Short Hops
Mar 24, 2005 | Baseball
March 23, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Hey Guys. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to write for a while, but I've been incredibly busy with midterms. Right, now, however, we're enjoying a much-needed Spring Break so I scraped together some time to talk about the last two weeks of baseball.
After losing two out of three games to the defending national champion Cal State Fullerton, we were able to regain our composure and have since gone on a six-game win streak. We've sandwiched a huge conference-opening sweep against East Carolina, which was ranked in the Top 25, with wins against Texas Southern and a very strong Northwestern State team. And, it seems our best baseball is yet to come.
We learned a lot about ourselves as a team during the Fullerton series. After Fullerton's one-sided victory on Friday night and quick start on Saturday, the team refocused and showed that we were just as good as those guys. Although we came up a run short on Saturday, it was very instrumental in proving to ourselves that we were capable of beating those guys. It was the confidence that we got from Saturday's comeback that fueled our Sunday win.
The team took that momentum into conference play, beginning with defending C-USA champ East Carolina. I like the way we played together as a team all weekend, especially when we took care of business early on Saturday after Friday's emotional win. Then, battling the clock, we came from behind to take the lead as time expired to pull out the sweep on Sunday.
The sweep was very important to us. In conference play, winning every series we play won't suffice because the title is determined by how many games we win, not by how many series we win. Therefore, the Sunday sweep game is just as important as any Friday-night game. Our team mentality is to play each game separate of the others. We work hard to mentally separate last weeks wins or yesterday's win from today's game. Every game is just as important as the next. Just as you need to put a tough loss behind you, you need to put a good win behind you even more so. It was that mentality that enabled us to come back and win on Sunday.
Looking objectively, taking two of three games from a team as good as East Carolina is an accomplishment and it could have been real easy for us to take that mentality and not seize the opportunity to come back. But this team realizes its potential and takes pride in putting each game behind us and being just as hungry for a win to sweep on Sunday as we are for a win on Friday.
We're heading to Louisville this weekend to continue conference play. I'm really anxious to see how our team responds on this road test. I think our tough non-conference schedule has helped us to see how good of a team we are, both early in games and in pressure situations. It has told us a lot about ourselves. Hopefully, now, we'll continue to reap the benefits from that as we roll through our conference schedule.
Well I've got to head out right now. I hope you guys enjoy listening to the games this weekend. See you next weekend at Turchin. Until next time...
Roll Wave,
Tommy
