Entry #26 - 4/13/04

I was extremely proud of our ball club this past weekend. Our players “brought it” to the park every game. From the very first pitch of the series, they played with great emotion and energy. It was just the third time in the last twenty years that ETSU has swept a three game conference road series. This was a much needed series and our ball club responded.

In game one of the series, we jumped out to an early 4 – 0 lead when Shane Byrne delivered the first clutch hit for us of the weekend. With two outs and the bases loaded, Shane ripped a double to right center to score Josiah Glafenhein who had walked, David Yates who had singled and Matt Traylor who had walked. Stephen Douglas then ripped a double down the right field line scoring Shane. These four rbi were the first of 16 two out rbi we had for the weekend. As I’ve mentioned before “big hits” have been hard to come by as in our last two conference weekends we had only combined for a total of 5 two out rbi. As I knew they would Wofford scrapped back to tie the game at four and then in the fifth we took the lead for good. Andy Howdeshell led off the inning with a huge blast to left center and then junior Justin Clear delivered another clutch two out hit with a sharp line drive to center.

I was extremely proud for Justin as I know this year has been somewhat of a struggle for him. In his first two years here he played almost every game for us. This year he suffered a tough ankle injury and his playing time has been limited. But you would never know it by being around him every day. He is always in great spirits and ready to go when called on. I have watched very closely and I have not seen him pout or heard him complain one time. How he has conducted himself this year has verified to me that I know he will be a huge success one day. He is the ultimate “Team Player”. Most players who are fortunate enough to be in a Division I program were used to seeing their name in the lineup on a daily basis in high school or junior college. This can be a difficult adjustment. This adjustment is one I understand very clearly because I had to make it in my career. My freshman year at The Citadel, when I walked on campus I had no doubts that I would be the starting quarterback come the first game of the season. It was very disheartening when I had to come to grips with the reality that I wasn’t even good enough to make the travel roster. I felt like “Rudy” every Thursday night checking the travel list to see if I was going to make the trip. Eleven Thursdays in a row I checked and not one time did my name show up on that list. It was tough, but during that year I learned more about myself and who I wanted to become more than any other year in my life.

Jeremy Hall pitched five tough innings for us before giving way to freshman right hander, Brandon Summey. Brandon preserved the win for Jeremy, as he pitched four innings of one hit, shutout baseball. It was a good win for “Booner” as our offense won this one for him. Already too many times in his short career has he been the victim of a tough loss, when our offense simply failed to provide him with any run support. I can’t say enough about Brandon. It has been fun to watch him grow and develop this year. When he arrived on campus in August he was overwhelmed and I know he thought about leaving very often. Everything was different than what he was used to in high school and back home. But he fought through it and persevered and now he is pitching in big games and in big situations for us. In the seventh, Steven Douglas put the game out of reach with another clutch two out hit. This one being an opposite field, grand slam. Game one was now in the books with an 11 – 5 victory.

We had not won two conference games in a row this year, so I challenged our guys not to be satisfied with just winning on Friday night. Before the game I could see they were eager and hungry to play. In the first inning Blake Church drove in his first of three rbi for the day and we were off to a good start. In the third we exploded for six runs. Traylor got on base and was driven in by a double by Byrne. “Churchie” then drove in Shane with a line drive base hit to left field. “Howdie” then coaxed a walk which was immediately followed by a three run blast off the bat of Steven Calicutt. Traylor finished the inning off which he began with an rbi double. In the eighth we added two more runs as Church and Howdeshell each delivered rbi base hits. Tim Turner was on the mound and gave us another great start. Tim went seven strong innings. I made a mistake by letting him go out for the 8th inning, but we had a 9 to 3 lead, they had a left hander leading off the inning and Tim was only at the 85 pitch mark. Tim is one of the best conditioned athletes I have ever coached. He could probably throw 200 pitches and not give it a second thought. Anyway, after he walked the lead off man I went out to the mound to take him out. This has never happened before and I’m quite sure it will never happen again, but I let Tim talk me out of taking him out of the game. I have a great deal of trust in Tim and after listening to him plead his case, I felt that giving him the chance to get this next guy was the right move. It ended up not being the case as the next batter hit a homerun, but Trevor Smith came on to close out the inning and we were still ahead. Leading 9 to 6 going into the ninth, Wofford came back to tie the game on a clutch three run homerun. So now we were in another fight for our lives. That homerun was a huge blow, and I was worried about how we would respond. Both clubs held each other scoreless for the next two frames and in the 12th, Richie Billings reached first on a clutch base on balls with one out. Senior Troy Moock was put into pinch run and proceeded to move to second on a fielder’s choice and then came around to score on an error off the bat of freshman, John Weddle, who did a great job of battling with two strikes. Josh Kite was phenomenal down the stretch as he struck out seven and walked none in three and two thirds. “Kiter” retired them three up, three down in the bottom of the inning to earn his first win of the year.

That evening the team, parents, families and friends were invited to Steven Calicutt’s home for a cookout. It was a wonderful evening and a great meal. My thanks go out to all of the parents who helped make this possible and all of those in attendance. The talk amongst the parents that night was that we needed to get the win on Sunday and complete the sweep. I was hoping that our players had the same thought in mind. Jody, my wife missed the cookout because our youngest son, Jack was asleep and she was not feeling well. Come to find out she had caught a 24 hour virus which our oldest son Tilo had brought home from school on Thursday. He was sick all night Thursday, so naturally I was next in line to catch this virus. And boy did I catch it. I managed to get about an hour of sleep Saturday evening. I’ll just say it was a long, long night.

On Sunday our guys didn’t wait long to get things started as we erupted for five runs in the top of the first. Traylor started the inning off with a walk. Byrne then drove him in with a double. Douglas then mashed a two run shot to right field for his seventh rbi of the weekend. Church then sharply singled to left and Howdeshell followed with a double. Greg Roberts added a two out double to cap the inning off. Sundays in the SoCon tend to be crazy days as Wofford responded with four runs in the bottom of the first. In the second we scored three more times with the big hit being a two out, two rbi single by Josiah Glafenhein. Wofford would not go away as they scored twice in the third to make it an 8 – 6 ball game. Then Steven Calicutt took over and was awesome as he blanked them through the ninth. Summey came in to finish it off, earning his second save of the weekend.

As our players were coming out of the lockeroom after the game, Shane Byrne walked by and commented on how good this felt. This was the first experience with a “sweep” on the road for any of our players. This weekend was a “taste” which our players needed to have. We have a very young ball club and I think they may be starting to figure it out a little bit. We are starting to become a more confident team. Hopefully our guys will continue to play hungry. We can’t do anything thing about being young, we can only try to keep improving and be better the next time out than we were the previous time. When tournament time rolls around we will still be young, but we also want to be dangerous. We want to be the team that nobody wants to play. All of us older know being young has its advantages and its strengths. We want to use that strength.

It was the best weekend we have had in a while and from this point on in, every game just gets bigger and bigger for the Bucs. We took yesterday off and this morning I took Tim Turner, Josh Kite, Troy Moock and Steven Calicutt to Tilo’s school to speak to his class. It was a lot of fun and it was neat to watch our players mingle with the kids. We spent most of our time in his pre-kindergarten classroom. The “youngsters” tried on equipment and we spoke with them about the importance of listening and following directions. On the way back home as we were talking about our visit, Troy made the insightful comment that he didn’t know the “snot” that flows from your nose could come in so many different shades of green. I immediately thought of the miserably, long Saturday night I had. I then made sure the first thing those guys did when we got back on campus was to wash their hands. Never under estimate the power of youth. Until Next Time…

Coach Skole