophomore at St. Xavier High School and as a senior did it all, batting .385 and compiling a 7-3 record on the mound. He made a couple relief appearances as a Miami freshman, but then became strictly a position player, hitting .239 while starting eight games last spring.

Earlier this year, his hitting still hadn't caught fire.

"I started off real slow at the beginning of the season," Nurre said. "I was probably batting around .215 to .230 through the first 10 or 15 games. Then I had a meeting with Coach Simonds, and I changed some things with my swing."

"We worked with him three or four weeks ago, and Tommy is a really hard worker," Simonds said. "We tried to get some of the length out of his swing to make him a little quicker. He is so strong he can miss-hit the ball out of the ballpark."

Nurre clubbed a three-run homer to center field during the second game of Miami's doubleheader against Akron on Saturday, his fifth of the season.

Nurre was a two-sport star at St. Xavier. He also played football for the Bombers, a junior tight end and senior linebacker who became team captain. But there never was any doubt about the direction of his sports career.

"It came down to my body and not being able to take the beating day to day," he said. "I got looks from a couple Division III schools, but I told my (football) coach that I was really looking to just play baseball in college.

"You don't play college baseball unless you have a dream of playing professionally," he said. "You'd have to call me crazy not to have that as my dream."

And you'd have to call the scouts crazy if they don't start paying attention.

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