North Carolina’s weather never ceases to amaze me. On Friday, our stadium was used as a tanning salon for the girls of Wake Forest, and on Sunday we had to cancel our game due to SNOW! As luck would have it, it snowed just enough to cancel our game, but not enough to cancel Monday’s classes. Despite my present bitterness with the weather, we were able to play four games last week. 

On Tuesday, we beat High Point 18-3. Adam Hanson finally got to start the first game of his career. He had been scheduled to start six times in the past three years, but each game was rained out. The wait paid off, as he got the victory and pitched very well. The game almost was put out of reach in the first inning when we scored nine runs on one hit. Yes one hit – a bases-clearing double by Steve LeFaivre. If you can’t imagine how that was done, don’t worry; we are still trying to figure it out ourselves. 

On Wednesday, we took on the scrappy UNC Greensboro Spartans under the lights at historic Ernie Shore Field. They are the type of team that you love to watch play but hate to play against because they play hard and always seem to manufacture runs. We survived and beat them 9-6. Brian Bach did an excellent job of containing them, allowing only three runs in eight innings. Our offense finally was able to perform well after scoring a lot of runs the game before. Up until that point, it looked like we thought the runs from our big days would be carried over to the next game. We had been stressing consistency in our game preparation, and it was great to see it pay off. 

Our practice on Thursday was conducted with relaxed intensity. Previously, we had either been relaxed to the point that it seemed like we didn’t care what was going on or been so intense that we played tight or timid. After two years of playing together, it is clear that we only perform well if we balance these two styles.

Duke came to Winston-Salem on Friday, and we were focused on keeping the momentum going. We still had a bad taste in our mouths from last year’s series, when they beat us the last weekend of the year and cost us the regular-season ACC title. Kyle Sleeth took the mound looking for his 26^th consecutive victory. The second batter of the game, Brian Patrick, hit an opposite-field home run, and it looked like a team may have finally figured Sleeth out. However, he shut them down after that and did not allow any more runs. Kyle gives us a consistent performance week in and week out. I could probably write my senior thesis about all of the success that he has had, but he never seems satisfied with what he has done. He is always looking to get better and just help the team. After playing small ball the past couple weeks, our offense finally got back into “gorilla ball” mode. Jamie D’Antona, LeFaivre and I each hit home runs and as a team we had four doubles.     

We went back to Ernie Shore Field on Saturday to play under the lights. We are still the only team in the ACC without lights, but our Student Government has been working hard in conjunction with the Athletic Department and school administrators to bring lights to Gene Hooks Stadium. It may be the first time in college baseball history that regular students have led the initiative to get their team lights.

Duke jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first, and our team was about to see what it was made of. We could have folded as we did the weekend before, but we did not want to fail again. We were patient and did not let being behind change our game plan. We relied on a balanced attack to score seven runs. Tim Morley did an excellent job of keeping the Blue Devils contained and gave us a chance to win the game. Adam Hanson entered in the seventh and pitched three solid innings of relief. The final score was 7-4. 

As I said earlier, Sunday’s game was snowed out. The day off gave us a chance to catch up on our studies, sleep and play video games (with a heavy emphasis put on sleep and video games, I think). This week we play under the lights at Davidson on Wednesday. Then we travel to Tallahassee to take on the Seminoles of Florida State. In case playing Florida State isn’t enough to fire our team up, the knowledge that we haven’t won there in almost a decade should do the trick.

Ryan Johnson

(photo courtesy of WFU Media Relations Office)