Entry #71 - 4/11/08

Since my last entry our ball club has gone six and eight. Winning at this clip is not exactly the amount of success we aspire for, but it is improvement from our difficult start to the season. Let me briefly give you a coach’s synopsis of these last 14 games.

We left for our series versus Jacksonville University with our backs completely against the wall. At the time Jacksonville was in first place and we were near the cellar. I’m sure the odds makers had us as huge underdogs in this series. Our players responded by playing great baseball all weekend. We scored 10 runs in the top of the first on Friday night and played solid the entire weekend. We got three great starting pitching performances from Brandon Langston, Ty Sarchet and Josh Means. Coming home our club felt energized and confident that our season was back on track.

On Tuesday we had a tough road game versus Western Carolina. We gave our guys a day off on Monday to catch up on their studies and rest. Tuesday when we loaded the bus I felt like our players were excited and ready to go. We were playing well heading into the 7th inning leading 9 to 4. Offensively I was frustrated because it had seemed like we had left so many opportunities slip away throughout the game, but I couldn’t worry about that; we had a five run lead with only nine outs to go. I give Western Carolina credit they battled back and teed off on our bullpen to score six runs in the bottom of the 7th to take a 10 to 9 lead. Talking about getting the wind knocked out of you. Well our kids showed great resiliency and scored two in the 8th on Nick Belcher’s clutch 2 out, 2 RBI double. We held them in check in the bottom of the 8th and had a chance to score a few in the top of the 9th but couldn’t get that RBI hit this time. Then with a one run lead going into the bottom of the 9th , Western delivered a base-hit and then a walk-off homerun (which happened to be this young man’s first career homerun) and now we are back on the bus heading home feeling like we just got punched in the stomach. What was amazing was in that game we had 41 total at bats and out of those 41 at bats, 28 of them were with runners in scoring position. I don’t think I have ever been in a game where a team had that many scoring opportunities. The disappointing thing was that we were only successful four out of those 28 opportunities for a .143 clip. We also had a runner on 3rd base with less than two outs, ten times and only got one run in those ten at bats. With that lack of production it was amazing we still had a chance to win that game.

The next day we had a make up game versus Tennessee Tech, who is having one of the best years in their programs history. We still were feeling the effects of the previous night’s game as Tennessee Tech started the game with 5 consecutive hits and never looked back. We rebounded on Friday night with a big win over a very good North Florida club. But on the double header on Saturday, we just couldn’t keep North Florida from getting that big hit and they won both games. I was upset about the doubleheader, but UNF played very well and simply beat us. We did not play poorly and give them the games. They simply just played better during the big situations.

We then headed on the road to Atlanta for a midweek series versus #14 ranked Georgia Tech and a weekend series versus Kennesaw State. On Tuesday night versus Georgia Tech we had a 6 to 1 lead after five innings and end up losing 13 to 6. Then on Wednesday night we outhit Georgia Tech 10 to 5 but lost the game 5 to 4. Georgia Tech is a very good team but I really felt like we let two great opportunities slip away. At Kennesaw State we lost the first two games by one run (7 to 6) and (5 to 6). And in game three they jumped out to an early lead and we just didn’t respond.

Needless to say our trip to Atlanta and back to my home town was a long one. We were now on a seven game losing streak when realistically we probably should have gone 5 and 2 during that span and no worse than 4 and 3. I had Jeff Schneider our sports information director run some numbers for me over those seven games and many areas stood out. But the main statistic over those games was that we only hit .197 with runners in scoring position while our opponents hit almost .380. Getting those big hits and keeping your opponents from getting them is what wins baseball games.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we had two tough opponents with Radford and Tennessee. Radford had beaten us earlier in the year at home and I was definitely concerned how we would come out after such a long, unsuccessful road trip. We jumped out to an early 2 run lead in the top of the 1st, but gave up four runs to them in their half of the first inning. Then in the 2nd inning we scored two more and I felt good about our guys coming back and showing some toughness. But in the bottom of the 2nd we gave up 4 more runs and we were now losing 8 to 4. But our players showed great perseverance by scoring at least one run in every inning of the game and Matt Mcgahey came of out the bullpen and pitched magnificently, only giving up 2 hits in five and two thirds innings leading us to a 17 to 8 victory. It was a much needed win for our ball club.

On Wednesday we had the University of Tennessee in Johnson City in front of a packed house. This is always a big game for us. Todd Raleigh is the new coach at Tennessee. Todd and I go back a long way as we competed against each other wav back in college. He and his staff have done a great job with their club this year and he really has them playing well. It won’t surprise me to see them in an NCAA regional. Our kids came out with great emotion and enthusiasm and played well enough to win. Our bullpen was very good late in the game and we got some huge hits as Nick Belcher and Troy Mendez hit big homeruns and Ben Allen drove in Danny Petro with the game winner in the sixth after Danny had drawn a huge two out walk and Bart Roark singled to move him into scoring position.

Two wins in a row and now we head into a huge series versus Gardner Webb. I hate to use the term must win but to say this series is vital to our hopes for the postseason is a huge understatement. Our success will depend on if we can throw strikes, make the routine plays under pressure and get some timely hitting.

Having a father who played professional baseball, two brothers who played at the college level and many friends who either played in high school, college, professionally or who are coaches themselves, along with former coaches of mine, I always have a nice supply of quality opinions on every baseball decision I make. I definitely welcome their points of view and more times than not they will shed light on a situation which will help me see things more clearly. I feel fortunate to have a very knowledgeable "board of directors" who are family and friends that will let me know it when they think I have made a bad decision. I am constantly bouncing ideas off someone in this group. This season I have been in contact with this group quite often.

As this season has progressed, the discussion I have had with many of my peers is how am I handling the team during this tough time? This has been the most difficult area for me as a coach this year. In many of our losses there has been such a fine line between winning and losing. If we just get a clutch hit here or there, or maybe make one more defensive play, or don’t make that costly error, then more than likely we would have come out on the winning side. We got out to such a tough start early and not just with wins and losses, but also as individuals. Early on we only had a couple of guys playing to their ability, so it was a struggle for our players individually as well as a team.

So as a coach you have to decide if you need to light a fire underneath them and get them going, or do you sit back, remain positive and let them play their way through it. I decided that our staff needed to stay positive and not add to the pressure that our players were already putting on themselves. There have been only a couple of times this year when I have really gotten on our guys hard after a loss. And those times it was evident that they did not come to the park ready to play with the amount passion and energy that I expect. So here lies the dilemma. When you are losing and things aren’t going your way, if the coaching staff continues to just pat the players on the back and say its okay; then if you are not careful, your players will feel that it is okay to perform below expectations and losing can become a habit. If you are always hard on your players when things aren’t going well, then you can break them down and they won’t be able to rebound. It is a fine line.

For the most part we have a very young ball club, and many are having to deal with this kind of adversity for the first time in their careers. It is not easy, but I have been proud how they are continuing to work and fight through this. There has not been one sign of quit amongst this group. I know I continue to say that something good is going to come, but I sincerely feel like we are getting closer. Our offense is now up to par with what we have been accustomed to at ETSU. We are firing on all cylinders right now. Our pitching and defense is where we need to really make some improvements. If we can shore up these areas the last five weeks of the season, then I think we will make a run into the post season. The formula I am banking on is this:

Time + Perseverance = Success. Enough time, enough perseverance, eventually there will be some success. And you'd be surprised -- sometimes there are even miracles! Until Next Time…

Coach Skole