Four springs ago, when Washington University baseball players were instructed to write down their goals, junior Caleb Durbin set a lofty one: to finish his junior season with more home runs than strikeouts.

It was not a goal WashU baseball coach Pat Bloom had seen before.

“I may have even audibly chuckled, but I loved it,” Bloom said.

Two months into that season, Durbin had yet to strike out. In the first game of a doubleheader at DePauw, he hit for the cycle as an Atlanta Braves scout watched.

The next game, a right-hander who topped out in the low-70s and wasn’t even known for whiffs struck out Durbin for the first time all season, prompting shock in the WashU dugout and elation in DePauw's.

“DePauw erupted as if they’d won the game on that strikeout,” Bloom said.

Durbin finished w

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