Entry #51 - 05/31/05

We boarded the bus early Tuesday morning to head to Charleston, South Carolina for the SoCon Tournament. I was very excited and optimistic about the next couple of days. The tournament field was very balanced and I knew if any of the eight teams got hot, then any team could win it. Down the stretch we had not played well on a consistent basis, but at times we were as good as anybody. In tournament baseball anything can happen.

We opened up on Wednesday afternoon versus Georgia Southern. In the fourth inning down 1-0, Shane Byrne hit a two out triple and Caleb Moore immediately followed with a huge blast to left on a first pitch change-up to give us a 2-1 lead. We had some momentum but couldn’t hold it as Georgia Southern went on to defeat us 7-3. Offensively we just could not capitalize as we stranded 11 runners on base. We had some great chances to take control of the game but could not get the timely hit. So now we had to turn around the next day and play The Citadel in an elimination game.

That night I met with Coach Goulet and Coach Mac about who we should start on the mound tomorrow. Facing elimination is tough and you want to do everything possible to survive to the next day. Coach Goulet and Coach Mac wanted to start Brian Lovett and use Caleb to close the game or bring him in immediately if we got into trouble. They didn’t feel we could get through the loser’s bracket without Caleb closing games.

I wanted to start Caleb because I felt he gave us our best chance to win on Thursday. If we did win, we would then have Brian to start versus Elon (who he had pitched great against earlier in the year) on Friday. We then could go to Steven Calicutt for the next game and now all of our sudden our pitching depth does not look so bad. I also figured if we did start Brian and had to use Caleb for a couple of innings, we would probably not have him to catch or pitch on Friday where we would have to win two games. I could not convince Coach Gou and Coach Mac of my logic, as they felt our best option was to start Brian. I went to bed that night not sure what I was going to do.

I tossed and turned all night and in the morning when I thought about our team, I wasn’t necessarily worried as much about our play as I was where we were psychologically. I knew that if we didn’t play well then we were not going to win anyway, but if we didn’t show up mentally then we were going to be defeated before we even got to the park. I felt like Caleb’s presence on the mound would give our guys a spark of confidence to get us going in the right direction. I decided to give the ball to Caleb.

Sometimes I’m too stubborn for my own good, and as it turned out I probably should have listened to Coach Gou and Coach Mac. As much as we debated over the issue, I just could not live with myself knowing that if we did lose and I did not give Caleb a chance to get us to the next day I would be kicking myself. Actually if I had to do it over again, I would do the same thing. It wasn’t a good day for our club as we got behind early and just could not catch up. The final score ended up being 10-6.

Going into the tournament obviously you have to play well to advance. We just could not seem to get things going in our direction. For me it is awful when the season ends. The feeling I get in my stomach just deflates me. It is tough to know there are not going to be any more games for this season. When your season ends in a loss (and it will for every team in the post-season accept one), then it takes a while to get over it.

After moping around for a couple of days and driving my wife crazy, she finally had enough of it and said I need to look at all the good things we accomplished this year. When I finally sat down to look at it, I realized she was right (She always is.). Here are some of our final totals from this season:

• Team Grade Point Average over 3.0.
• Seven players with a 3.7 GPA or better
  {Richie Billings, Mike Giroud, Caleb Glafenhein, Josiah Glafenhein (4.0 GPA), Jeremy Hall, Trevor Smith and John Weddle}
• Outstanding Community Service - Our players were remarkable with this all year long.
• 31 Wins over Division I opponents is the most in school history.
• 8 game winning streak is the longest in school history versus Division I opponents.
• Six Players receiving All Southern Conference Honors
  (Caleb Moore, Blake Church, *Nick Crowe, Jeremy Hall, Chuck Hargis and Shane Byrne)
• 19th in Nation in Batting Average
• 18th in Nation in Scoring
• 10th in Nation in Homeruns
• 3rd in Nation in Doubles
• 5th in Nation in Slugging Percentage
• Caleb Moore 5th in Nation in RBI’s
• Caleb Moore 18th in Nation in Slugging Percentage
• Caleb Moore 23rd in Nation in Saves
• Chuck Hargis 7th in Nation Doubles
• Chuck Hargis 49th in Nation in Batting Average
• Shane Byrne 8th in Nation in Runs Scored
• Nick Crowe 45th in Nation in Batting Average
• Jeremy Hall 25th in Nation in Wins

Not too shabby when you see it all on paper. Our season ends another chapter of ETSU Baseball and no doubt it was one of the best in school history. It was our final season in the Southern Conference as we will join the Atlantic Sun Conference next season. I am very excited about this move as it will give our program an opportunity to build a new tradition and create a new identity. I am very proud of the current state of ETSU Baseball. Our administration has given us great support in helping us make this transition. I know our players and coaches are eager to get to the next level. The only thing our program is lacking is post season tradition. Once we break that seal, our program will explode. We will return our most talented team since I have been here and we are bringing in a very solid recruiting class. I’m excited about the future. Our first team meeting is only 86 days away.

Until Next Time...

Coach Skole