After a tough and disappointing weekend against Regis University, we received stellar starting pitching this weekend in a sweep against Nebraska Kearney. Kearney was a tough team coming in, and knowing that they were currently on top of our conference section with a 9-4 record, we were in for a fight.

What set the tone for the weekend definitely had to be the weather. Friday and Saturday proved to be the two best days in the past couple of weeks. No snow, no cold, just clear skies and shinning sun. The only factor seemed to be Friday’s wind, and “flag baseball” was certainly in place. In our 6-3 win, two back-to-back home runs cleared the right field fence (where the wind was obviously blowing) by seniors Jon Proesl and Zach Hoffman in the first inning of Friday’s contest set the tone for what proved to be a four home run day combined by both teams. We also received a great start by Dillion Meaney who is starting to come around as our number one pitcher.

In addition, our top reliever Wes Oliver has really stepped up out of the pen for us this year, finishing Friday game in his usually fashion by throwing three scoreless innings to finish out Friday’s contest. The sidewinder seemed to have Kearney offgaurd in all three innings after seeing the fireballer Meaney for the first six frames.

Saturday’s contest once again came from our pitchers, most notably Kevin McDonald who threw 6 1/3  innings of one hit, one run ball filling in for injuried southpaw Josh-Herback South. He kept us in the game all the way as we were able to mustard up 10 runs in a 10-4 victory behind a 5 RBI performance by Jon Proesl. He seems to come up huge in every at-bat with runners on, not only this game, but throughout the season. The second game was quick, as Joaquin Montano threw six innings of scoreless baseball in a 4-0 victory.

Our pitchers were definitely the key factor this weekend, and it showed in a combined 6 hit in 16 inning performance combined by our pitching staff. What is important to note and will be huge to our teams success is the return of our big hurler Cole Stephens as he closed out both games Saturday getting his feet wet in college play in over two years! The Texas Tech transfer who started the season with a hand injury, returned last week throwing bullpens and live batting practice and his electric fastball will be a key stronghold to our pen this year.

It’s exciting that we are starting to click and this weekend certainly was a picker upper towards our push for a conference title.

What also was exciting is that we were finally able to tear down our indoor facility. This weather forced us to be in there constantly over the last few weeks, adn although it was a great assest, nothing compares to being out on the field. To me it simple means the weather is clearing up for good, and spring is finally here (only two months late)!

This week we host New Mexico Highlands tomorrow for a double header makeup form two weeks ago, and Colorado School of Mines this weekend in a three-game series. Lets hope for some continued good weather, stellar pitching, and timely hitting this week!

JR 26

Welcome back! It’s been a bit of a layoff from writing on here, but as the season’s challenges continue, so does the school work. Two weeks ago we matched up New Mexico Highlands, and they were surely no joke.

We were able to take one game from them out of the two we played because of the weather, but the team itself is so well depth in pitching with Vassell and in hitting with guys like Carr and Garcia. It was such a well balanced team, and no doubt it was a good test. The first game got away from us a bit early and we ended up loosing 7-3. The second game became a nail bitter towards the end because of their explosive offense, scoring four runs in the sixth inning. We slipped away though winning 8-7 with an exellent performance by Zach Richmond to close the game in the back end.

This weekend’s series began conference play. It was a bit of a down and dissapoing note though dropping two out of three games to Regis University. They are a scrappy bunch and prove that no one can be taken lightly in this conference that is so well balanced in offense and pitching.

Offensively we are coming along and gaining some confidence at the plate. Seniors like Zach Hoffman, Jon Proesl, and Mark Sayas are all catalyst for our team and have been a key part to our success. On the mound, we are still trying to get healthy, but we are making strides in our bullpen with guys like Nate Perlitch, Wes Oliver, and Zach Richmond. Also getting guys like Cole Stephens back from an injury this week will be huge in our conference push.

We play Nebraska Kearney this weekend at home who will prove to be another test for our team. They sit above our conference right now, but to be the best you have to chase the best, and that is what we are doing right now.

JR 26

Well, the season is in full tune, we are 4-4right now, and have New Mexico Highlands coming into our place this weekend. I feel very confident that we will start to get things together and click as a team, and Highlands presents another great test for this just like Mesa State was last week.

Quickly on our Mesa Series, after being shutout 8-0 in the first game, we erupted for two 4-run innings in the 1st and 2nd for a 12-4 win behind another solid start from Joaquin Montano. On Saturday we received another great outing from Josh Herback-South (who made his season debut) in a 12-0 win, but our bats were shut down once more in a 4-0 game 2 loss. Mesa’s starter had our number all game, and it stung a bit because it would have been nice to take the series from them, especially after all the momentum we had. Nonetheless, it was a great series, and expect this weekends Highlands series to be no different.

In regards to the weather, PLEASE STOP SNOWING!!!! I really do not enjoy these double header games, not only because they are physically exhausting, but take away from the quality of the game because we have to make them seven inning each. I don’t know why the NCAA allows us to do this, but if it needs to be doen to play, then it needs to be done. But I hope we can get some good weather soon here to be able to play some single game days for a chance.

Keep posted for our Highlands update and hopefully we can come out strong to compete and come out with some victories against this fierce hitting team.

Sweet Caroline!

JR 26

Well, this weekend’s opener against Metro State was a tough pill to swallow, but luckily enough we got away with a 2-2 split against the Roadrunners.

With the series already making adjustments for the weather before it even began, we ended up playing a doubleheader on Friday in Denver and a doubleheader on Saturday at home. Hows this for a start: in the frigid cold, our buses pulled out at 6:30 a.m. from our field to head to Denver to get in a 12 o’clock game. This weather has indeed made things difficult to our start, but I am happy the season is finally here. Needless to say, this week really showed alot about our team. One, that we can really bang the ball around, but also that we have many adjustments to make as a whole. We had our identity tested right away though as we came back from a 8-2 deficit to win 11-8. One of our senior leaders Zach Hoffman started our comeback with a monster home run to right center, and from that, we jsut continued to bang the ball around to score five runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. It was very exciting to watch a comeback right off the bat, with all pun intended. With our pitching staff a bit banged up and a rough start from DIllion Meaney, our bats are going to be key in being successful this season while our pitchers heal up and become better experienced.This was evident in our game 2 loss (9-8) as we gave up a tough walk off double to Metro in the last inning.

Saturday’s games proved to show that we actually did have some gems in our pitching staff’s bag, as Kansas transfer Daniel Manos through 5 solid innings, allowing one run on three hits. Unfortunately, we lost the game on a couple of monster home runs by Metro (boy can they swing it!), but came back in game two on another stellar pitching performance by started Juaquin Montano as he tossed a complete game eight strikeout performance in a 9-2 win. Jon Proesl, who is returning from a stellar 2008 campaign, hit well going 2-2 with a monster 2 run home run to right. The only downside to this game was that we lost our lead-off hitter and centerfielder Andrew Castaneda after he broke his ring finger on a hit by pitch trying to bunt. Hopefully he can make a quick return to the lineup in the coming weeks.

Overall, we are 2-2, and have a giant series coming up against Mesa State. We are still continuing to find certain qualities of our team and fix up our pitching staff. Nonetheless, we are continuing to fight our adversity and play solidly this weekend to win this tough series.  I’ll be back next week for a series recap and team update.

Sweet Caroline!

JR 26

We are officially four days away from opening our season up on February 5th against Metro State in Denver and the wait has sure been worth it. Before this last week, we were blessed with some very good weather which allowed us get back into doing fielding drills, live batting practice, and for the pitchers, the ability to finally get to through off a live mound.

Mother Nature did however hit us with some very cold and snowy weather this past week, but with our indoor facility that we are blessed to have, we were able to get alot done in there both offensively and defensively. It’s funny about this weather because I have never had to play in such cold being from California. For example, the temp. dipped so low last Saturday that Coach Sanch literally had to call our scrimmage early to save the pitchers arms from the cold. In Cali, it was rain or thunder that called games. It seems here its the severe cold and snow. Welcome to Colorado I guess! I, along with the other newcomers from California are adjusting well though, and its safe to say that  50 or above now for me is considered a warm day.

This Sunday marked our final scrimmage before our opening week and we were greeted with having to clear the remaining snow left from the snow storm that hit us this week. It was a bit odd shoveling snow off our field because I have just never seen it before. Once again, welcome to Colorado. We eventually cleared our field and had a very upbeat and crisp intersquad.This, week, we simply plan to go over our defensive drills and tune in our hitting skills before we battle with Metro, and our team is chopping at the bit to get started.

Before I go, the RMAC pre-season poll and All-RMAC Team came out a few weeks ago, and congratulations to our own DIllon Meaney for making the squad and for our team being ranked first in our sub-division. DIllon is going to be our Friday night guy and hopes to have a great season leading our pitching staff.

Sweet Caroline

JR #26

Go Pack!