Entry #31 - 5/25/04 - 5/31/04

May 25, 2004 - Travel Day

We left early this morning for Charleston, SC, the site of the 2004 Southern Conference Tournament. Coach Goulet and I had waited a long time for this trip. In our staff meetings to prepare for the tournament, we felt like this was the first time since we have been here that we could go down there and win the whole thing. We knew we would have to play well, but we felt like we matched up well with everyone there. After two movies mixed in with a couple of “pit stops” and we had arrived at our hotel. We fed the team and gave them some free time for the remainder of the afternoon. We had a scheduled workout at the stadium for 8:45pm. I chose this practice time because we would be playing the next evening at 7:00pm and I wanted to get our guys under the lights. Prior to practice there was a coaches meeting with all the coaches, umpires and administration who are involved with the tournament. Basically all the protocol for the running of the tournament is covered. You get an opportunity to visit with all the head coaches and discuss issues which we think will make our league better in the future. After the meeting I hurried over to practice. We had a good workout as it was good for our guys to stretch out a little bit. We took a round of batting practice and then worked on some fundamental defensive things. Our pitchers got their work in and then we loaded the bus for a good night’s sleep. I left the field satisfied that we were ready to go.

May 26, 2004 - Day One

It was tough to get to sleep last night as I tossed and turned all night. I was eager to rise and meet Brian, our trainer for an early morning run. Running has become somewhat of a passion for me and these runs with Brian are something that I really look forward to. It takes the edge off and burns off some of that nervous energy I always have on game day. After the first few minutes of the run it was quite evident that it was going to be good and hot all week. Fifty minutes later we returned, ate breakfast, and then Coach Goulet and I headed over to the tournament to scout some of the early games. Elon defeated UNCG in the first game of the tournament as they put on an offensive display. In game two Western Carolina pulled off the upset of the tournament as they defeated the number one seed College of Charleston. We headed back to the hotel to eat a pre game meal and get the guys ready for batting practice.

As we finished batting practice the game in front of us featuring Georgia Southern and Davidson was coming to a finish. In post season tournament fashion, Davidson the #7 seed pulled off the upset. Now the #1 and #2 seeds were in the loser’s bracket. As the game ended I looked over to Coach Goulet and told him that the table was set. I commented that the winner of our game versus The Citadel would be in the driver’s seat for the remainder of the tournament. Drawing The Citadel in game one is the most difficult task in the SoCon Tournament. It is a tough challenge because you are going against the home crowd and it is a hostile environment. Their fans can really get their team going. As a competitor it is a great arena to compete in. It is a packed stadium and all eyes are on you. I compare that game to Monday Night Football, because the home crowd is always fired up and all your peers from around the league are in attendance to see you perform. After sweeping The Citadel during the regular season I knew there was no chance of sneaking up on them in this game. Our game plan was to not give them two positives in a row. What I meant by that was not to try to give them any momentum and get the crowd into the game. For instance if they got a hit, then we must get the next guy. Don’t walk him or allow the next guy to do anything productive. If we walk a batter then we must make the routine play on the next guy. We didn’t follow that plan in the first inning as they jumped to an early 1 – 0 lead. Basically from that point on, every inning we were in a crisis situation on defense, meanwhile their pitcher was mowing our hitters down. Their pitcher, Jonathon Ellis who was the Co-Conference pitcher of the year was on top of his game. He was throwing all his pitches for strikes and pitched around 91-93 mph all evening long. In the middle of the game there was a great match up between him and Caleb Moore, who by the way was the Conference Player of the Year. During this confrontation Caleb was showing his best bat speed (which is as good as any I’ve seen in a long time) and Ellis who was reaching down for a little extra something. The Citadel coaches told me that a scout told them after the game that Ellis had hit 96mph a couple of times during his and Caleb’s match up. That was sure fun to watch. We ended up losing a tough game 6 – 2 as we could not muster anything offensively against The Citadel. I challenged our hitters before the game and said that if we got production from the bottom of our lineup we would win. Those guys responded as the bottom four spots in our lineup went 7 for 15, meanwhile the top five spots struggled and went 3 for 21 with eight strikeouts.

May 27, 2004 - Day Two

So now we found ourselves in the loser’s bracket and fighting off elimination. As luck would have it, we now faced the #2 seed Georgia Southern as they were upset in their first game. It was a long afternoon for the Bucs, as we could not slow down their hitters and couldn’t put together a rally of our own. The backbreaker came in the top of the third, when the first five hitters for Georgia Southern all reached and scored. That was all the support their lefthander would need as he shut down our offense for the remainder of the game. The final score ended up being 12 – 4. After the game I was extremely disappointed. At the time I felt like our guys had no fire in their bellies. It just didn’t seem like we played with any passion. I felt like the guys in the lineup were going through the motions, while the guys on the bench were ready to head to their summer baseball assignments. I was upset because I really felt like we could have made a run at winning this tournament. So after spending a few hours alone and going back through the entire scenario, I realized I was off with my assessment. It just wasn’t meant to be for us this year. In the tournament we ran into two pitchers who pitched their best game of the year, and our opponents seemed to get all the timely hits. I was wrong in thinking our guys were not into the game. In baseball when things aren’t going your way, sometimes you have to simply give credit to your opponent. Both The Citadel and Georgia Southern simply outplayed us in every area these past two days.

May 31, 2004

In the post season, every college baseball team but one will end their season in a loss. Personally for me when that loss occurs it is tough. I try to get our players to realize what a privilege it is to be able to come to the park and put on the uniform of a Division I baseball player. But as a player you sometimes take that for granted. I want them to value each and every day you can be called a ballplayer, because one day it will come to an end. For our seniors, their time as a college athlete is over. I will forever be in debt to them for the contribution they have made in building our program into something which I know they will be proud of for the rest of their lives. Andy Howdeshell, Troy Moock, Josh Kite and Tim Turner have all left their mark on ETSU baseball and they will be sorely missed. I am proud of them and I feel good inside knowing they are leaving our program ready to be successful at whatever life throws at them.

It takes time when the season ends to go back and evaluate and put everything in perspective. I feel really good about our program and the direction we are heading. We have a great nucleus of players returning who I know are going to return bigger, better and stronger for next year. We also are continuing to bring in quality players who I believe will immediately help get us to where we want to be. We won 28 games this year and our goal is to improve 10 to 12 wins for next year. If we do this then we will be where I want to be. Where do I want to be? This time next year I expect us to be practicing getting prepared for a NCAA Regional. On Monday afternoon I sat with my five year old son, Tilo and watched the NCAA Tournament Selection Show. Throughout the year whenever I leave the house to go to the office, to recruit or to go to a game or practice, Tilo will ask me where I’m going. I always tell him I’m on “The Road to Omaha”. As the show came on today, the theme ESPN had for the College World Series was “The Road to Omaha”. There is a song that is played when ESPN is showing college baseball and Tilo knows the words to this song by heart. When we get in the car the “Omaha Song” is always his first request. Today he sat directly in front of the television intently as the brackets and teams were being announced. He asked if ETSU was going to be called. I told him to watch and see. Since I have been at ETSU the thought of our team waiting to hear their name called on selection day has burned inside me. It is something which I want very badly for our players, coaches and program to experience. After the final team was announced Tilo said, “Dad, I didn’t hear the Bucs name called.” “You need to get back on the “Road to Omaha”. As he left the room, I thought yes I do son and I’m going to get on that road right now. Until Next Time…

COACH SKOLE