Always a good player, but just short of a great one, Murphy Stehly was asked the secret to his breakout baseball season at the University of Texas.
“No secret, really,” the redshirt senior said. “I’m putting in the hours and trusting the work I’m doing.
“I’m working with Tulo (13-year major league veteran and five-time All-Star Troy Tulowitzki, now a Longhorns coach) on my swing. And it has all come together.”
Stehly, who played at Santa Fe Christian, has played second, short and third for Texas. He has added right field to his defensive repertoire and is also doing some DHing.
A transfer from Orange Coast College, where he played for the late John Altobelli, who was killed along with Kobe Bryant, Bryant’s daughter Gianna, Altobelli’s wife Keri and daughter Alyssa and three others in the tragic Jan. 26, 2020 helicopter crash, Stehly played in 13 games as a junior at Texas in a COVID-19 shortened season, hitting .256.
In 29 games last season, Stehly bumped that up to .294.
This season it has all come together.
Ranked No. 2 in the nation, Stehly leads the Longhorns (17-5), hitting .458. He leads the team in hits with 38 and doubles with nine. He also has five homers and 22 RBIs.
This weekend against Incarnate Word, he had a six-RBI game and drove in four in another.
“We start league play this weekend, so it gets serious now,” Stehly said. “Conference is a whole new season.”
The Longhorns open Big 12 play on the road at No. 16 Texas Tech.
The conference also includes No. 9 Oklahoma State, No. 19 TCU as well as Oklahoma, Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor and West Virginia.
“We got off to a great start, slumped a little, now we’re on a four-game winning streak,” Stehly said. “Things are looking good.”
Stehly is an experienced winner.
He hit .328 as a freshman at Orange Coast and came back with a .374, 40-RBI sophomore season as the Pirates won the 2019 California Community College State Championship.
“I didn’t want to go to a JC, but I also didn’t want to go to a four-year college and not play every day,” Stehly said. “Going to Orange Coast, playing for John Altobelli, was the best thing I ever did. I learned so much. It prepared me for the next level. And it was through John Altobelli that I ended up at Texas.
“(Texas coach) David Pierce was visiting Southern California, called Coach Altobelli, who told him about me. So a vacation trip turned into a recruiting trip. I visited the Texas campus, and fell in love with the place.
“Funny how things happen. I had no offers out of high school, now I’m playing at Texas.”
And he has a chance to play beyond college.
“Texas was a big jump from JC ball,” Stehly said. “I was prepared, but guys here throw harder, their control is better.
“But I was able to adapt.”
Asked if he wanted to play professionally, Stehly was quick to answer.
“Yes!” he said. “I’m trying not to think about the future now because we have a lot of work to do.
“But, yes, I want to keep playing.”