Success

So another season ended yesterday, but it's never really just another season.  It is a journey that includes so much more than competing against opponents on the field.  A season is like an adventure with a group of guys who are all in it for like reasons, to have each other's backs and to succeed in reaching common goals.

This season and this team were similar to past seasons and past teams, only different.  As is the case every year, this particular group of guys have only one year together.  Eight of them graduate and move on, and next year some new players will join the core group of returning players.  This isn't anything new; it takes place every year for every team in America.

This season was filled with success.  Some people didn't expect this team to be as good as it was, due to the graduation of several of the league's top players last year.  Personally, I expected nothing but success and expected to compete for the NCAA DIII National Championship.  The fact that we were eliminated from the Mideast Regional Tournament on Friday means that we will not win the National Championship, but by no means was the season a failure.

We can measure success in many different ways.  This was a team which was among the DIII statistical leaders in several categories, such as batting average, slugging percentage, scoring, triples, earned run average, pitchers' walks per game, and strikeout to walk ratio.  But those statistics are not what made the season a success.

Several individual team members set or broke team and MIAA Conference records as well, in hitting and pitching categories, and five guys were named to the Mideast All Region teams.  But that really isn't what made this team successful.

This year's Adrian College Baseball Team won 37 games, setting a school record and giving this senior class the most wins of any class in Adrian Baseball history.  It also won it's fourth straight MIAA regular season championship and became the first ever MIAA Conference Tournament Champions.  Successful?  Yes, but not due to on the field performance.

The great success of this squad has more to do with a group of college student-athletes who cared about the team more than they cared about themselves.  They were friends and mentors, teachers and students, companions and warriors.  They put the team ahead of themselves and nurtured positive relationships with each other.  They trusted each other and knew that when they stepped on the field for practices and games they were going to help each other improve as teammates and as players.

Most importantly, they gave everything they had for each other, and expected nothing in return.  By expecting nothing in return, they were rewarded with a lifetime of brotherhood and memories.  For that reason, they were so very successful.  I congratulate them and love them!!

On to the next task

Yesterday we won the championship in the first MIAA Baseball Tournament, earning a automatic berth into the NCAA DIII Regionals next week.  In past seasons we earned the privilege to compete in the regionals by winning our regular season championship.  Though we did win the regular season title again, we had to prove it all over again on the field this week by winning the four-team, double elimination conference tournament.  We completed the job without a loss, thanks to some fantastic execution by our hitters, defensive players, and pitchers.

Congratulations to our eight seniors, who were MIAA Champions all four years here at Adrian College!!  They are the first group to do so since some Alma College players did it back in the 1950s!!

Our players know that the season does not end here; we've still got some work to do!  We advanced to the DIII College World Series in 2008, but that was a year before these seniors put on their AC uniforms.  We now must go win a Regional Tournament, most likely in Marietta, Ohio, to advance to the CWS again.

Obviously, the regional tournament will have other championship teams trying to achieve the same goal that our team has.  One of those teams is Marietta College, the defending national champions who just won their conference tournament today.  In 2011 we played them in a doubleheader in Florida and split the two games with them, losing 3-1 and winning 2-0.

What do we have to do to continue our success in the post-season?  The answer is that we need to keep executing in the batters box, on the mound, and with our gloves.  Our plan as a pitching staff has been the same all season: throw first pitch strikes, get leadoff batters out, throw to the bottom of the strike zone, and successfully manage damage control.  The pitchers know that this team's offense is going to put some runs on the scoreboard, and that always takes some pressure off of the defense and pitching.

Our team is among the DIII national leaders in some statistical categories as we prepare for the regionals.  Among those categories are slugging percentage, batting average, runs per game, triples, earned run average, walks allowed per game, and strikeout to walk ratio.  With some of those categories, the keys to success have so much to do with taking care of the little things and focusing on the task at hand.  Once we take care of the task at hand, we can focus on the next one.  One pitch at a time, on batter at a time, one inning at a time, and one game at a time.

We call that Business as Usual.

Before I finish this, I want to give a proud shout out to my Alma Mater and former team, the Saints of Siena Heights University, who won the WHAC Tournament and advanced to the semi-finals in the opening round of the NAIA National Tournament.  Congrats to Coach John Kolasinski, his staff and all the players.  In addition, continued good luck to our former AC coaches Luke Harrigan and Xander Younce, who are currently in their third game of the WVIAC Tournament.

Today is the beginning

Okay, today is graduation day for our ten seniors.  Hopefully they will enjoy this day with their families, friends and teammates as it signifies the beginning of the rest of their lives.  Fortunately though, they don't have to leave campus yet, as they still have some business to take care of.

We clinched the MIAA championship on Friday by beating Albion College twice at their field in two one run games.  We had already beaten them twice at home on Thursday.  Now there is certainty in the numbers; we have officially earned a trip to the NCAA DIII Regionals. We still have six conference games remaining to continue to improve as individual players, as coaches, and as a team.  The regional tournament isn't going to be something that we can win without getting better than we already are, so these last six games should be played with the idea that we are preparing for success in the regional tournament.

One of the best things about the way we won the two games at Albion is that we had to execute late in each game to earn the wins.  In game one we fell behind 3-0 in the second inning, but we held them scoreless through the 7th inning as we battled and tied the game before winning it in an extra inning.  Mike Herzog was the offensive hero with huge rbi hits scattered throughout the game, and Rylie Robinson kept putting up zeroes in Albion's half of each inning.  I thought that our mvp in this team victory was catcher Joe Dubina, who blocked several breaking balls in the dirt to prevent baserunners from advancing in almost every inning.  As always, Joe saved us some runs!!

Game two was a quick game, as Josh Burd threw only 60 pitches in the first six innings and Jake Cappelletty had two rbis, including a solo home run (did he get that home run ball yet?) to get us into the bottom of the 7th with a 2-0 lead.  The bottom of the 7th began with Albion hitting a double, reaching on an error, and hitting another double off of Burd to put the tying run on third and the potential winning (walk-off) run on second base with nobody out.  Fortunately we had Lucas Willitzer ready to come into the game from the bullpen, even though Burd had easily cruised through those first six innings.

Coming out of the bullpen with the game on the line, runners on base, and nobody out is not an easy thing for a pitcher to do.  We haven't had many situations like this in recent weeks, so this was a good game situation for our guys to try to deal with.  Lucas has a great arm, and we have been real cautious with it during the season.  We found out that he has the ability (and more importantly the attitude) to close out a game in such a circumstance.  He got the first guy on a routine ground ball to third, and then basically blew fastballs by the next two guys for two strikeouts to clinch the game and the conference title.  Winning the game in that manner made the victory so much better for our team than if it wasn't such a nail-biter

After today's graduation, our guys can prepare each day for the trip to the Regionals in a couple weeks.  It is an opportunity to finish strong in the conference season and sweat the small stuff at practices each day, so that we are confident and proficient in all aspects of the game when that regional tournament begins.

Today is the beginning, but it isn't the beginning of the end.  It is the beginning of a few weeks to continue playing and acting like champions, of several days of looking and believing like champions do. Today we can celebrate the academic achievements of the seniors, and tomorrow those seniors can lead us to complete the goals we set before the season started.

"I believe in the promised land."  Bruce Springsteen