Entry #49 - 05/18/05

May 18, 2005

Well, I got the yard mowed and Tilo won his game. So now I’ll continue where I left off. I woke up Saturday morning in Boone, NC and the forecast was horrible. Possible flurries and wind. In all my life I have never seen the wind blow like it did this weekend. The wind was consistently 20 – 35 mph and it never let up. I thought the roof was going to blow off our hotel. This wind combined with a temperature of around 38 degrees made me happy I had brought my long underwear on this trip. As I climbed up the hill to the field I wondered if we would actually get the games in today. It did not look promising.

As I entered the field, a gentleman stopped me and introduced himself. Once I saw him up close I recognized him instantly. Coach Jim Morris, who had been the coach at App. State when I was a player, was at the field. Coach Morris had a great career and has been out of coaching for about ten years, but as we spoke I could see he still has baseball deep in his blood. One of the things I enjoyed about playing third base was being up close to the opposing coach in the third base coaching box. When you play in a conference for four years, plus games in the tournament, coaches get to know you. By the time you are a junior and senior they get used to seeing you. We had some great battles with App. State and seeing Coach Morris this morning brought back some great memories. I greatly appreciated him taking the time to seek me out. We had a great conversation and one that I will always remember. When baseball is a part of your life it affects you in many ways, but one of the best things about it, is the relationships which derive from it. The only conversations I ever had with Coach Morris consisted during 14 or 15 games when I was a player and he was a coach. Of course during these games he was trying his best to beat our team and I was trying my best to help my team beat his team, so the conversation consisted of just small talk sparingly between innings. But now almost fifteen years later, we were together again, at the baseball field reminiscing old times, forever linked. Only the wonderful world of baseball can bring people together like that. Despite the cold weather, it was a great way to start my day.

So after taking care of business and completing game one, game two started 30 minutes later. For the entire game it would snow or sleet the entire time, and the winds would never die down. We got off to a good start (10 - 4 lead) only to watch App. State get to our pitching staff and come back and tie it up. Finally in the seventh, Churchie recorded his seventh straight hit of the series, this one being a grand slam putting the nail in the coffin. Michael Bauer got the win in relief, while Caleb once again pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the victory. Eight of the nine hitters in our lineup had at least two hits giving us 43 hits and 33 runs scored in two games.

When I got back to my room after the game, I immediately turned on the Weather Channel and saw the forecast, possibly six inches of snow. This isn’t what I wanted to see, but there was nothing I could do about it. After a good dinner, I went to bed and woke up at 4:00am to see what was happening outside. Sure enough the Weather Channel was right on. It was snowing and our chances for baseball on Sunday looked bleak. Our game was cancelled before we even left the hotel to go to the field, so we just loaded the bus and headed back to Johnson City.

We were now five and one since our new beginning of our second season and we had to tough midweek games ahead of us. Tuesday’s game was the Kingsport Classic versus Virginia Tech. The city of Kingsport puts on this event every year and it is a great game for our players and program. We do a children’s clinic on the Monday before every year for about 150 kids. Our players do a great job with this and I think they have as much fun as the kids.

As Tuesday approached I was worried about this game because I knew Virginia Tech was hungry to play us, as just seven days earlier we stole a victory right out of the jaws of defeat in Blacksburg. It had been raining on and off all day but somehow by game time the skies cleared and we were able to begin on time. Jeremy and Brain Lovett got us off to a good start throwing five scoreless innings as we opened a three run lead. In the seventh, Virginia Tech put a few hits back to back and got back in the game. They actually had the tying run crossing the plate, but thanks to our alert dugout, we saw their runner miss third base. He was then called out on an appeal thus preserving our lead. Every game we assign players on our bench the responsibility of making sure and watching their runners touch each base. Tonight as soon as it happened Justin Clear immediately stood up and shouted to me that their runner had missed 3rd. Justin wasn’t the only one on our bench that saw it, and obviously the umpire did as well. This ended up being a big play and it was a great example of being into the game even if you are not in the lineup and helping your team find a way to win.

We ended up scoring two more runs in the eighth courtesy of a Mike Giroud double and once again Caleb came on to slam the door. It was a solid 5-3 victory and time to get ready for a home game with Radford on Wednesday.

Versus Radford freshman Robbie Campbell earned his first collegiate win going five innings, while our offense erupted for 13 unanswered runs including five homeruns by Clear, Moore, Hargis, Church and Roberts. It was our sixth win in a row and put our record at 25 and 11 heading into the College of Charleston showdown.

College of Charleston has definitely separated themselves from the rest of our league over the last two year and now we had put ourselves in the position we wanted since we began our second half of the season. They are a great team and do a lot of things well. You have to play well to beat them and if you give them second chances they will make you pay every time.

In game one we lost a heartbreaker in 11 innings. We didn’t play great, but we also didn’t play poorly. We had the winning run at second base in three of the last four innings but could not get him in. That defeat seemed to take the wind out of our sails as we lost the next two games 12 -6 and 10 – 7. I was disappointed because I knew our program blew an opportunity to really do something on a national stage and we did not make the most of it. We just did not do enough positive things to overcome our negatives for the entire weekend.

I really felt good going into the CofC weekend and I felt like our club was ready to play well. I wanted our players to feel confident going into the weekend, but maybe that was not the right approach. Being around young kids on a daily basis I have learned that when things are going well, sometimes they will slow down to get that “pat on the back”. As a coach it is my responsibility not to let them slow down. And I think that may have happened to our club going into this weekend. So now we had to rebound and handle some adversity.

We won a tough midweek road game versus UNC Asheville on the strength of a good pitching performance by Brian Lovett. We played sloppy, but hung on and it seemed like the previous weekend had taken some wind out of our sails. We didn’t have much time to lick our wounds as we needed to solidify our spot in the post season with good weekend in Charleston versus the Citadel.

I knew this was going to be a difficult weekend as The Citadel was playing for their postseason lives and desperately needed to win this series. We played okay on Friday night, but The Citadel played well and beat us 8 – 5. On Saturday we once again rode the starting pitching of Jeremy and this time we won 8 – 5. Sunday looked promising as we scored 10 runs in the first inning, but our pitching staff had no answer for their hitters as The Citadel roared back and whooped us 19 – 11. Sunday was simply embarrassing and humiliating. It was a long ride back to Johnson City.

So now we were in a little funk only going 2 and 4 over our last six and we needed to once again right the ship. We had a road game at Tennessee Tech, before our final conference weekend versus Davidson. In Cookeville we lost a game we should have never lost and once again I left the field embarrassed and humiliated. We were flat but had ourselves in position to make plays and put the game away, but no one could get the big hit or make the big pitch. This was not a good feeling to have and I wasn’t going to let it become a habit.

On Wednesday we had our worst practice of the year. We went back to fundamentals and we were just horrible. We could not hit, catch, throw or run. It was awful. I knew we were in trouble versus Davidson. Sure enough I was right, and in game won we failed to score in the first inning with runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out. This was a bad sign as we were once again awful and Davidson put it on us 19-1. I wondered where our team had gone. What was happening? Once again we left the field embarrassed and humiliated. Was this cycle ever going to stop? Our staff met all night analyzing the situation. We thought we had found some answers but decided to hold off until the series was over because we knew our guys were down and we wanted them to regain some confidence and work their way out of this dilemma. We needed someone to step up.

That person ended up being Brian Lovett as he gave us his second strong outing in a row and with the win we clinched our birth in the Southern Conference Tournament. Game three ended up being a heartbreaker losing 10 -9. Once again we had many chances to win this game but we just couldn’t make the clutch play.

So now we head into our final week of the regular season and we need to gain some momentum going into the Tournament. We need to practice and play well these last four games. We had won eight of nine prior to the Charleston series and since then we have gone 3 and 8. Our staff has pulled our hair out analyzing everything but it was pretty easy to see what led to our struggles.

In those eleven games our first five hitters in our lineup (Hargis, Byrne, Moore, Church and Douglas) have hit at a .360 clip and have hit .388 with runners in scoring position. They have been very productive. The other four spots in our lineup during this stretch have hit at a .203 clip and have hit only .182 with runners in scoring position. Also during this span our pitching staff had an ERA was 8.36 while opposing teams were hitting .360. When I first saw these numbers I was amazed we even won three games during this stretch.

In college baseball you can win 30 games with five consistent hitters, one good starter and a closer. If you want to win 40 games you need seven consistent hitters, two good starters and a closer. So right now it is a struggle to make out our lineup. It is also a struggle to find someone productive out of our bullpen. I am desperately looking for guys to step up in these spots. We don’t need “Herculean” efforts. We just need two of those four spots on any given day to be productive. The other two spots just need to play decent and not do anything which hurts our chances of winning. Make the routine plays, don’t strike out with the bases loaded, get a sacrifice bunt down, draw a walk, don’t walk the lead-off batter, field your position. These things aren’t difficult, but during this difficult stretch the simple and little things have been our nemesis.

I’m optimistic that we can battle through this little bit of adversity. Our players are working hard and we are practicing hard. Our failures are not from a lack of effort. But when you play at this level of baseball, you have to make plays on a consistent basis to be successful. If you ask college coaches around the country who they want on their teams, their answer will always be guys who make plays and do it day in and day out. We have those guys in our program, and hopefully as we head into the post season they will surface again. Tonight we will look for Jeremy to get us back on track versus UNC Asheville. I’m energized and looking forward to this stretch of our schedule. It will be interesting to see who steps up.

Until Next Time….

COACH SKOLE