Olt extends torrid May pace into June

FRISCO, Texas -- After batting .333 with five home runs and 23 RBIs in May, Double-A Frisco's Mike Olt was named the Rangers' Minor League Player of the Month. He's well on his way toward earning the honor in June.

Olt began this month with three straight two-homer games, and he is batting .413 with eight home runs and 19 RBIs in June. He has posted a .509 on-base percentage and a .957 slugging percentage through 12 games this month.

"The streak that I did, I had never had anything like that before," Olt said. "As a hitter, everyone knows you go through ups and downs, so when you go through something like that, you just want to keep going with it."

The last time Olt can remember being as locked in as he is now was when he was a junior at Connecticut. After hitting 21 home runs in his first two seasons with the Huskies, Olt blasted 23 as a junior while batting .318 and driving in 76 runs.

Olt recalls not getting off to a hot start that year, however, and experienced something similar this season. The 23-year-old third baseman batted .250 with 13 RBIs, striking out 30 times and drawing 14 walks before beginning his May tear.

"Back in college, my junior year, I started off really slow and put a lot of pressure on myself," Olt said. "The big thing that I changed, and it took me a while to trust it, was to trust my approach. I always went up there in the first month or two with a lot of things going through my head. ... Now I'm back to just having fun out there."

Despite batting .413 with 10 home runs and 29 RBIs in his last 20 games, Olt still finds room to improve.

"My plate discipline," Olt said. "There's times when I get to the plate and there's a chance for them to pitch around me a little bit. That's when I tend to get a little aggressive and come out of my approach. I just have to let that happen and let them pitch around me and take the walk."