Entry #46 - 04/08/05

April 8, 2005

After last Friday night’s game versus Elon, I was as extremely upset with our team. It was the first time all season where we simply went through the motions and were not into the ball game. Elon took advantage of our lackadaisical attitude and kicked us right in the teeth, 11 to 1. I’m not sure why we did not have any energy or enthusiasm. Throughout the day it looked like Mother Nature was going to announce her presence with authority, but the rain never came and it ended up being one of the best evenings we have had all year to play. We really roughed up their pitching staff with five hits, and three of those came from one player, Shane Byrne. So now through our last 18 innings we had roughed up our opponents pitchers for 10 hits. You are not going to have much success in college baseball if you only average five hits a game.

After the game after we fixed the field and put the tarp on, then our coaching staff sat in our dugout and tried to come up with some answers. Usually after home games I like to turn our players loose as soon as possible to allow them to visit with family and friends. Tonight I decided to make them wait in the clubhouse for our coaching staff to come in from the field. I wanted them to sit in the clubhouse and see if they could come up with some answers by themselves. For thirty minutes they sat in silence. I was hoping that maybe one of our captains or seniors would step up and speak to the team, but it never happened. They all just sat there with their heads down, moping. This was great evidence that we are lacking leadership amongst our players.

Once I finally addressed our club, I wanted to be brief because it was late and we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow. The weather did not look promising for Saturday and if we were going to get the game in, it was going to be one of those long days of putting the tarp on and off numerous times. I quickly expressed my displeasure in our performance and told them we needed to flush this one out of our system. The main thing I wanted to get across to them was that we took this wonderful opportunity to compete for granted. We wasted it. Here we were on a beautiful night for baseball. A nice crowd. Many people there to see you play for their very first time. A chance to compete at the highest level of college baseball, where the results were going to be recorded. An opportunity to scratch, claw and fight with your teammates and for your university. And we approached the event like we could really care less. Of course my blood was boiling but I decided that this was not the right time to get too excited.

The rest of that night was very long. I finally got to sleep about 4:00am. The fact that nobody stepped up and took a leadership role really concerned me. I was concerned and confused. When Saturday morning finally rolled around, the weather was very bleak. Our team was at the park early in order to help get the field ready, but the forecast for the day was rain and more rain. We eventually decided to cancel the game and play a double header on Sunday. Playing a double header on Sunday was my least favorite option, because it is so difficult to beat a team twice on the same day. But we had no other options. So before I let our guys go for the day, I felt like it was a good time to straighten some things out. We all needed to be on the same page or things could get ugly very fast.

One of the first things I addressed to our players dealt with the relationships they had with their teammates. One of the great things about playing baseball for ETSU is the relationships you build with your teammates. These are relationships which will last your entire life. They are important. We often talk about being a family, being a close-knit group and loving and caring for each other. When our team huddles after a game or after a workout, we all put our hands in the middle and we say “Family”! Many teams say “hustle”, “win” or “defense”. But we say “Family”! The word family is important in our program.

But as I looked at our team closely, I could see that we weren’t really following the family model. So I called our kids out on it. I’ll give you a few examples of some of the problems my coaches, our players and I could see:

We recently have had a few players who have been selfish. Sometimes they have been more concerned about their statistics and draft status, rather than concerned about the program being successful.

We have had a few players who have let some things outside of our program become distractions (examples: girlfriends and extra curricular activities).

We have had a few players simply make bonehead plays over and over again.

Of course when my staff and I see these things occurring, normally we waste no time in taking care of these things. But what I really would like to see is our players taking it upon themselves to take care of some of these problems amongst each other. In a family if there are problems which affect the family, you sit down and talk about it and get it worked out. Maybe you have a younger brother who is being selfish, maybe stealing money from your mother, or not treating her with respect. What do you do? You call him out on it. What if you have a sibling who is so engrossed in something outside of your family that it is hurting your family? What do you do? You call him out on it. What if you have a sibling who is making the same mistakes over and over? What do you do? You call him out on it. Well our team is a family and when a member of the family is hurting the rest of the family it should not be ignored by the other members. You have to be held accountable.

I know things have changed since I was a player, but on our team, if I made a bonehead mistake; maybe threw a ball away or made an error which allowed a run to score or maybe struck out looking with the bases loaded. I knew that I was going to hear about it from my teammates. Coach Port or Coach Jordan didn’t have to say very much because we as players expected to perform at a high level for each other. We didn’t want to let each other down. It was as simple as that. If I struck out with a runner in scoring position, when I came back to that dugout, maybe our starting pitcher, who had been out there all night battling his rear end off, would say something like, “Skole, get your head out of your ???. We can’t have that! You are killing us! Let’s go! Did I like to hear that? Of course not. But on the other hand if we had a pitcher who wasn’t throwing strikes, or competing with a fighting heart, you better believe I or someone else would let him know that this was not acceptable.

One of my favorite things, in being a third baseman, many times I would be the last one to touch the ball before it went to the pitcher. If we had a pitcher who was not getting it done, then I would throw the ball at them with all the velocity I could muster from a rather close range. Of course I would hit them right in the glove. I did not want to hurt him, just get his attention and let him know that his focus and intensity was not where it needed to be. Message sent. Now what made this kind of atmosphere so productive for our team was that when we played well or made great plays which led to our success, we let each other know much it was appreciated. We cheered. We celebrated. That was the best part of being a member of our team/family. Seeing the smiles of your teammates, giving high fives, giving hugs when you did something which helped them and the team have success. There is nothing greater in life than making your teammates/family happy and proud.

Our club has been missing this kind of attitude and toughness. Something doesn’t need to be said every time something goes awry, but there must be some accountability to each other. I know our players get tired of me and the other coaches always doing the talking. We have some really sensitive kids on our team. Some of our guys wear their feelings on their sleeves and don’t ever want to admit that they may be in the wrong or are making mistakes. At this level of baseball and competition this kind of denial will lead to your demise.

So after our meeting I hoped our guys had gotten the message. I was anxious for Sunday to arrive to see how they would respond. We had a huge challenge ahead of us. In game one our offense exploded as we pounded out twenty hits and scored 17 runs. That was plenty for Jeremy Hall as he earned his fifth win. We had many guys have productive days led by Shane Byrne with five hits. “Five hit” games just don’t happen very often. Caleb Moore hit two homeruns and had seven RBI, while Stephen Douglas, Mike Giroud and Chuck Hargis all had three hits apiece.

In the rubber match we knew it was going to be a dog fight. Brian Lovett and Caleb Moore combined to give us a great performance as we were able to hold on for a 4 – 3 victory. Stephen Douglas hit a huge three run homerun to give us a lead we would not relinquish. After the game I was so proud of our kids. We played with energy, enthusiasm, passion and more importantly they played for each other. They were awesome!

This game is such a roller coaster. You never seem to figure it out, but you must always continue work to get better. We have won five of our last six, but we still have yet to put it all together. We had a good win at Radford on Wednesday, but we missed out on many opportunities. Good teams always put other teams away when they have them down. Good teams know how to extend leads. We had many chances to put away Radford early, but we seemed content to just hold our lead and not build on it. Well, Radford being a scrappy and good offensive team eventually got back in the game and made it interesting.

There is no doubt that we are making enough plays to win games, but we are also missing on many opportunities to put teams away. These missed opportunities come in many forms and shapes; inability to drive in runs, not making routine defensive plays and pitchers not holding a big lead. These are areas where we must continue to improve.

This weekend we travel to Cullowhee for a weekend series with Western Carolina. It is always a tough place to win and we will have to play great baseball to have a successful weekend. As a player I always enjoyed playing there. The ball really carries in their park. It is a great place to be a hitter, not so good place to be a pitcher. You can look at the standings and see the importance of this series. It should be an intense weekend.

At the end of my talk with our team last Saturday about family, I put one of our freshmen, Bubba Herbold on the spot. Bubba is a great kid who is going to be a super player for us. I asked Bubba which teammate he would choose if he was in a foxhole, in the middle of a war and the enemy was charging him. He needed his teammate to fight with him in order to save his life. I was curious to see who Bubba would choose. But without hesitation, Bubba responded, “Coach, it doesn’t matter who it is, just as long as that person in the foxhole with me is anyone of my teammates.” Way to go Bubba. You have figured it out.

Until Next Time…

COACH SKOLE