Short Hops
Apr 21, 2004 | Baseball
April 21, 2004
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Greetings. I'm sorry again for being so late to get this week's post out, but I've been swamped with work. I think my professors all got together to find a way to assign two exams, two group presentations and two group papers all in a four-day span. The week before and the week of finals is always ridiculously busy, but the thing that keeps me motivated is the mindset that it will all be over in a couple of weeks and I'll just be playing ball with no distractions.
I don't think I need to talk a lot about this past week's games. Everyone who saw the box score knows what happened. We went 1-3 on the week and lost ground in the race for the Conference USA title. Something you won't read in the box score is that this team is not fazed by it. Even though we lost that tough game on Sunday virtue of a walk-off homerun, I was really proud to be in our dugout. We put ourselves in a position to win and our entire team was energized the entire game, pulling for each other for nine innings. Although the outcome was unfavorable, we pulled together closer as a team. The team is what matters. That talent is important, but I think we all agree that it is the team, not always the talent, that gets us closer to that ring.
I know we have a lot of critics out there who disagree with some of our moves and are dissatisfied with the way we are playing right now. They are our best fans, though. They have that right because they know the team the best. Remember, though, that we care just as much about succeeding as you do. We've been working to get to Omaha since the minute we walked back on campus in the fall. We've been through the 6 a.m. workouts, the fall practices that never seemed to end, and the extra hitting in the Hack Shack. This team has been through a lot together and it's all been for one thing: to get to Omaha and win a National Championship. We're not going to let one bad week of baseball take us off track of what we've been working for over the past eight months. I know you guys are going to stick with us. As players, we too sometimes don't agree with everything that happens on the field or with some of the moves that are made, but we respect the manner in which they were made and we play the hand that we are dealt with 100 percent effort and support of the coaches that make the decisions. Just remember that we're all in this together.
We have an important week of baseball in front of us; one that the team is really excited about because we have a chance to make a serious move in the conference race. We face UL-Lafayette at Zephyr Field tonight, and we square up against our conference rivals, the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, at Turchin Stadium this weekend. It should be a great week of baseball that we can use to turn our momentum around. Please help us out and come to cheer us on. I know you want this series against USM just as badly as we do. See you at the field.
Roll Wave,
Tommy
