Hello again everyone, after three good outings this weekend in Savannah, Georgia at the Savannah State Classic. Two wins and a tie because of darkness was a great turnaround from our opening weekend series against Villanova. With scores of 5-3, 12-12, and 13-5, we finally started hitting as a team and everyone built their confidence at the plate heading into this week’s games. Our hitting will be key as we face tough opponents in Georgetown and Mount St. Mary’s.

Georgetown will bring a 5-1 record to the Marty L. Miller Field on Tuesday.   The Hoyas swept the Spartans 10–4 and 15-4 last year. The key to controlling our fate and learning from history is to eliminate innings whereby multiple runs are unearned. In the first game there were 23 hits, of which the Spartans had 10. This does not explain the difference in a 10-4 game. Knowing that we need to eliminate mistakes to win against an opponent such as the Hoyas is as much about the team’s mental approach to the game.  Focusing on stepping up our team game in key situations is the needed reality to winning on Tuesday. It is also the reality to reaching our goal of winning the MEAC regular season and tournament play.  Consist team play in each inning is where we want to be. My high school coach Mark Mace would make the point for us to win every inning. Coach Mace would greet us with, “win this inning” in key situations. Winning key innings on Tuesday will allow us to go into the match up against Mount St. Mary’s with a .500 record (3-3-1).   

To my knowledge, this will be our first match up against Mount St. Mary’s.  The Mount is a small University with about 1,600 students in Maryland.  Don’t let the size of the Mount fool you; they are lead by the Northeast Conference (NEC) Player of the Year Shane Eyler, an outfielder who hit .380 with 11 doubles, 15 home runs and 46 RBI last season. They are looking to challenge for a top spot in the NEC this season after narrowly missing out on the playoffs last year.  Our common opponents are Villanova and Maryland Eastern Shore. They lost to Villanova last year 7-5 and beat Maryland Eastern Shore 15-5 and 6-3. They have struggled to begin this season losing twice to Davidson and winning at Presbyterian.

We can expect clutch play from this well-coached team. Recently against Presbyterian, Kyle Kane, their clean up hitter belted a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to break a 3-3 tie and lift Mount St. Mary’s to a 6-5 win.  We will get to evaluate their play further when they play Old Dominion on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

We can expect the weather for the 1:00 games on Saturday (DH) and Sunday to be mostly sunny in the mid-to-upper 50s. Come out to cheer on the hot bats of Chris Joyce (.500), Shane Hoggard (.381) and John Rasberry (.308). Good fan support will be a motivational factor for a much-needed weekend sweep. That will be our goal as well the intent of our opponent.  Hope to hear your loud cheering voices, sharing in the cheer from our number one fan, Mr. Clark, “You can doooo it!”Congratulations to freshman pitcher Jordan Egan for picking up his first college win and freshman Ryan Montgomery for his first collegiate home run, both in the 13-5 win over Savannah State. 

March 2, 6 and 7 will be three good days for baseball.

Thanks for reading!

#7 Brandon Hairston