Entry #65 - 4/1/07

Happy April Fool's Day! I wish it was a joke, but I sure do feel like a fool looking back on our performance last week in relation to what I wrote in my last entry. This past week we finished with an extremely disappointing 2 and 3 record. The only positive was that the two wins were important Atlantic Sun Conference wins over Campbell.

When you coach long enough you soon realize that most of the time there is such a fine line between winning and losing. Our season thus far has been defined by that. Usually it is a very small detail or one single moment that determines the outcome of a game.

Whenever our players take the mound or come up to bat, our Sports Information Director, John Roberts always plays their song of choice. This supposedly gets them fired up and gets their adrenaline going. Most of their songs are ones I have never heard, so I just ask John to make sure they are edited and the language is okay. He does a great job with this. John actually lets me choose a song to play and going into the bottom of the 5th, I have had him play "Walking on a Thin Line" by Huey Lewis. I have played this song during this inning for many years now. It is not a baseball song but actually a song about love. I have always just applied the lyrics to baseball. I chose this song and the fifth inning because the 5th inning is usually the inning when pitchers are most vulnerable and the game can be broken open. This year it has really been relative. We've been on that thin line an awful lot.

In my last entry I wrote about how good our kids have been in "clutch time" and even though we are very young, how they seem to have ice water in their veins. Well in our first three games last week I must have put the jinx on our club because we were simply brutal in "clutch time". We couldn't get a hit with runners in scoring position and we couldn't get that final out to close an inning.

In the game on Tuesday versus Appalachain State we lost 5-4 even though we out hit them 11 to 7. The problem was we were 3 for 13 with runners in scoring position and our bullpen walked seven batters, hit two batters and threw two wild pitches. Even with this performance the game was still tied with two outs in the ninth when App. State got their clutch hit to go ahead. Then in the bottom of the ninth we had the tying run on second base with one out and couldn't get the big hit. We missed opportunity after opportunity to put this game away early, but I give App. State credit as they simply would not let us do it.

After a spirited team meeting I felt good about Wednesday's game versus UNC Asheville. I was positive our guys would come out with lots of energy and get some of that "ice water" back in their veins. Drew story took the mound and was very good as he gave us 5 solid innings of shutout baseball. Drew has really been working hard to improve the consistency of his mechanics and it is really starting to show. Offensively were once again unable to take advantage of opportunities (going 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position and leaving 13 men on base), so much for "clutch time". Even with this poor offensive showing we held a three to one lead with one out in the ninth. But we couldn't close the door on UNC Asheville as they would score three times in the ninth to take a four to three lead. In the bottom of the ninth Anthony Russell led off the inning with a single. We pinch ran Jacob Fabry for Anthony and Danny Petro then sacrificed him to second base. Justin Aughey then hit a deep drive to right center field that was run down by their centerfielder, but it advanced Fabry to third base. Troy Mendez then walked to put runners on first and third but Ben Allen popped up to third to end the game.

This game was a tough one to swallow. You hate to lose two games in a row, especially at home. We had to regroup in a hurry with Campbell coming in on Friday night. The positive thing was that we had Brandon Langston on the mound and we needed Brandon to be the stopper of this losing streak. Brandon did what he seems to always do and gave us a great start. We had a 3 to 1 lead heading into the seventh. Campbell had scored a run in the sixth to snap a streak of 19 consecutive scoreless innings for Brandon. Then in the seventh, with two runners on and one out, Campbell struck with three consecutive hits. This came as a shock because all of us had not witnessed this before when Brandon was on the mound. He has spoiled us with his dominance of late. At the inning's end we found ourselves down 6 to 3. Our bullpen could not hold them intact as they added four more runs and squelched our ninth inning rally and won the game 10 to 6.

Wow, three losses in a row. I told our staff that good teams don't lose three in a row. It is that simple, especially at home. Our staff was wondering if the wheels had completely come off. All the things we had been doing so well throughout the season, now seemed to be a struggle. We had two more games to play tomorrow and I explained to our guys that anything but a sweep would put us in a tough situation. After Friday's night game, for the first time this season I challenged the toughness of our players. I was curious to see their response.

Tarp duty came early on Saturday morning and after about three hours of sleep I was excited to get to the park. The only way to get rid of the "sick to your stomach" feeling of a game is to play another game. Caleb Glafenhein answered the call as he gave us his best outing of the year. A ninety pitch complete game victory with the help of freshman Ryan Self's two run homer and we were able to even the series at one apiece.

In game three we sent freshman Todd Caldwell to the mound. Todd has really pitched well for us. He has a tremendous amount of poise on the mound. Todd was a great high school athlete (quarterback, hoops player, etc.) and his athleticism shows on the mound. He gave us six scoreless innings and with the bullpen help of Tony Lombardi and Drew Story, we were able to sweep the doubleheader and win the series. Anthony Russell continued to pace us offensively as he blasted two homeruns. Dinner sure tasted better on Saturday night, even though somehow I had lost 10 pounds this week. It is obvious that three game losing streaks are not good for your health.

So after the third weekend of conference play we remain in first place tied with Stetson. We still have many things we need to work on, especially offensively. I hate to say it (I don't want to jinx us.) but we have been phenomenal on defense. This club may be the best defensive team I have ever coached. Our starting pitching continues to be strong but our bullpen needs to get the magic back they had earlier in the season.

We have a tough week ahead with a midweek contest at Tennessee and a three game series versus a very good Kennesaw State team. I'm sure we will be "walking on a thin line". I think our players like it like that. Until Next Time...

COACH SKOLE