It has been over a week since my last blog post, my longest break of the season. Following last Wednesday’s games at the Minnesota State-Mankato I had to leave the team for two days to attend a funeral in my hometown of Aurora, CO. Coach McKenzie talks to us all the time about how college baseball is never “just baseball,” that there are always outside factors effecting us. Whether it is school, injuries, or outside factors like having to attend a funeral, there is always something in the way for college athletes. It is how we overcome those things that define who we are as a player, and that is a message that Coach always instills in us.

Our season has taken some major twists and turns since my last post. We were riding high on our way to Mankato last week, and we carried that in to our twin-bill with the Mavericks. In game one we came out with the bats blazing with freshman J.T. Schneider (Oak Creek, WI) hitting a homerun in the top of the first, and fellow freshman Hogan Jackson (Oakdale, MN) following up with a solo shot of his own in the top of the second. In the third inning Sam Fagely (Mahtomedi, MN) lifted a two-run bomb, and Brenden Furrow (Johnston, IA) drilled a three-run homer. The bats were rolling, and CU pitchers Ryan Rodeck (Lino Lakes, MN) and Patrick Rydeen (Stillwater, MN) combined to keep the Mav’s bats at bay. In the game Schneider extended his hit streak to 20 games, the second longest in school history behind a 21 game hit streak that Furrow had during his career. Jon Stockton (Oakdale, MN) and Logan Bouts (Hopkins, MN) slugged out three hit games as the Golden Bears rolled to a 17 to 7 victory over the #25 ranked MSU Mavs.

Game two was a different story as Hogan Jackson made his second start in as many weeks. The Mavs got on Jackson early putting up four runs in the first and adding another on a solo homerun in the second. Jackson would eventually settle in, and fellow freshman Griff Kilber (Chanhassen, MN) would come in and allow just one run over the final two and one-third innings, but the deficit would prove to be too much. Furrow and Bouts each went 2 for 4 including Furrow smashing a monster homerun in the fifth inning, his 12^th of the season, Game two also saw Schneider’s hit streak come to an end with an 0 for 3 ball game. But a split on the road against a top-25 national team was definitely a success, and we hoped to carry that into the weekend as we hosted Bemidji State in a four-game weekend series.

After the mid-week set we were 19-23 overall (11-10 in the NSIC).

Game One vs. BSU: CU20 BSU 8 (7 innings)

Ben Lemke went five innings to pick up his fourth victory of the season.

Furrow and Blake DeVries (Eden Prairie, MN) each went deep hitting their 13^th and single-season record 15^th homeruns respectively.

Game Two vs. BSU: CU 4 BSU 3 (8 innings)

Chris Peterson (St. Anthony, MN) delivered another great performance in the #2 starter role going seven innings allowing just three runs on five hits.

Nick Anderson (Plymouth, MN) threw the extra frame picking up the victory improving to (6-5) on the year.

Bryan Lippincott (Des Moines, IA) lead the offensive charge going 3 for 5 with 2 doubles, and scoring the walk-off run in the eighth on a throwing error on a ground ball by Schneider sailed into right field.

Game Three vs. BSU: CU 12 BSU 9

Lippincott went 3 for 4 with his eighth homerun of the season during a wild second inning that saw CU plate nine runs and go ahead for good. The rally came in response to a four-run first by the Beavers. Scneider, Furrow, DeVries, S. Fagely, and Stockton all had two-hit games behind a solid pitching performance.

Andy Fagely (Mahtomedi, MN) went seven and two-thirds on the mound getting his 5^th victory and Nick Anderson closed the door in the final inning and a third to get his sixth save.

Game Four vs. BSU: CU 3 BSU 4

Nick Anderson took the ball in game four for the second consecutive week. The start would be Anderson’s third appearance of the weekend, 24^th of the season. Anderson would go the distance, but get hit with the loss when BSU rallied for two runs off of him in the top of the seventh.

In the bottom of the seventh down two runs Lippincott smashed his second homerun of the afternoon to bring the deficit to one, but the rally would end there as the Beavers completed the victory and kept the Golden Bears from picking up a second straight weekend sweep at Bob Barnes Field.

The loss left the Bears with an overall record of 22-24 (14-11 in the NSIC). We took that into another mid-week set with MSU-Mankato, but this time at home.

Game One vs. MSU: CU 6 MSU 16 (8 innings)

Mankato pounded out 22 hits for 16 runs, while keeping the CU bats largely in check.

Brenden Furrow hit his 14^th, 15^th, and 16^th homerun of the season, the first three homer game of the year. Furrow broke two records with his final swing. His 16^th homerun broke teammate Blake DeVries’ record of 15 homeruns in a season set against Bemidji the previous weekend, the two will battle it out for that record in our final series of the year at Winona State. The monumental blast was also his 34^th of his career breaking the career homerun record previously held by Matt Borman (2003-04, 07). Furrow now owns every offensive career record at CU. Games played, at-bats, hits, doubles, RBI’s, and homeruns.

Game Two vs. MSU: CU 2 MSU 17

Mankato compiled 26 hits to account for 17 runs.

Blake DeVries had the lone multi-hit performance for CU as MSU pitching was held to just six hits and two runs.

It was a rough day to be a Golden Bear, but there were some bright spots. Furrow ended his career at Bob Barnes Field with his record breaking performance, and DeVries also went out on a high note. CU didn’t compound errors to beat themselves as they have all year. MSU simply just put the bat on the ball and drilled it to the right places. The losses virtually eliminate us from postseason contention with just four games to play at #23 Winona State. It would take a series of amazing events to get us in to the tournament, all we can do is go out and play hard and let the chips fall as they may.

During the Bemidji series we honored our four seniors as they conclude their careers. Furrow, DeVries, as well as Steven King (Urbandale, IA), and Ryan Iverson (Spring Lake Park, MN) all were honored with pictures and cheers from fans.

This weekend we head to Winona, MN to play the NSIC leading Winona State Warriors. The Warriors are ranked as high as #23 in some national polls. Last year in a similar situation CU took 3 of 4 from WSU to knock them out of the regional. We will continue to run our best pitchers and lineups out there this weekend and compete to the best of our ability. Furrow and DeVries will play their final four games in the CU blue and gold, and settle the single-season homerun record race.

Spotlight Series: Jon Stockton

1. Name, High School and Mascot, College Major?

Jon Stockton, Tartan High school, Titans, Marketing

2. How did you get into baseball? (Please elaborate, tell a story if you chose)

Starting playing t-ball and just kept playing every year

3. Baseball Mentor(s)? (Please elaborate, tell a story if you chose)

The biggest influences on my baseball career were my youth coaches Doug Berfeldt and John Doran, and stayed involved throughout my whole career and are still there for me.

4. Most memorable baseball moment (Please tell the story)

Winning the NSIC conference tournament 2008

5. Favorite Historical Sports Moment and Why? (I.E. Kirby Puckett World Series Homerun, Cal-Stanford “The Play”, any sports play ever that is your favorite)

John Stockton’s 3-pointer against the Houston Rockets 1996 to send the Utah Jazz to their first NBA finals. Also, the Twins one game playoff victory over the Detroit Tigers.

6. Who are the best players you have ever played against? How old were you? How did you do against them? (If not a well know player please elaborate who they are and who they play for now)

Hockey- Jordan Schroeder from St Thomas Academy who was a 17^th overall pick in the NHL Draft and plays currently for the Minnesota Gophers.

Baseball- Nick Shumacher from Wayne State college who is now In single A with the San Diego Padres . I struck out in my pinch hit at bat against him

7. If you could play any other sport collegiately what would it be and why?

I miss both hockey and soccer, but I would chose hockey because I miss the speed of the game

8. What aspirations do you have for the future outside of baseball? (Please elaborate on why)

Not sure, hopefully use my degree to find a job I enjoy and become a homeowner

9. Have you overcome any major obstacles in your life?

Yes I have overcome a couple major obstacles in my life

10. Anything else you would like the readers to know about you, or shout outs to anyone important…

My mom for always supporting me in everything I do and being my biggest fan and believing in me. Also my father who supports me and is always there to help me out.

In-Season Notes:

Next Game: Winona State (Winona, MN), Double-header, Saturday, May 1^st, 2010, 1:00pm

Overall Team Record: 22-26

Central Region Record: 17-20

Conference Record: 14-13

Conference Standing: 8^th (Week of April 26th)

If any readers have any feedback or questions that they would like answered please feel free to email SID@csp.edu, and I will answer them in future blogs or through email if they are better suited to be answered that way. Personal thoughts from readers are always appreciated.

-Go Golden Bears-

After our first 27 games being on the road, we were finally at home to take on the Bears of New York Tech at Kraft Field. The weather was great for the weekend and we also had a good turnout as far as fans go for the games.

The Bears jumped on the board early with a run in the first followed by three in the third and three more in the fourth. This made the score after four innings 7-2 New York Tech. Each team managed to get a run here and there, but there were no big rallies and the final score was 11-6 NYIT.

As soon as we came to the field for the doubleheader on Saturday, we knew it was going to be a long day. Kraft is a short field to begin with, and when you add a strong wind blowing out to left field, you know a lot of runs will be scored. In the first game NYIT jumped out early once again with five in the first. We would not be able to overcome this for the rest of the game. Jake Magner carried the offense with two home runs, but this was not enough as we lost 11-5.

Game two would prove to be a record-setting game for Magner. Magner had four home runs and nine RBI in the game, both are new school records. For his accomplishments, he received Great West Player of the Week honors along with four national honors. All of these runs would be needed. We barely pulled out the win 20-19. We had a 14-3 lead, a 17-10 lead, and everything we did NYT would answer. But, in the end we came out on top.

In game four, we were looking to come out and get the series split. After losing the first two a split would be big for us. David Lind came out and gave us a great effort on the mound. He went all nine and kept the Bears off balance all day. Offensively, we were able to put up some runs and we got the victory 7-3.

This week we also had mid-week games at South Dakota State University. We knew they were a good team and they rank very high in the nation in runs per game. They definitely showed us why they ranked so highly. They put up 21 runs in both games. It didn’t help that the wind was also blowing out. The 21 runs in each game was just too much for us to overcome and we dropped both.

We are back home this weekend against formal NCC rival Northern Colorado. Even though the weather does not look to be promising, we look forward to playing at home in front of a  great crowd once again.

I have had a chance to sit and reflect on the long past weekend and I have had a chance to think about the weekend coming up.  We ended the long extended series with Missouri S&T with another split.  We won the first game by playing extremely well and we lost the second game by playing poorly.  We made 5 errors in the second game and left many people on base in several crucial points in the game.  The final in the first game was 6-3 with the winning pitching being Christopher Conner.  Then relief pitcher Brian Lupa came in and got the save.  The second game we lost 7-6.  Unfortunately our errors paid costly as we only gave up four earned runs.  If we played sound defense we would have won the game 7-4 and we would only have to win one or two games this weekend.

So now we have our work cut out for us.  We take on Southern Indiana in a four game series deciding our conference tournament fate.  By the looks of it, we will need to win three games at least.  It all comes down to this weekend.  Hopefully we will play up to our full potential and we will be able to not only make the conference tournament but get on a little roll heading in.  I encourage any and all fans to come out and support us as we come into the biggest series of the year.   It is “win or go home” time and I am looking forward to it.  The playoffs will start a little early this year for us as we must win these games. 

Comments are welcome – dunniju@quincy.edu.

God Bless

#17

In the MIAA The Mules of Central Missouri are headed to Omaha this weekend to battle host Nebraska -Omaha in a showdown of conference powers.    The Mule arms have been supreme all season long, with Brooks Martin (9-0  1.72), Alex Kent (7-0  1.14), Ryan Allen (6-1  3.42) and Matt Curtis (7-0  3.99) gving the Mule offense some peace of mind.  When they need to score runs this herd of Mules patiently executes, hitting .351 as a team and efficiently scoring nearly 10 runs a game.  In the other dugout this weekend will be Bob Herold’s group of gritty ball players, who, might not have the gaudy numbers that the Mules have, but are armed with one of the most dominant arms in D-II baseball in Joe Holtmeyer.  The regular season crown has already been decided, so for the most part the biggest thing to watch will be the Mules match up against Holtmeyer and also how UNO rersponds to playing a top 5 team.

Sometime last fall, during a season of discontent, a Ball State football fan recognized Perci Garner outside of Schumann Stadium.

Tired of watching redshirt freshman Kelly Page fight his way through growing pains with no wins to show for it, the fan had a simple wish for Garner.

“Hey, you should be playing football!”

Garner didn’t know the fan, but the message was somewhat difficult to hear.

For the first time Garner wasn’t spending the fall sweating through football two-a-days and playing quarterback.

“I didn’t miss the practices,” Garner said. “But the games were harder. It’s hard seeing your teammates out there.”

Garner, who was a two-time All-Ohio quarterback at Dover High School, made the switch to playing baseball full time last January after two disappointing seasons backing up Nate Davis, the 2008 MAC Offensive Player of the Year and the 49ers fifth round draft choice last year. Garner was astounded by the speed of the game in college and never really got a chance at football.

Coach Stan Parrish encouraged Garner to take his shot at baseball, which had been the original plan during his recruitment. Parrish promised a spot would still be open to Garner at football if he wanted to come back. He also got encouragement from Cardinals wide receiver Dan Ifft, who had played at Dover with Garner.

“He encouraged me to play baseball,” Garner said. “Everybody back home told me to.”

The switch has worked out well for Garner, who after taking 1 1/2 years off baseball is projected to be drafted early in June’s MLB Draft. It’s an unexpected development for Garner, but not one that’s slipped his imagination.

“I’ve thought about it a lot,” he said. “I improved faster than I thought I was going to this year. I’m just going to do what’s best for me.”

When Garner made his return to baseball last year, he proved to be a valuable piece of Ball State’s bullpen. Coach Greg Beals got him involved quickly, and Garner made his first appearance in the second game of the year at Furman. He registered a strikeout in his first outing and his success continued throughout the year.

“I wanted him to get his feet wet as soon as possible,” Beals said. “I wanted him to see that we intended to use him.”

Garner posted a 1-0 record with a 4.95 ERA last year. He earned one save and struck out 24 batters in 20 innings.

He has found even more success this year. Since joining the Cardinals’ rotation for the start of MAC play at the end of March, Garner has broken out. The redshirt sophomore is 5-1 with a 3.66 ERA and won his first four career starts before losing at Central Michigan on Friday.

The transition has been easy off the field as well. Garner and his outsized personality fit in quickly at baseball, while they failed him at football. He did not travel on all road trips even when he wasn’t redshirting, because the football coaches were concerned he would be a distraction.

But at baseball, Garner’s attitude meshed seamlessly. Garner can often be seen with fellow pitcher Morgan Coombs between innings and to their teammates’ walkup music.

“It’s easy to make friends with these guys,” Garner said. “Coach recruited good character guys.”

He pitched his way into the national spotlight last summer when he was named the No. 2 prospect in the Great Lakes Collegiate Baseball League by Baseball America. But Garner remains a largely unknown commodity for most scouts, still trying to get a feel for his story.

Jim Callis, executive editor of Baseball America, said the industry doesn’t have the same history with Garner that they do of his teammate and potential first round pick Kolbrin Vitek.

“Vitek’s on everybody’s map,” Callis said. “[Perci has] more fluctuation. Guys are still trying to get a feel for him.”

Garner is certainly on the radar of many MLB teams. Every Friday when he pitches two dozen scouts are in attendance to see his low to mid 90s fastball and devastating slider.

Garner said he feeds off the attention from scouts coming to see him.

“They’re here to see me, so I must be doing something right,” he said. “So it’s kind of a confidence booster.”

With the draft less than two months away, teams are quickly getting to know Garner. Playing alongside Vitek will help Garner as more and more MLB teams send high ranking officials to see the first-round talent at Ball State.

“Let’s say a bunch of guys go to see [Ohio center fielder Gauntlett Eldemire] and Vitek at the MAC tournament,” Callis said. “If [Garner] lights it up with the right guys there, he’ll shoot up the charts.”

For now Garner is trying not to think about the draft. With Ball State attempting to win its first MAC championship since 2006, Garner is focused on taking the ball every Friday night.

The way he sees it, scouts will have two more years to look at him if they don’t like what they see now.

“I don’t view it as pressure,” Garner said. “If they don’t like me this year, I’m going to keep improving.”