Frank Curreri is batting a torrid .385 this month.

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Before he signed a minor-league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Frank Curreri dabbled in hockey.

He received college scholarship offers and led his high school hockey team in Boston to the state championship.

But Curreri opted to give professional baseball a try and signed with the D-backs. In his first Triple-A season, he overcame a slow start at the plate to hit .272 while catching for the Tucson Sidewinders. As the designated hitter Saturday in Tucson's 3-2 loss to Salt Lake at Tucson Electric Park, he went 0 for 3 batting ninth in the order.

"I wanted to go with whichever (sport) was going to work out best as far as my future," he said. "I'll never know with hockey, but I can't imagine it'd turn out better than this."

The D-backs promoted Curreri to Tucson from Double-A on July 3 after catcher Robby Hammock went to the big leagues. Curreri hit .251 at Double-A Mobile and found Triple-A more challenging. He said his swing "hasn't been right," causing him to press. After batting .130 in July, the 6-foot-4-inch left-handed batter has hit .385 this month.

"I was pretty aggravated with the way things were going," he said. "It didn't seem to matter how hard I worked on things or tried different things or changed things up. Things weren't working, and it got very aggravating after a while.

"Finally, I talked to (hitting coach Joel Youngblood) and he said, 'You can't change a lot of that stuff, so don't worry about it and just go out and play.' So, it kinda started working recently."

Youngblood said Curreri has had a better approach at the plate, allowing him to better attack the ball.

"We discussed some major changes about his swing, and he's in a much better position and mental aspect of what he should be trying to accomplish," Youngblood said.

Curreri was a defenseman when he played hockey. He said Boston College and UMass (where he played baseball) expressed interest in him, but he committed to playing baseball before receiving the hockey scholarship offers.

"Being able to fly around and hit people, not get thrown out for it, just the whole game," Curreri, 25, said of what he missed about hockey. "It was so fun for so long."

● Josh Whitesell's 109 RBIs tie him for the single-season club record with ex-Sidewinder Lyle Overbay.

● Salt Lake's Adam Pavkovich broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run double off Leo Rosales in the eighth. The series is tied 1-1 with two games left in the season.

● The Bees' Terry Evans broke a scoreless tie with a leadoff home run off reliever Emiliano Fruto in the seventh. Tucson's Alex Romero tied the game 1-1 with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the inning.

● Rain delayed the game for 19 minutes beginning at 7:23 p.m. in the second inning.

● Jesus Merchan took a tumble running to first base on a base hit in the eighth but remained in the game. He scored on Phil Avlas' single.