In what might be my last post on Ping! Baseball (unless they let me stay on as I continue my career) I would like to inform my billions of readers as to what has taken place over the past month on the UT baseball team.

As I discussed in my last blog we won the South Regional and were very excited to go to Cary, North Carolina for the Division 2 National Championship.  After a couple practices we were on a Southwest Airlines flight from Tampa to Raleigh/Durham International to compete for the school’s sixth National Championship.

We landed in time to get a light practice in before retiring to our hotel the night before our official practice at the USA National Training Complex.  We were only allowed 45 minutes on the main field, only enough time for batting practice and a quick infield/outfield practice.  Some lunch on our own and we were off to North Carolina State’s football stadium for the tournament banquet that always takes place the night before games begin.  We enjoyed from spaghetti and chicken parmesan and then back to the hotel to rest up for our game against Central Missouri.

After an hour lightning delay the game began and it was a nail-biter.  A strike three pass ball, a balk and one big swing gave the Mules a 3-0 victory and sent us into the lower bracket to face Georgia College and State in the first elimination game of the finals.

Two days later we were back on the field against the Bobcats with our backs against the wall.  The added pressure did not quite fuel us enough to pull this one out as we lost the game 2-1 and were the first team out of the National tournament.  It was not easy to swallow for most of the team as this was viewed as an extreme letdown.  We would have settled for nothing less than to win the tournament, but this year was not our year.  As frustrating as it was we had to grieve and move on.  Life goes on and the world keeps turning.  We headed back to the hotel to turn in our uniforms and say some final goodbyes to our teammates and coaches.  Dinner just did not taste the same this evening.

But, as I expected, the sun came up the next morning and it was time to journey back to Florida.  Most flew back as a couple guys headed back with their parents.  It was a tough trip, yet there was something very special coming up.

June seventh was right around the corner as most of our team was still working out in preparation for either the draft or summer ball.  By the time June ninth had come to an end, nine Spartans were picked by professional baseball teams to be a part of their organizations, breaking UT’s record for the most Spartans selected in the draft in one year. A day later Correy Figueroa made it number ten as he signed a free agent contract with the Kansas City Royals.

I would like to take these last final paragraphs to wish and thank.  First I would like to wish good luck to all of my teammates.  Not just the guys that are continuing to play but everyone I played with as they start new careers in attempt to make a living.  Good luck to all.

Next I want to thankour coaches for a great season.  We faced some bumps along the way, yet I still think it was my favorite season as a Spartan and it always starts with the coaches.  They kept a comfortable atmosphere that allowed us to perform at our highest level. Thank you guys.

And finally I would like to thank everyone at Ping! Baseball for this opportunity.  It was an honor writing for this site and if I had the chance I would do it again.  It is too bad they do not follow professional baseball or else I might have to stay on for another year or two.  This is an excellent site and I believe it will continue to be very successful.  Thank you very much!

Well that is all I have.  I hope you enjoyed the past few months.  Goodbye to all.

After much deliberation I have decided to focus on the playoffs for my blog topic(surprising huh?)  It is hard to talk about the postseason without something exciting happening on the field like a big play during a crucial time in a tense game.  That play virtually won us the South Regional.

Every season our coaches go into that year with three goals: Win the conference, Win the Regional and Win the National Championship.  We finished our conference with a 21-3 record and since we do not have a conference tournament we were named the Conference Champion at the end of our season.  Our next goal was winning the Regional.  Although we were the only region with eight teams, there were only two teams that made the Regional we had not played during the regular season.  We received the two seed for the tournament, yet were fortunate enough to host the tournament due to hotel conflicts in Magnolia, Arkansas.

We started the Regional off on the right foot with winning scores of 7-1, 17-7 and 20-5.  We were the only team that was 3-0 in the tournament and were on to the championship series.  Southern Arkansas, the number one seed and our competition in game three, made it to the series and handed us our first loss of the tournament on Monday by the score of 10-7.  Since We did not have a loss going into the final day and SAU did they had to beat us twice to advance to the National Championship.  It all came down to one final game.

The Muleriders jumped out to an early lead in the first inning but surrendered a 3-2 lead into the fifth inning.  We were able to load the bases with Mike Blanke stepping up to the plate.  Southern Arkansas’ reliever left a fastball over the fat part of the plate that our catcher belted over the left field wall for a grand slam that gave us all the momentum we needed.  Thirteen runs later we dogpiled our way to a 20-3 victory and were able to celebrate a Regional Championship on our home turf.

If you would like to see Mike Blanke’s grand slam you can view it on tampaspartans.com or on youtube.com.  The minute and a half clip even made Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks.  It was a season-changing moment and will be remembered for years.  Make sure to turn your volume but because you are going to want to hear what the announcers have to say.

I would like to dedicate this blog to a very special individual who was interested in some of the juicy stuff that goes on behind the scenes of a Division 2 baseball team. I have a feeling he is going to get more than he wanted.

This past Saturday evening, the same day we finished sweeping Florida Southern to capture the Sunshine State Conference championship and finish the regular season with a record of 42-8, I could not help but try to figure out what it was about our team that had lead to our success this year. I am finishing up my fourth year at the University and never have we finished the season with fewer than 9 losses until this year. We had also never won 20 games in conference until we won 21 this year. What the reason we had so much success this year? Could it have been we had better players than any other year? Or was it the fact that we lost some games early, learned to deal with adversity and took it out on our conference? Possibly our pitching coach Sam switching hair gel brands since Concrete 22 went out of business? (That was not a fun conditioning week for the pitchers when he found that out!)

All questions made sense but I was sure that was not the sole reason for our success. After a few more minutes of pondering it hit me: Our Team Chemistry!

Team chemistry sounds innocent until you spend a weekend with our team. We managed to take the term “chemistry” to another level. Let me put it this way: I am surprised only a couple of my teammates girlfriends broke up with them because of what went on at the baseball field.

Now it is a little far fetched to call our team bonding ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’, but it is not far from it. I would like to share some instances that stick out in my mind from the regular season and maybe even from before. To save face I will use numbers instead of names to hide identity.

Last year the biggest man crush on the team was between 27 and 33. It was as if they were inseparable, and mainly because they were. They would eat together, they would call their girlfriends at the same time, they would even sleep in the same bed on occasion. Everything was fine and dandy with this relationship until 11 came along. Now 11 transferred from a big time Division 1 school with rich history so everyone knew he was special, but no one viewed him on the same level as 27 did. From the moment 27 laid eyes on 11 it was a match made in heaven. They would take showers together, play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 together, and talk about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 every waking second that they were not playing it. Now 33 did not like how close 27 and 11 were becoming and needed to find some way of ending this bromance. After numerous tries and no luck, 33 took one for the team and asked to be apart of the 27-11 bromance, and the two obviously accepted. The 27-11-33 combination is by far the cutest threesome the University of Tampa has to offer. Of course when 27 and 33 leave after this year it will be interesting to see who 11 chooses for his new bromates in 2011. Applications are now being accepted.

The next chemistry topic/man crush on our team is very extensive. A lot of numbers will be thrown your way so I do not want to confuse you too bad. Just stay with me.

Coming into the 2008 season 23, 35 and 40 were incoming freshman. They did not know many people around the school so they turned to their fellow freshmen teammates for new friends. All three got along, but 35 and 40 had a special bond. Much like the last manship they would eat together in the caf, walk through campus together so everyone could see them, and more importantly 40 would shave 35’s beard for him three times a day because he needs it. Everything was beautiful until the Spring rolled around and 35 moved away from 40 into a household with 34, 25, 12 and 11(a different 11 from the story before). $0 was lost and had no one, except good ole 23. Now 23 and the weight room already had quite the relationship, but he was able to lay off the sprinkler-finding medicine balls to spend some time with 40. Surprisingly enough 23 and 40 hit it off and would go to Moes Southwest Grill every Monday together, followed up with some Xtreme Juice and a nice book. Things were good for the two…until the next Fall.

The new year brought two more freshmen, 17 and 30. There was nothing special the two of them saw in each other, but both fell head over heels for 23. I’m not sure if it was his over sized pectoral muscles, his washboard-like abdominals or the striking similarity between him and Weaver from the movie Antz, but it was like watching flies near a bug zapper. Now 23 wasn’t much for the idea of a threesome(or foursome) bromance, but did like the new attention and decided to try new things. He would study with 30 one minute, then pick boogers with 17 the next. He was so torn the whole year and he could never make up his mind.

Another year brought another number in the form of 15. Although 15 was young he knew what he wanted, and that was 17. So 17 detached himself from 23’s bulging biceps and found a new liking. Now 15 could be viewed as a little wild at times, but that was something 23 did not bring to the table and 17 liked that. As the two fo them hit the nightlife countless nights throughout the week, 23 and 30 really hit it off and formed what we consider to this day to be the strongest man love this team has seen. They have been spotted running together, taking extensive showers together usually resulting in some type of high pitched laughing, and even smelling each other’s bodily releasements for nutritional purposes. Some other occurrences have been noted but cannot be mentioned on this stage.

On a side note, there have been some reports that 40 has attempted to steal 15 from 17, but no concrete evidence has been delivered at this time.

Well that’s all I have for you. This was simply a sample of what I think has made our team stronger and lead to much of the success we have had this year. Stay tuned into next year to find out who 11 will pick up and what will happen with the 23-35-40-17-30-15 mangroup.

Next week will be Regional infor.

I tried something and it did not work. After we lost a game to Rollins College on Saturday the 10th to break our school-record 25 game winning streak, I thought it would only be appropriate to take a week off from my strenuous job of weekly blogging. I did this in hope that it would spark another winning streak that would not only win us our sixth national championship but also rollover into next season.

That didn’t happen.

In fact I am afraid it may have backfired on me and the Ping! Baseball gods punished me for my absent writeup last week. Everything looked good as we won a midweek game against Warner Southern and snuck by Barry Friday night. I was sure I made a good move until Saturday rolled around. I’m not sure if we didn’t listen to “Get Outta Your Mind” long enough or if I jinxed the whole team before the week even started.

I’m a positive thinker and will assume my missed blog was not the sole reason for our hiccups. I have shifted gears and realize we simply wanted more to play for this upcoming weekend. And if you do not realize how big the Florida Southern series is swing on by the southeast corner of Cass and Boulevard around 6PM Friday evening(be sure to bring $5 unless you are a UT student)(oh and maybe bring a few extra dollars because FGCU transfer Tim Kiley makes some of THE BEST burgers this side of the Mississippi!).

Back to the reason we lost two games this past weekend. This series is something we look forward to every year, and with both teams having excellent years it should make for quite the weekend. What we did was make sure we set ourselves up so we had to win at least two games this weekend to win our conference. It is actually the perfect way to motivate the team going into the final series of the season. Some may call our style unusual or “stupid”, but personally I think it is brilliant.

So basically what I just blabbered on about was that we lost last week to force ourselves to win two games this weekend and remain the number two seed going into Regional, travel to Smackover, Arkansas and whoop up on some Muleriders(yes that is Southern Arkansas’ mascot), and then finish up with a beautiful sweep in Cary, North Carolina to win our sixth national championship and third in the past five years.

That is all and good night.

This will be short and quick because it’s almost lunch time.

Due to our recent success, sports reporters around the world have been contacting me around the clock asking what has been our key(s) to success this year. Most instances I would stick with the basics and tell them we are playing very well as a team and we have great team chemistry. I might even throw in the fact that our pitching, defense and offense have been equally contributing day in and day out. All are good answers and are true in the sense that these attributes have helped us get to where we are, but the real reason we have the success is our pre-game stretch.

The pre-game stretch is by far our deadliest weapon, and it is for that reason that I cannot share with you in words what this phenominon consists of. We have a very precise way of doing things before we take batting practice. I apologize for not being able to say much more about the subject, but if you are curious as to what makes The University of Tampa Baseball Team what they are to this day, it would be wise to come out a couple hours early to witness the eighth wonder of the world.

In other news we swept a four game week to move to 15-0 in conference. We are currently in the middle of a 22-game winning streak which is the longest winning streak in school history. Tuesday against Florida Tech, weekend against Rollins.