Bring out the Brooms for Opening Weekend

Hey Baseball Fans!

So, my last opening day of college baseball came and went and I couldn’t be any happier with the results, 3-0 sweep. I couldn’t imagine a better start to my senior year. It was exciting to get to play someone other than your own team for once. The weather was perfect, the rain held off and it was a great weekend for baseball.

Away games are always fun, because you get to ride in a bus with a lot of dudes! This year as a senior, I got to pick my own seat and share it with only myself. I remember my freshman days having to clean the bus and double up on the bus rides. Aah! The memories.  We watched a couple movies: Couples Retreat, Zombieland and Law Abiding Citizen. Law Abiding Citizen was my favorite. Pretty solid movie.

My goatee received a lot of attention this weekend from parents and players on the other team.  A player from Houston asked how long it took me to grow it. Well, I have been growing it since November and now it is pretty long and some would say repulsive. I, on the other hand, love it but it does itch from time to time. I think it gave me a little power boost this weekend and I hope it can continue for a while. As long as we keep playing well, I’ll be keeping the goatee, much to the dismay of my girlfriend.

Let’s talk about the games!

Friday, we arrived in Houston ready to get the season under way.  We stopped at our hotel first to unpack and relax for a little while before the game. On the way to the field, players had their head phones on and were anxious to get the season started. As the national anthem played, I really tried to soak in the moment since this was my last opening day. As the song was being played I couldn’t help but notice the field was beautiful, the flag was waving in the wind, and that the season was finally here. We sent senior Michael Russo to the mound to start the season off and he did not disappoint. He threw six shutout innings and really set the momentum for the rest of the team. Carson Smith came in relief and was equally effective. He completed the shutout and was dazzling, touching 96 on the radar gun. Our offense was slow for the first five innings. We faced a very good starter, Goodnight, who was 94 the whole night. Once we caught up to his fastball and adjusted to the night game, the offense got rolling and we won the first game 6-0. What a great start for Bobcat Baseball.

Saturday morning I woke up to my roommate, Jordan Kopycinski, moaning and yelling “I feel terrible”. I echoed his pain as my legs were pretty sore. You forget how long an actual nine-inning game really is when you haven’t played one in a while. We were lucky we had another night game that day so we had some extra time to recover. After we had breakfast at the hotel all the position players met with strength coach Jeremy McMillan for a quick full-body lift. Jeremy put together a short circuit workout to try and get rid of some of the soreness players were feeling from the night before. After we got moving around and got the blood flowing I felt a lot better as did most of the other players. Jeremy does a great job with us and is a tireless worker. I just want to say Jeremy “You’re the man!”

Saturday night was the game and it was our first comeback win of the year. Houston got some early runs off some dink hits. Lee Colon came in relief and was masterful. He shut down their offense completely and he really stepped up when we needed him to.  The game was tied until Bret Atwood stepped up and broke the game open with a deep double down the line. I have to give Bret some love here, our website said it was a slap double, but it was almost a home run. There you go Bret, some love for your power, keep doing your bicep workout. After the game, I was able to go to dinner with my family and cousins. We went to Papa’s Burger which was delicious. Feeling good about the win, I treated myself to a very delicious strawberry banana milkshake. I have to keep my first base body intact and I can’t let the season start wearing me down.

Sunday we had a chance to sweep. Brian Borski was on the mound and really battled for us after giving up some early runs.  The game was knotted at 2 apiece, and Tyler Sibley came up with runners on first and second nobody out. Tyler missed his first two bunt attempts on purpose, so he could deliver a hanging slider over the wall for a three-run home run. Who wants to bunt went you can go yard? We had a 9 to 2 lead and that’s when Houston mounted a comeback. Our bullpen struggled for the first time all weekend and we had a near flashback to last year’s regional meltdown. The Cougars got within two runs and it seemed we couldn’t get anybody out. However, Carson Smith, who closed out Friday night’s game and who was supposed to start on Tuesday against Rice, couldn’t watch anymore. He told our pitching coach he wanted to close out the game and he quickly got loose.  He came in dealing with quite a jam, bases loaded and nobody out. He proceeded to retire three straight batters and collected his second save on the weekend.

After the game, coach was pleased with how we had played during the weekend, but he told us it was good to experience a little failure towards the end of the game. We know there are still areas where we need to get better at. We did not come close to playing our best baseball this weekend which is a good sign considering we still were able to get three wins. We are going to try and to continue to get better as we have some tough games coming up this week with Rice, Baylor, A&M, and Western Kentucky.

The only downer on the weekend was that I had two tests waiting for me on Monday morning! So, on the bus ride back I got to pull out the books and start studying. We have to remember we are students first then athletes ha-ha. Well, we have a big week ahead of us and our hoping we can continue with the momentum we received this weekend.

Until next time, Eat ‘Em Up Cats!

Kyle Livingstone #2 in your programs #1 in your hearts!

(photos courtesy of Texas State Media Relations Office)