March 14-20

We got the week off to an interesting start at Tuesday’s practice. It was raining so hard that all we were able to do was hit in the cages up top (indoor). 

But the fun began as soon as practice was over…

A couple of the guys thought it would be a good idea to go tarp-sliding over the tarp. It was probably in the 40s outside, but we still had our fun. About four of us took off all over the field sliding all over the tarp until it basically got too cold for us. 

We were all getting ready to shower and hit the road when a dare was proposed to go out and tarp slide in my birthday suit. Unfortunately I got caught up in the moment and decided I would be an idiot and do it if they would pay me enough. Needless to say, it happened and there was actually a small clip of it caught on video but luckily the video was destroyed… Sorry ladies.

But now to the actual baseball stuff…

On Friday we beat NC State 9-5. Neighborgall gave us another quality start and improved to 5-0 on the season. Blackwood led the way offensively with three doubles.

Saturday’s game was all about our pitching staff.  Lee Hyde and Tim Gustafson combined for a four-hit shutout as we went on to beat the Wolfpack 5-0. Jeff Kindel had a two-run home run in this game to dead center.

Sunday’s game was by far the highlight of the weekend.  We scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to come back and win 11-10. One of the league’s best closers, Devine, had shut us down for four innings. But he simply ran out of gas at the end, and we took over in the ninth as Tyler Greene had the game-winning, walk-off hit off the right-field wall.

He kept running and was hoping to get an inside-the-park HR because the defenders obviously weren’t running after the ball since we had already won. Sorry about your luck buddy, it only counted as a single.

Sunday night began our spring break, and we had our first Kangaroo court party of the year. Needless to say, we came out of the night with plenty of stories to tell. All in all, it was a good week to be a Yellow Jacket.

March 21-27

We were supposed to play Auburn on Tuesday night, but we got rained out, so we ended up playing them on Wednesday night. Unfortunately we lost the game 7-6, and we really didn’t play that well. We had plenty of chances to win the game but just couldn’t seem to get any timely hits as we lost in 11 innings.

On Thursday morning we flew down to Miami for a three-game series. Once we got down here, we all went straight to the pool so we could finally get some sun and try and get rid of our farmer’s tans. A few of the guys went down to South Beach and had a good time, but they said it was interesting to say the least.

Friday, we ended our winning streak of consecutive regular season ACC games at 25.  Miami scored nine runs in the first inning off only one hit. We just couldn’t seem to find the strike zone, and it just turned into an ugly game. The final score wound up being 20-1, and that’s all I’m going say about that game. It just wasn’t fun.

Saturday, we were able to get our redemption as we beat Miami 17-7. 

Matt Wieters went 5 for 5 in the game, and Tyler Greene was 4 for 6. We tied a record for most hits given up by Miami with 22. Tim Gustafson recorded the win.

Despite the unbelievably hot weather conditions, it was nice to pull out the win. The fun part of the day came when Jeff Kindel and I went to Tyler Greene’s house. His parents were nice enough to invite us over for a nice home-cooked meal, which is always a treat.  Then we shot some pool and just hung around his house until we found a magazine with Tyler on the cover from high school. Needless to say, he won’t live that one down for the rest of the year as he gained yet another nickname as “The Future.”

Sunday’s game was another classic as we edged off Miami 11-10 by scoring four runs in the top of the ninth to take the lead. Matt Wieters gave us the lead with his two-run blast to make the score 11-9. Despite giving up one run in the bottom half, we were able to hold on to win.

Jeremy Slayden went 3 for 4 with two big home runs for us. It was his second home run that really got us going because the umpires had made a brutal call on a double play, and we ended up giving up four runs afterwards. But Jeremy’s home run gave us a little kick start, and we got rolling once again. Matt Wieters not only had the game-winning hit, but he also recorded the save for us.

I don’t know what it is about our team right now, but we just seem to always find a way to win and come up with big hit after big hit.

I just hope we can keep this thing rolling and keep winning, especially come June and July so we can finally get back to Omaha where every college baseball player dreams about going every season.