Entry #30 - 5/24/04

It has been a long time since my last entry and I’m going to do my best to bring everyone up to speed. I have many pages of notes on various legal pads and I’m going to finally try to sum up the last few weeks. I thought that when our players finished their exams that it would create more free time, but boy was I wrong. When your club is not in school, you want to take advantage of the extra time, so we’ve been getting in some extra work. On the days we don’t play, we work throughout the day and on days we do play, we come in early. If you mix in meals, extra individual work and our strength and conditioning program along with the every day activities of the job, by the time I finally leave the office I still feel like I am playing catch up. Currently there is talk about moving the college baseball season back where you can’t play your first game until March 1st. The logic behind this move is that it would create a more level playing field concerning the schools in warmer climates versus schools in colder climates. I don’t know if it will ever happen, but if it does, we would now be asking our athletes to stay on campus a minimum of six extra weeks and possibly more if you advance past your conference tournament. That is a long time and it is also very expensive.

Coming off the sweep of The Citadel, things were on a high note. We were now 25 and 22. We had all but clinched a spot in the conference tournament and with nine games remaining, we hoped to go at least 5 and 4 and reach the 30 win plateau. In a team meeting on the Tuesday after The Citadel series we went over our goals for the final three weeks of the season. Everyone seemed charged and ready to make a run at history. I thought I had everyone on the same page. I soon found out this wasn’t the case.

Our schedule for the weekend after The Citadel series found us with an open weekend. This could not have come at a worse time because we seemed to be hitting our stride as a ball club. The last thing a coach wants is an extended time between games, especially when you are playing well. This weekend was open because Davidson College who was originally scheduled to play us on this weekend had final exams during this time, so we had to move their series to the front of our conference schedule. We were to play Tennessee Tech on this Wednesday and then we would not have a game again for eight days when we would travel to Morgantown, West Virginia for a three game set against the Mountaineers.

Coach Goulet and I discussed in great depth what we should do with this open weekend. Should we keep them on campus and practice or give them a few days to get away from us and baseball, to maybe recharge their engines. Against our better judgment, we finally came to the conclusion to let them have the days off, under the circumstances that they follow a workout plan over these next couple of days to keep themselves sharp.

So we headed to Cookeville to play Tennessee Tech on Wednesday evening. I immediately new we were in trouble as I began to hear discussions between players talking about heading to the beach and what they were going to do with their days off. As a coach you always want to know that your players are focused on their schoolwork and on baseball. Now with school not in session, you want baseball to be in the forefront. I could sense this was not the case.

We came out flat as a board and Tennessee Tech jumped all over us. They hit two 3-run homers and a solo shot and the next thing you know we were in trouble. We weren’t playing very sharp but we had been swinging the bats well. Even though we were down 10 to 2 heading to the late innings I felt we could still win this game. We put a three spot on the board and cut the lead down to five going into our last at bat. In the ninth I felt that if we could get the leadoff guy on then maybe we could get something going. Sure enough it happened and the next thing you know the score is 10 to 8 and we have bases loaded and no outs. I thought we were going to win this game. Then before you know it our next three batters all strikeout and the game is over. We truly didn’t deserve to win this game as Tech rocked our pitchers, but I really thought we were going to steal it from them.

So now we head into our four day weekend with a terrible taste in our mouth. The next morning we had an early workout and then sent them on their way. Our workout was of high quality and Coach Goulet and I were hoping that our guys would get their work in when they were away in order to stay sharp. When the following Monday rolled around, we practiced and it was not pretty. I don’t care what sport it is or what level it is, teams don’t usually function at a high success rate the day after a day off. Tuesday wasn’t much better and I was concerned heading to West Virginia that we may have lost our edge. It was quite obvious that many of our guys had done nothing over the weekend. I should have known better, but you live and you learn. I will never have an open weekend again this late in the season.

The guys put my worries to rest as we got a great pitching performance from Jeremy Hall and Josh Kite during game one and defeated W.VA. 7-4. It was a nice win and now we seemed to be back on track. Then in games two and three we could never get anything going against West Virginia’s starting pitchers and we lost the series. We were never really in either of those games as our hitters could not seem to make the right adjustments. So we boarded the bus to head back to Johnson City.

We had a full week ahead of us with two mid-week games with Tennessee Tech and Virginia Tech, then our final SoCon series of the year versus the Furman Paladins. Even though we didn’t win the series at West Virginia we still felt like we could get to that 30 win plateau. We came out swinging versus Tennessee Tech and Trevor Smith gave us a great outing in his first start of the year and we won 10 to 1. It is amazing how winning can change your perspective.

The next night was a great night for baseball as Virginia Tech rolled into town. The Hokies immediately jumped all over us and we found ourselves down 9 to 1 in the fifth inning. During these first five innings I thought we pitched and played defense about as bad as we had all year. It was simply ugly. But our guys showed some resiliency and battled to get back in the game. Our bullpen shut them down and in the ninth we had runners on first and second with one out and the score 9 to 7. Again I felt like we were going to win this one, but we couldn’t get that clutch hit and the Hokies held on. Driving home I thought if we just would have thrown a few more strikes and made a few more routine plays early in the contest, we win this one going away.

So now we headed into the final SoCon weekend. Furman came into the weekend with a very bleak chance of making the post season. Basically they were just playing to finish out their season, while on the other hand we still had alot to play for. In games one and two the Furman hitters swung the bat as well as anybody had against us all year. We simply could not keep them form scoring. They jumped all over our starting pitchers and we were playing catch-up from the start. We hit the ball well those first two games but our inability to keep them from scoring was our downfall.

We were now on a three game skid and we desperately needed a win on Sunday. We sure did not want to go into the tournament with four consecutive losses. Josh Kite gave us a great start and Andy Howdeshell carried us offensively and we won 5 to 2. It was a nice to send our seniors out with a win in their last game in Cardinal Park. We found out today that Andy Howdeshell was named the Southern Conference player of the week. Way to go Howdie! He has had quite a run over the last two years. It has been fun to coach and to watch him perform.

So now we head into the post season with all of our goals and dreams right there in front of us. I think this tournament has the makings of a very good one because of the strength of the field. We have a tough draw playing The Citadel in round one on Wednesday night. This is traditionally the biggest game of the tournament and I think it is one of the top atmospheres in all of college baseball. I won’t have to give our guys a Vince Lombardi speech to get them fired up for this one. It will be an emotion filled contest. I believe we can make some noise in the tournament if we get good starting pitching and the bottom of our batting order has a great week. We need those two things to happen for us to be successful. It is going to be hot and hostile on Wednesday night. I can’t wait. Until Next Time.....

Coach Skole