March 1: Georgia Tech 9, Georgia Southern 1

Although the score looks like a blowout, Southern helped us by making five errors in the game.

But I have to say, it was by far one of the most miserable days to play baseball. To shed some light on the weather conditions, it was actually snowing during BP. And yeah, it doesn’t snow in Atlanta.

This was one of those games in which you just have to be tougher and grind it out, and we were able to do so. Of course, immediately following the game, we hopped on a plane to go down to Orlando to play the Atlanta Braves.

March 2

I don’t remember the score but the Braves definitely shut us out not only in runs, but also no-hit us as well.

Although the atmosphere was amazing, getting no-hit just put a damper on the whole experience because they didn’t pitch anyone like Smoltz or Hudson. But on the bright side, we can say we didn’t waste any of our hits.

Away from the field, when we arrived, we all went to Steak and Shake since we were all starving. Of course when you get 20 or so guys together who have had a long day together, trouble tends to start. Apparently some of the guys wanted to relive their younger days by making and throwing paper airplanes all over Steak and Shake since we were the only ones in there. The waitresses were getting a kick out of it.

After dinner, we were hoping some of our (let’s just say more attractive) friends would be able to come meet up with us and hang out, but like the game, we were shut out.

Then it was off to Duke.

March 4-6

We drove up Thursday night after practice and, as always, went to the Golden Corral.

I almost made it to the bus until I couldn’t hold it any longer and continued to lose my food all over the parking lot. “Gotta love the GC!”

Anyhow, after dinner we ran into a huge traffic delay at 9:15 at night and basically were at a standstill for about an hour and a half. Needless to say, the guys on the bus were getting pretty frustrated, and everyone was arguing about movie selection.

Luckily, we pulled in at 2 in the morning and were in bed by 2:30.

Friday’s game was capitalized by Jason Neighborgall pitching five innings and striking out 12 with an umpire who made an excuse that it was hard to call balls and strikes because Jason threw too hard.

Despite the inconsistency behind the plate, we won the game 11-3 and were off to celebrate. While the coaches got to eat at Maggiano’s, we were dropped off at the mall to eat at the food court.

We were hoping to enjoy the scenery that the mall had to offer; unfortunately it was nothing to run home and shout about. It mainly consisted of high school girls who were way too young to even think about talking to.

The night was concluded with everyone playing their new Gameboys or cards, depending on the type of nerd they are. Our team is full of them, and I don’t think any of us care one bit.

On Saturday, Lee Hyde got off to a great start by shutting Duke down for six innings while our offense broke out and put up another 11-run thrashing.

Matt Wieters went 4 for 4 and had a great day at the plate hitting the ball all over the park.

Pretty much the same routine on Saturday night with the mall, video games and cards.

All was well until the fire alarm went off at 3 in the morning. Fortunately, there was no real fire, and had there been, I’m sure half of us would have burned alive because I was definitely too tired to get up, and I figured it was just somebody playing a joke.

Of course, our coaches thought we were the ones who pulled it until they realized how tired we actually were.

On Sunday Blake Wood pitched a great game for us, and Matt Wieters had another great day at the plate going 5 for 5 with a grand slam. Michael Fisher, Danny Payne and Tyler Greene also hit home runs. Greene’s home run had to be the best because of the amount of talking it will prevent from Jeff Kindel.

Since Greene was hurt at the beginning of the season, Kenny got off to an early home run lead and has been letting Tyler hear about it constantly ever since. But Greene put an end to the talking - for now anyway.

When we finally got home around 11, we were all excited to see the old “Rusty C” (Russ Chandler Stadium), as well as some beautiful “scenery” waiting to pick us up.