Hello Fans!

Just want to start off by saying “It’s a Great Day to be a Bobcat!” The other day Coach Harrington asked me if I would be willing to write a weekly journal talking about the 2010 baseball team. I was really excited and honored for the opportunity to let fans get a look into the lives and activities of the Texas State Baseball Team.

I would like to introduce myself before I get into all the exciting things that are happening in San Marcos. My name is Kyle Livingstone, and I am a senior converted first baseman. I will be making the switch from second base to first base this year, and it should be a lot of fun. I am a marketing major and will be graduating in May. So, this is my last year of school and baseball, and I am hoping I can go out with a bang.

This past weekend was filled with a lot of fun and excitement. We had our baseball banquet and our first ever alumni game. This was our second year to have a baseball banquet, and we had a great turnout with many former players, families and friends in attendance. We had Trey Hillman, the Kansas City Royals manager, as the headline speaker. It was very cool to get to visit and hang out with a major league manager.

The highlight of the night for me was a dance that a couple of my teammates and I performed. To kickoff the banquet, our hitting coach Jeremy Fikac asked me to get a couple guys and choreograph a dance. This was a pretty challenging task since coach only gave us two days to get ready to perform. Bret Atwood, Cody Gambill, Jason Martinson, Jordan Kopycinski, Clint Vest, Cole Franco and I performed a dance to “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas. We really had fun, and the crowd loved our dance. So, if baseball doesn’t work out for us, I think we might just start a dance crew.

The next day we had our first ever alumni game. We played a five-inning game taking down the alums 2-1. It was a very fun and competitive game. It was nice getting to see and play against many former teammates.

Now let’s discuss the upcoming 2010 season.

We have been practicing for a little over a week and half now with most practices consisting of intrasquad games. Everyone was excited to get back on the field and start preparing for the upcoming season. Unfortunately, the weather has not been very kind to us so far. Each day of practice has been wet, rainy and cold, but it hasn’t stopped us from getting a lot of work done.

Our pitchers have been very dominating early on during the intrasquad games. As a hitter, I will tell you it’s the cold weather that’s getting me, not you! Just kidding.

All joking aside, the pitchers have been really impressive, and we are expecting big things from them. We should have an excellent rotation and one of the deepest bullpens we have had in years.

The hitters are still trying to get their timing down. Each day, swings are getting better and better as we see more live pitching. This year we will be replacing some bats from last year’s squad and be looking for different guys to really step up and fill the void.  Despite the losses, we do return top hitters Tyler Sibley, Bret Atwood, Jason Martinson, Jordan Kopycinski and Kyle Kubitza.

This year, our goals and expectations are very high.  We were recently picked to win the Southland Conference regular season championship. This certainly sets up expectations, and we’ll be trying to live up to these expectations all year long.

Also, we will be playing probably the toughest schedule in Bobcat history with 10 games against preseason Top 30 teams (No. 1 Texas, Rice, TCU, etc). Our midweek games will be very challenging, but this is what we want as players. We want to play the big-time programs and show people we belong. To be a Top 25 team, we understand we have to play a Top 25 schedule.

This is going to be a fun and exciting year for Bobcat baseball. We can’t wait to get the season started off in less than two weeks against Houston. We are going to be pushing ourselves hard in practice the next few weeks and be ready for opening day.  I will be updating the journal every week for the whole season so stay tuned.

Eat `Em Up Cats!

Kyle Livingstone

(photos courtesy of Texas State Media Relations Office)