After getting swept against the Longhorns we were anxious to get back on the field. We continued our spring trip down to San Antonio to play UTSA. We were supposed to play them twice but the first game got cancelled due to rain. Nick Brown made his first start of the year. He battled through 5 2/3 innings with no where near his “A” stuff. Even though he did not have his good stuff, he gave us a chance to win and that is all you can ask for from your starters. Offensively we battled and had numerious balls that were hit hard right at the defense. If we could have gotten a few of those balls to fall we could have been on the winning side of the game. Taking nothing away from UTSA, they are a very solid team that came out to play in all aspects of the game. We lost the game 4-2 and continued our spring trip to play the University of Texas Pan-American.

We took one of three games against UTPA to finish our disappointing spring trip. The first game, Jared Hippen looked to follow up his great start against UT, with another quality start against Pan-American. He was not as sharp as he was against Texas when he started against UTPA. But he did give us five innings of work, and kept us in a position to win the game when he left. We had three errors that ended up costing us one or two runs which would have made the game within one run in the last inning. The first game of the series we fell 7-4.

The second game of the series we gave a very uninspired effort for the duration of the game. From the first pitch we were not locked in offensively, defensively or on the mound. We’re not a team that has enough talent to just show up and throw the ball around and expect to win. We are supposed to be the team that shows up, fights, scratch,es and claws our way to wins. That is the only way this team is going to be successful. The second game of this series we did not do one of those things. After the 13-2 loss something needed to change.

 At this point there was nothing the coaches could do or say to us that would make us play better, so I decided I would address the team. I basically told the guys that it was on us to turn the ship around to start getting after opponents. With a few choice words here and there, I think my message got across. The final game of the series, and last game of the trip, we came out of the gates flying. We scored five runs in the first inning with a huge grandslam by Phil Keppler. As we learned against the Longhorns, good teams find a way to keep adding onto the lead as the game goes on. We scored runs in the second, third, and fifth innings to add on to our big first inning. That was enough for Kenyon who has really thrown the ball well this entire year. He threw 6 strong innings and got his first win of the year as we won 10-3. If Zach continues to attack the zone like he has his last few outings, he will play a huge role for us as we look to win a BigTen Championship.

A very disappointing spring trip came to an end with us only winning one game. We need to continue to get better and start showing up to the field with a purpose on a daily basis. Like I said before, we can’t win on talent alone, we don’t have enough, we need to attack the opponents from the very first pitch and continue it for the full 9 innings. If we do that we should be pretty successful.

We have our home opener this weekend against Western Illinios. If we are going to be successful this season we need to take care of business at home. We have been below average at home the past couple years and you never want to lose at your own place. We need to show up to the field with a purpose this entire weekend so we can start getting our season turned around. We can not waste or give away any more games if we want to be considered a top team in the BigTen.

Stay tuned for this weekends results!

GO HAWKS!!