Short Hops
Feb 22, 2005 | Baseball
Feb. 22, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Well, two weeks have passed and the Wave is 7-0, fresh off of a sweep of the 11th ranked Arizona State Sun Devils. I'm sure that, by now, all of you have realized how special this team has the potential to be. Thus far, it's been very exciting. The support has really been something special, especially from the students.
We've always had great fan support, but I think we all agree that we've never had this much support from the student body. The amount of students at our games has been incredible. They are really embracing this team. You can't walk through campus for five minutes without someone wishing us luck for the weekend or commenting on how much fun they've had at our games. I think it is a huge positive not just for Tulane baseball, but for Tulane Athletics as a whole.
I don't think the team realized how much our fans have anticipated the start of this season until opening night against Southeast Missouri State. The third largest crowd in the history of Turchin Stadium showed up to see us kick off the year. It was such an electric feeling to be playing in that type of atmosphere. We didn't swing the bats as well as we are capable of, but our pitching and defense were superb and we pulled off our first sweep of the year.
The same thing held true for our midweek game against McNeese State. As will probably be the norm all year, McNeese took a shot at us with their ace on the mound, making it tough for us to put big innings together early. However, a strong pitching performance by Brandon Gomes (glad to see him back out there) kept us in a position to take the game with some runs late in the game to take the win.
This is something that will be key for us all year. We expect to see everybody's best arm so, although it would be ideal, we won't be able to score 10 runs every game. If our pitching and defense can keep us close in those types of games, though, our offense will find ways to win those ball games.
That wasn't necessarily the case against Sun Devils, however. The bats were in working order, our pitching was right on the mark, and our defense was not far from flawless. Now don't get me wrong, there are lots of areas we know we need to improve on. That being said, I like the progress we've made from game to game and that's the sign of a team maturing.
The attitude of this team is something that is unlike that of any of the teams I have been on here at Tulane. In past years, a win over a team ranked in the Top 15 would seem almost like we pulled off an upset. However, after we won the first game against ASU on Friday night, it didn't feel much different than any of our previous wins this season. All the guys up in the clubhouse were already starting to focus on Saturday's game. Then, after we won the series of Saturday, everyone was immediately starting to talk about focusing on the sweep on Sunday.
As a team, our goal is to go out and win the game we play that particular day. Now, we all know that an undefeated college baseball season is nearly impossible, but as long as we keep that attitude, we're going to win our fair share of ballgames.
Well, I've got to go for now. There's lots of work to be done before we leave for Malibu on Thursday morning. If you can't make the trip to Malibu, listen to Graff on the radio. Hopefully the weather clears up around there in time for the Wave to come to town. Until next time...
Roll Wave,
Tommy
