March 16, 2010
Season's Change
In almost every sport, the schedule breaks down into sections. Some sports do it in thirds, some cut them in half and some cut them into fourths. Over the last 5 years since I have arrived at Coastal, I have broken ours up into thirds; the tournaments, conference schedule, and conference tournament or post season play. We have just finished the first part of the season and now we are moving into our second. I remember sitting in the office as a staff discussing our team back in January and hoping that we could get through the first part of the season with our heads above water and get better every day to prepare our guys for the conference season. We all want to say we exceeded our expectations, but I don't like to think that way, and I have to credit our kids for the way they played these first 17 games. They knew what they had in front of them and met the challenge every single day at practice. They showed up ready to go and they have done the same thing day in and day out throughout the early part of this season. They know it is still way too early to start patting themselves on the back and they will be ready for the next challenges that await them. They enjoy playing baseball, and they enjoy being around each other. It is so much fun to be able to coach a bunch of kids that just show up and play everyday. They focus on each other and the game.
This past weekend was the fourth straight tournament for the Chants and we had two very good opponents that were ready to play us. Friday night was not your typical Friday night pitchers duel. Cody Wheeler toed the mound for us and you have to feel pretty confident when he is out there. After a shaky first inning he settled down and we were up 8-2 and felt pretty good with him on the mound and a fresh bullpen. Last week, I wrote that's why you play 9 innings and Illinois had that mentality. Baseball is a crazy sport and it can make the sanest person go up a wall. The great part about it is you get to play the next day. We took a tough loss on Friday night and I was anxious to get to the park on Saturday to see how kids were when I arrived. It was awesome to walk into that clubhouse and our kids had the music going. They were out in the cages getting their early work done and they were ready to play 18 innings of baseball, and that's what they did. They met the challenge in game one against a good Michigan team. If you have ever listened to Anthony Meo's walk out song "My Time" in the lyrics it says "You can't worry about the past because that was yesterday" and that's what Ant did against Michigan and he kick started the day for us; that and some timely hitting and a couple of home runs. Then they had another shot at Illinois and they responded to everything that was thrown at them. I was proud of the them, especially since the day started at 10 am and ended at almost 10 that night and we had to get ready to play against Michigan again on Sunday against there best guy on the mound. By the way, did I mention the clocks moved up so we lost an hour of rest going into Sunday?
Back at the yard Sunday morning and, again, there are our guys ready to go, getting prepared to play a third game in 24 hours. And they responded again. They met the challenge. Not one guy looked tired or out of gas. Austin Fleet got the start and what a start he had. I have talked about meeting challenges this whole time, and if you have never met Austin Fleet you need to go out of your way to try to introduce yourself to him. He is as tough a kid that I have ever been around, he has met every challenge that has come into his life head on and he has overcome all of them. I have been around him for 5 years and it will be a tough day when he walks out of this program. He has never missed a practice, tarp pull, lift or team meeting over those 5 years. I forgot to mention he was hurt during his sophomore year and he traveled with the team knowing he couldn't pitch. He just wanted to be there. Friday night against Illinois, Austin faced some adversity. It's not how you react to it, it's how you respond to it and Sunday against Michigan that kid did. He took the ball just like he did last year in the conference tournament and said I am getting us to the 7th inning. That is Austin Fleet, he always responds.
The second half of the season begins this week, we have a tough mid-week game against College of Charleston and then Conference opens on the road at Charleston Southern. I know our guys will be ready for the next set of challenges that is in front of them.
Something that I have overlooked these first few weeks is to thank our wives. Our entire staff has the best spouses and fiancées you could ever ask for. They spend a lot of time away from us and they spend a lot of time at the ballpark watching our guys or at least they seem to be watching our guys. I am not sure if they are talking or watching, but that is for another entry. (Just kidding). They are the so important in all our lives and they are the reason that we can have success. They support us and allow us to be coaches. Thank you Ladies!
In the immortal words of Pat Benatar's "All Fired Up", let's get ready for the second part of the season.
