Entry #47 - 04/14/05

April 14, 2005

In our meeting prior to Wednesday night’s game versus Tennessee Tech I tried to emphasize a few important things to our club as we looked begin the second half of our season. As I look back on the first half I am pleased with some things and disappointed with others. Being 18 and 10 is not terrible, but we have given a few games away or simply not taken a few games when the opportunity presented itself. I can think of three games off the top of my head that would put us in a little better position than we currently are in. But as I explained to our guys, we have to learn from the first half of the season, try not to repeat our mistakes, remember the good things we did and then move on. For the guys we have playing well, we want them to keep their momentum and continue their hot play. For the guys who have struggled in the first half, the second half of the season gives them a new beginning and fresh start. It is an opportunity for them to try to turn things around.

Last week at Western Carolina we found ourselves in a familiar position as once again we took one on the chin of Friday night. On Saturday we bounced back behind a masterful pitching performance by Jeremy Hall. “Booner” threw 8 innings, did not walk a batter and only threw 83 pitches. He was dominant. Caleb Moore, Chuck Hargis, Blake Church and Greg Roberts each had clutch RBI hits to get us the victory. So here we were again on Sunday, with a great opportunity to win a series on the road. We fought hard and had many opportunities to win but lost a heartbreaker 9-8. Throughout the game I had a feeling inside that we were going to win this game. We were swinging the bats well and I just thought we would score enough to win. We gave Western some easy runs and when you do that to a good team they will capitalize. Here are a few examples. We have a runner picked off at third, we then make a poor throw and he scores. We had a fly ball go off our glove and that run scored. We threw a wild pitch with a runner on third and two outs and that cost us a run. Then we threw a ball away on a routine play and that also cost us a run. On the offensive side, in the eighth and ninth innings we had the tying and winning runs in scoring position. We had six at-bats in this scenario and we could not scratch a run across. After the game I was scratching my head wondering how we let this one get away.

Tuesday evening’s game versus Tennessee was rained out but somehow Mother Nature allowed us to get in Wednesday’s game versus Tennessee Tech. Steven Calicutt pitched out of trouble most of the night, but got the win. We need to get Cutt going if we are going to have a good second half and Wednesday was a step in the right direction. Although he allowed the leadoff man to reach base in four of his five innings of work, he limited Tech form having a big inning and made some big pitches. The big inning is something that Cutt has struggled with this year, so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. Caleb Moore, Chuck Hargis and Blake Church had big nights for us offensively as we racked up 15 hits on a cold and wet evening. It was a good start to our second half.

This weekend Coach Steve Traylor brings his Wofford Terriers to town. Steve does a great job and is a first class guy. The weather looks like it is going to be nice all weekend, so I know our guys will be happy not to have to tarp the field. Wofford just scares me to death. They always play hard and have some talented players on their roster. It is going to be a tough series and for us to be successful we are going to have to play very well. We will try to stay in the moment and take it one pitch at a time. From this point on every conference game is huge.

The other evening Tilo and I were watching a video on the story about “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. This is a children’s classic and delivers a great message for youngsters. The next morning as I was going through an old file, I came across another story aboult wolves that adults can learn from. Here it is:

Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Until Next Time…

COACH SKOLE