Entry #41 - 03/10/05

March 10, 2005

It has been almost 18 days since my last entry. I apologize because I have not been very timely at transferring my thoughts from my legal pad to my computer. I think it may be time to catch up with society and buy a lap top. As I make this entry, our record currently stands at 9 and 1. It is the best start an ETSU baseball team has had in over twenty years. I would be lying if I said I was not excited about our start, but in keeping things in perspective we have not really played good baseball on a consistent basis. During this stretch, we have done some really good things and we have done some things rather poorly. Our ball club has been using the “brother-in-law” system in many games so far this season. The term “brother-in-law” is a reference to a team where everybody on the team contributes or plays well at different times in order to help the team be successful. I guess this is a good thing, to have many players step up at different times and contribute. But what I would like to see, are more guys playing well on the same day. If we can continue to build toward this then I think we can make some noise this season. As a coach, I guess I am always looking for perfection out of my players, but mostly I just want to see our club continue to improve and continue to play hard. Playing hard is something which we have done a great job of so far and is a major reason why we have won nine games thus far.

In our second series of the year versus Xavier we had some outstanding performances. Jeremy Hall and Steven Calicutt gave us two great outings on the mound and Caleb Moore had an outstanding week which earned him Southern Conference Player of the Week. C. Moore hit .750 for the series and also collected two saves. Junior, Shane Byrne also got on track as he hit .500 and scored five runs. Greg Roberts, who had not played at all in the first five games of the season, saw his first action of the year at third base and made the most of his opportunity on Sunday going 2 for 4 with a clutch homerun. Greg’s play was a great example of being ready when your number is called. I hope some of our other players who have not seen action on a regular basis took note of Greg’s play.

As we headed into the West Virginia series I knew it would be a tough series to win. Once again we received a great start from Jeremy on Friday night and we were able to win game one. Nick Crowe and Shane Byrne had big nights for us offensively as we won 7-4. On Saturday, we somehow found a way to win in our last at bat in a crazy game which ended with Chuck Hargis capping off a great day by knocking in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. Brian Lovett gave us a solid start, but our bullpen was not as sharp and we let them back in the game. We were lucky to win this game as I did not manage very well and we did not execute very well. I guess the old saying of “I’d rather be lucky than good” came into play for us on this day. On Sunday we suffered our first loss of the year losing 8-5. I was very proud of our guys because we found ourselves down 5-0, with their number one pitcher on the mound and he was on top of his game. But our guys stayed patient and finally made their move cutting the lead to 5-4. I thought for sure we were going to put this game away as we had the bases loaded and one out in both the 7th and 8th innings but could not get a run across. We missed some golden opportunities, but I give their pitcher credit for making some clutch pitches at a crucial time in the game.

As we headed into our mid week games with Samford, I was very interested to see how our guys would respond after a loss. Due to some poor weather we were only able to play one game on Wednesday. We got down 5-1 in the second inning, but immediately followed with a “five spot” of our own to take control of the game. Our bullpen was sensational and Stephen Douglas and Blake Church had great games to lead our offense. Caleb Moore also hit his fourth homer of the year, which happened to be one of the longest I have ever seen hit at our park. It was good to get back in the win column.

Now we head into our final season in the Southern Conference. Our schedule has us opening up at Furman in Greenville, South Carolina. It is going to be a huge challenge for us. Since I have been at ETSU I have not won at Furman in six tries. This particular less than stellar mark really, really eats me up inside. We just have not played well up there and instead of finding a way to win, we have always found a way to lose. And taking no credit away from Furman, their coaching staff and players have simply taken it to us. So as we look to kick off our final Southern Conference schedule, I hope we can get off on the right foot. The best part about the above facts I have stated is that it doesn’t matter what has happened in the past, because this is a new year and a new team. Obviously we would like to get off to a good start in conference, but we must take each game one at a time, because after this weekend we still have 27 conference games left on our schedule. The season is a marathon not a sprint. This weekend will be a great test for our ball club. It should be a lot of fun. Until Next Time…

Coach Skole