Curtis Hebert
As a pitcher in college, Curtis Hebert got fewer plate appearances during his freshman season than he used to get in one game in high school.
But the Anchorage Bucs are letting him swing the bat, and he hasn’t skipped a beat. Two weeks into the summer season, Hebert leads the Alaska Baseball League in batting with a .433 average on 13-of-30 hitting.
The middle infielder out of South High has batted up and down the lineup, going from ninth to second to eighth to leadoff; but he was moved to the top of the order in his last start and delivered a 2-for-6 effort with a double in an 8-4 win over the Mat-Su Miners.
Hebert has hit safely in six of the eight games he got a plate appearance; he was a pinch runner in one game. Of those eight games, three times he got three hits.
In last week’s 7-6 win over the Peninsula Oilers, he went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple and three RBIs.
A former Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year out of South High, Hebert played his freshman season of college at the University of Portland in Oregon.
Anchorage’s Curtis Hebert. Photo by Bryan Boyett/Alaska Sports Report
He went 0-for-2 with a walk in three plate appearances with the NCAA Division I Pilots. He was there to pitch and made nine appearances on the mound and was the starter against Washington, Niagara and Oregon. He finished with a 0-4 record and 13 strikeouts in 12.2 innings.
Hebert has made two pitching appearances for the Bucs and has recorded a 3.60 ERA with four strikeouts in five innings.
For the most part the Anchorage native has manned second base and raked in the box. After starting the season on a 7-for-11 tear, he went through a 1-for-9 mini slump before bouncing back with a 5-for-10 clip. Five of his 13 hits have gone for extra bases.
Defensively, the sure-handed middle infielder has posted a 1.000 fielding percentage on 24 total chances (17 assists, 7 putouts).
