Baby Steps

On Sunday we returned from our Spring Break Southern Baseball trip.  For the most part, it was a struggle trying to win games.  Our opponents were other northern DII teams who were doing the same thing we were doing—beginning the season in warmer weather without having to miss any time in the classroom.

We began the trip in Louisville for the second straight weekend.  Though we didn’t win any of our four games there, on Sunday our starting pitchers, both in their first college starts, did a great job of pitching late enough in the games and giving us a chance to win the games.  When we went from Louisville to Clearwater, Florida, the struggles continued as our starting pitchers kept us in the games roughly half of the time.

As the hitters were having their own issues trying to be more consistent in reaching base, moving and driving home runners, and extending rallies, our starting pitchers often set the tone early in each game, good or bad.  By the end of the trip, the hitters started to find a groove, and scoring runs seemed to come a little easier.  Not only were we swinging the bats better, but we had so many more good at bats later in the trip than we did earlier in the week.

We ended up winning only the last game of the trip, just prior to showering and boarding the bus for the 21 hour ride home.  That last game victory, in combination with scoring significantly more runs in the last few games than we had done in our previous games, made the bus ride home a little more enjoyable.  The twelve game trip also gave us opportunities to see some guys get valuable experience, and provided on the job learning for players and coaches alike.

I am in my 26^th year as a college baseball coach.  I have experience early season struggles several times in the past.  One of the many important aspects of trying to improve as a team is dealing with the mental part of being competitive athletes and being great teammates while dealing with disappointment.  We have had a series of what we call ‘chalk talks’, beginning in the first semester, to discuss ideas and definitions of things like what a team is and what teammates are, of expectations, confidence, belief, trust, communication, and team goals, etc.  Sometimes it is easy for athletes to understand mental/emotional concepts and theories, but more difficult to put them into practice when they get in competitive situations.

When athletes and teams are in the process of doing new things, like we are doing, the learning curve can sometimes take backwards steps before taking leaps forward.  Understanding that belief in one’s self is one thing, but putting that belief into action and successfully executing in perceived pressure situations can be a difficult challenge.

Our players are getting better, and thus the team is improving.  Our goals for the season, to compete in the post-season for a championship, are still there for us to achieve as we begin our GLIAC conference schedule this week.  The ability of our guys to check their thoughts, use Thought Replacement Therapy when necessary, visualize success, and compete like dirtbags is getting better each day. 

I’m looking forward to seeing where their efforts take us in the next couple months!!

Back to Louisville

We played our first two games last weekend in Louisville against Davis & Elkins College out of West Virginia.  Our Sunday doubleheader against Alderson Broaddus University was canceled due to rain, sleet and snow.  Though we hoped to play all four scheduled games, getting the two games in gave us a starting point and a good idea of some things to focus on during this week's practices.

We came out of the doubleheader with a split.  We won game one 3-2 and lost the second game by a 6-1 score.  From a pitching perspective, our starting pitchers did a good enough job to give us a chance to win in both games, and in that respect, they did what we always want starting pitchers to do.

In game one, Shane Armstrong did a very good job of damage control, considering that his first pitch strike percentage was well below our goal and his overall strike percentage hovered at 50%.  Taking care of damage control is evidenced by the two double plays that we turned with him on the mound and allowing only three hits in 5 1/3 innings.  The double plays, in combination with allowing only three hits, made the low strike percentage and a handful of freebies tolerable and allowed us to give up only two runs and win the game.  The bullpen did a great job, as Colin Gerish induced another double play ball after he entered with one out in the sixth and Dan Pochmara struck out three batters in the seventh for the save.

In the second game, Matt Reck pitched very much like Shane had previously done.  Matt did a better job at getting first pitch strikes (14 of 21), but like Shane, his overall strike percentage wasn't what it should be. Matt did give us a chance to win, as he did a good job with damage control by also allowing only three hits. He left the game as we trailed 2-1 in the sixth inning after allowing the first two runners to reach base, but when we went to the bullpen, we did not take care of damage control; thus D & E put a rally together in the bottom of the sixth.

We do have to tip our cap to the Davis & Elkins game two pitcher, as he did a nice job of pitching at the bottom of the strike zone, not letting our hitters string together many hits and push runners across the plate.

We were happy to give our head coach Eric Theisen his first college head coaching victory, but he knows as well as the rest of us do that we can play and execute much better than we did in earning the doubleheader split.  We have plenty of chances to do that this weekend with four nine-inning games in Louisville and then eight more next week in Florida.

We've only just begun, and the attitudes of our players and their willingness to keep working hard will result in daily and weekly improvements.  A week of baseball in the warm weather, with nothing else to think about.....beginning with tomorrow's bus ride.....well, it doesn't get much better than that!