Entry #27 - 4/21/04

“Someone’s Knockin’ At The Door. Somebody’s Ringin’ The Bell….”

We are playing our best baseball of the year and it could not be coming at a better time. We have our toughest stretch of league games, with back to back series versus Charleston and The Citadel. Both teams are at the top of the standings in our conference. It is going to be a great challenge for our ball club, to see how we stack up against these two programs. In the month of April we have become a very confident ball club, as our players have seemed to begin to figure out what it takes to “bring it to the park” on a consistent basis.

Last weekend we were faced with an opportunity to possibly move into fourth place in the standings, so we needed to have a successful weekend at home versus Appalachian State. We had to play a doubleheader on Saturday, which made our task that much more difficult. It is just tough to beat someone twice in one day. In game one Jeremy Hall pitched a complete game allowing only one earned run while only walking one batter. Jeremy pitched himself out of a couple of tough situations early, only to settle in and dominate the rest of the game. Offensively we pounded out 17 hits. Shane Byrne, Stephen Douglas, Steven Calicutt, Josiah Glafenhein all had two hits apiece, while Andy Howdeshell and Greg Roberts had three hits apiece. “Howdie” and “Dirty” (this is what the players call Greg) each hit big homeruns. Greg had four rbi on the day.

When we win the first game of a doubleheader, I am always concerned how our team will come out in the second game. I knew App. State would be ready to go and I hoped we would be too. The most important thing is to get off to a good start and put some doubt in your opponent’s mind. Tim Turner was up to the task as he turned in one of the best performances of his career, pitching a complete game, while striking out twelve and not allowing a walk. Offensively everyone in the lineup contributed a hit as we won 8 – 2.

For the second weekend in a row we woke up on Sunday morning with an opportunity to sweep and put us over .500 in the conference and overall. On April 6th our record was 14 and 18. That day after practice, our team had a meeting and we re-evaluated our goals. Our main goal was to get to 20 wins before we get to 20 losses. Going into game three of this series, we had now won five of our last six (five in a row) and now with a win today, we were in a situation to accomplish this goal. Steven Calicutt gave us his third dominant start as he cruised for six innings allowing only one run and one walk. Offensively we jumped on them early and had a 13 to 1 lead after five innings. Caleb Moore returned to play in his first game after missing the last five with a bad hamstring and continued to crush the baseball going four for four with three rbi. “Churchie” capped off a great weekend going three for three. His performance this weekend earned him honors for Southern Conference Player of the Week as he went 7 for 9, scoring eight runs and hitting four doubles. It was by far our most complete weekend of the year as we hit .396 as a team and only allowed 6 earned runs in 27 innings. For the entire weekend our pitchers only walked three batters. Howdeshell and Roberts hit .455 for the weekend and Byrne hit .417. So the win gave us the sweep we were looking for and put us in a situation to make some noise the rest of the season.

Sunday’s win also marked my 100th win here at ETSU. Obviously I would have liked those wins to come in a shorter period, but I’m quite sure my next 100 at ETSU will happen a lot sooner. I am very optimistic about the future of our program and the shape it is in. Those wins have not been easy to come by and we have had to overcome a great amount of adversity to get to this point. Although I get the credit for those wins, they really belong to the players and my assistant coach Nate Goulet. Coach “Gou” has been by my side for every one of those wins and he is a big reason why the future of our program looks so bright. Our staff has been short handed this season and we have had to really work extra smart and extra long this year. If there is a harder working assistant coach out there than Coach Goulet, I haven’t seen him. Thanks Coach “Gou” for all that you do.

I also want to mention what a great job our trainers Brian Johnston and John “Oatmeal” Otey have done this year. During this period when we have been playing well, we had some injuries to endure and they have done an unbelievable job getting our guys back on the field. We would be lost without them.

A couple of neat things happened this weekend which made me feel good about our players and the direction we are moving. Two freshmen John Weddle and Matt Haynes each got their first hit of their college career. I am very proud of them both. John has done a tremendous job filling in for Caleb behind the plate and Matt has continued to work hard although he hasn’t had the opportunity to play very often. Matt is a great looking kid and has athleticism pouring out of him. When each of them got their first hits our dugout erupted in cheer for these two guys. This outpouring was a great example of love, friendship, camaraderie and caring amongst our players. It made me feel real good inside.

Tonight we won a big game as in an offensive display, as we defeated a talented UNC Asheville club 21 -16. I had a meeting with our hitters before the game and explained that we would have to score some runs to win tonight and they responded. C. Moore, Howdeshell and Douglas each had three hits. “Howdie” also had 6 rbi including a mammoth shot to left center. “Jo-Jo”, “Cutt” and “Shane-O” all had two hits apiece, including some clutch rbi hits. It was a good win because it was our seventh in a row and UNCA has also had our number the last couple of years.

So now we can look forward to heading down to Charleston to take on the “Mighty Cougars”. They are ranked in the top 25 and when you see the numbers that their players have been putting up, you just have to shake your head in amazement. They are probably the best offensive team in the country and their pitching has been phenomenal. To say that this weekend is going to be a great challenge is an understatement. For us to have success we are going to have to keep them from having that big inning and of course we are going to have to play well in all areas. I’m not too concerned for our guys being fired up to play this weekend. I think they understand what a great opportunity this is for our program. We are a very confident team right now and we are playing our best baseball. I’m glad we have this stretch of games right now instead of earlier in the year when we were still searching for some identity. It should be a great weekend. I always look forward to going back to Charleston as the city is very near and dear to my heart.

As most people close to me know, I love to play golf. Growing up I never played except if maybe my father or one of my brothers would take me to tag along with them. I used to hit plastic golf balls in the yard choking down on their clubs, but mostly I was too busy playing other sports to find time for golf. My Dad was a single digit handicap during his younger days and both of my brothers play quite often, although they are not nearly as good as they like to say they are. They play in the eighties, talk like they play in the seventies and dress like they play in the sixties. Anyway once I got out of college I took up the game and developed a great passion for it. Jack Nicklaus has always been my all time favorite athlete/competitor. One of the things I look forward to most is getting together with my brothers, friends and former teammates for a weekend to play golf. There is just something special about being out there with those guys and trying to beat the hell out of each other. We never can just play for fun either. There always has to be a wager of some kind. Whether it is money, dinner that evening or a hat or shirt in the pro shop. The loser always has to pay up and then listen to the winning team constantly remind you all evening how bad they kicked your butt.

The matches always seem to start out the same One team goes up early and then sure enough, the other team always makes a run to make it close or win it at the end. Whenever this turn of events begins to happen, if it is my team making the run as we walk up to the green or to the next tee box, I will always sing the lyrics (just loud enough for they can hear them) from the Paul McCartney and Wings song “Let Em In”. It goes “Someone’s knockin at the door. Somebody’s ringing the bell. Do me a favor, open the door and let em in.” They hate it when I do this. Well for the rest of this season our ball club has put ourselves in a position to “knock on the door and ring the bell”. Whether or not we can go ahead and push our way through remains to be seen. It sure is going to be fun to find out.

Until Next Time…

Coach Skole