change in the wind

Maybe Jason Hursh has started to turn it around. Maybe the Mississippi Braves right-hander will take another step in the right direction tonight at Trustmark Park when he faces Pensacola in the opener of an 11-game homestand. Hursh, Atlanta’s first-round pick in 2013 and a highly rated prospect, has had a rough go in his second tour of Double-A ball. Through nine starts, Hursh is 1-3 with a 6.35 ERA. He has worked only 39 2/3 innings, with 25 strikeouts and 21 walks. The Oklahoma State alum went 11-7, 3.58 for the M-Braves in 2014. “(A) little adversity sometimes helps,” Hursh told milb.com recently. Maybe. For sure, Hursh’s last two outings have been solid. He beat Pensacola on May 16, throwing six shutout innings. He went 6 1/3 against Jacksonville last Thursday, allowing 10 hits but just two runs in a no-decision. Hursh, 23, is in a big group of young arms the Braves are counting on to emerge in their rotation over the next couple of years. But he needs to step it up. Refining his off-speed pitches (curveball and changeup) are the keys to his advancement, according to mlb.com’s preseason scouting report. Hursh will take the hill tonight for an M-Braves team that went 6-4 on its road trip and is 24-20 on the season, trailing first-place Biloxi (27-18) by 2½ games in the Southern League South. Mallex Smith continues to ignite the M-Braves’ attack with a .345 average and 15 steals. Eric Garcia is batting .340, Matt Lipka .286. The club, as well as the organization, are still waiting for a breakout from prospect Rio Ruiz (.169). P.S. M-Braves fans know the TeePee doesn’t give up a lot of home runs. For the record, the Pearl ballpark yielded 0.57 homers per game in 2014, the lowest average (by a good margin) among all Double-A and Triple-A stadiums, according to a recent Baseball America feature.