May 18 - The Season
As another baseball season comes to an end, I render myself incapable of being able to wrap my head around how quickly the first pitch of the season becomes the final out of the year. While that final out for us has yet to be recorded, it is amazing to sit back and think that months and months of grueling hard work and undeniable satisfaction with each tally to the win column can all be re-lived in a memory only seconds long. These memories however, will never be forgotten.
We all play this game for reasons unique to each of us, but we all have one common goal in mind: championships. As the thirty or so members of this baseball team sit on this plane to California for what hopes to be a mere pit stop on the road to a dream come true, we all understand what lies at stake. Some may be sleeping, reading, listening to music or even writing, but make no mistake about it, there is only one thought, one goal, one reason for being here; and only one team who was willing to go above and beyond what was asked of them to make this dream possible.
Eight months ago these men whom you see on the ball field every day came together and formed a bond that would eventually lead to a school record 46 wins and counting, a school record win percentage and the Crusaders' second straight trip to the opening round of the NAIA World Series. For some, they arrived with a chip on their shoulder, still bitter after the fruits of their labor the year before in Iowa, only to have it taken from them. For others, they stepped into a program not content with merely getting there, and were counting on these new members to be the missing link. This is a team made up of a perfect combination of young and old, pitching and hitting, power and speed, and poetry in motion blended with unenviable chaos. As with every team, we have had ups and downs that have included parting ways with good teammates and even better friends. But baseball is more than just a game; it is a business, and those of us who remain are in business together to have one hell of a good time playing this game.
Over the course of this season, I have been keeping you all up to date on the goings on with this team, so it would only be right to talk about the WHAC tournament last week. Unfortunately it didn't end well for us as we came up short for the second straight year against Indiana Tech. Amidst all of the disappointment, lessons were learned and minds refocused on the bigger picture. A conference tournament victory would have been a nice way to end the regular season, but sometimes keeping the taste of defeat fresh on your mind does more for future battles than the lax that comes from easy victories. I firmly believe that losing that game will only serve a greater and more beneficial purpose to this rag-tag bunch of individuals as we march west to continue our journey to glory.
We all live our lives as if it were a book continuously being written each and every day. Each member of this team has helped write this book of a season that hopefully come June 4th in Lewiston, Idaho will end as one of the greatest stories we could ever retell. It will be a story of victory that personifies the benefits of hard work, kickin' butt and taking names, and every other cliché you can think of.
Hard work, preparation, determination, perseverance, fortitude, and genuine desire are all embodied by each and every Crusader. We all have our own stories to tell that have brought us together on this path to victory. We are one unit, one team, with one goal. Memories may only take seconds to relive, but the memories we have made and will continue to make this season will live on forever.
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to persevere that counts."
April 24
Considering our games today at Aquinas were rained out (shocker of the year), I figured I would take time out of my precious day off that consisted of a nap, hot-n-ready's and watching re-runs of Home Improvement on Nickelodeon to update you all on how we have been doing lately. Its such a chore to type this up after a week of finals, so you better enjoy it!
Not this weekend, nor last weekend, but the weekend before, your beloved Crusaders traveled to Davenport? East Kentwood? Happy Town? Wherever, to play the Panthers at East Kentwood high school over in Grand Rapids. Our mission was to try and rediscover whatever swagger we had temporarily lost by splitting with Indiana Tech. Lucky for us, the field Davenport plays at this year is small and we made it seem as such, blasting out ten homeruns in two games there on day 1. I didn't stutter, we really hit ten homeruns in two games, and left Davenport wondering what nightmare they woke up in. We came out in day 2 and took two more and left with a 4-0 sweep. Let it be noted that this drubbing came after a 16-2 loss at the hands of St. Xavier in Battle Creek just a couple days prior, and left us with a very sour taste in our mouths. We knew that we had to come back strong and do some serious work.
The second thing that happened at Concordia during the weekend came during the second game and continued afterwards. Fellow NPZ member Tim Duffy thought it would be a good idea to get a couple of his buddies to come out and cheer us on. I don't really know what they were saying, but the fact that one of them was wearing Jorts (jean shorts) was enough to make us all laugh. After the game they came down to where we were all running our post-victory sprints and continued with the yelling into a megaphone. Imagine if you will Dick Vitale's voice and his famous "It's awesome baby!!", among other things, coming from a college kid with jean shorts and a megaphone for about 10 minutes straight. Definitely a great way to end a two game set.
The last thing that happened against Concordia was during game one that Saturday at home. It wasn't really a product of the team's imagination and I'm not really even sure how it started, but one of our guys got the idea to imitate Ole Miss and I don't even know what you would call it, their dance, ritual, rally song, whatever, and have us do it in between the top and bottom of the first inning. What happens is this: the song "Love is Gone" by David Guetta plays over the loud speaker and we beat the beat with some fist pumps until the inning starts and then go do work. The video of this can be seen on Madonna's YouTube page and in person at all Madonna Crusader home baseball games; the softball team does it now too but they got it from us and lets face it, they just cant break it down like we do.
So if you have been paying attention you will notice that in the midst of all these shenanigans we were able to go 8-0 in conference over those two weekends and for all you math people out there when you add a two game sweep of Rochester into the mix that gave us a nice ten game win streak heading into this weekend against Aquinas. Unfortunately all good things come to an end and we lost game one 7-0 but bounced back nicely in game two and came out on top. After all of that, we are left here where I should be writing about taking two at Aquinas, but alas, that will have to wait until another rainy day.
In all seriousness folks, if you haven't been out to a Madonna baseball game this year we really are fun to watch. We need to win four (4) out of our last six (6) games to win the regular season conference title and earn the host spot for the WHAC tournament. We also have a chance to set the school record for wins in a season and also best win percentage in a season. Any support would be greatly appreciated, especially at our home finale next weekend on Senior Day against Siena Heights. Hope to see you come out and support a great thing we have going on.
Until next time, I leave you with something the great Ernie Harwell once said: "Baseball? It's just a game - as simple as a ball and a bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. It's a sport, business - and sometimes even religion."
Blog No. 6 - This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen.
This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. It was our conference home opener and we're the Madonna Crusaders: 15th in the nation, a sparkling 20-3 record and an undeniable home field advantage. We were supposed to welcome Indiana Tech into a beating with open arms, take care of business and go home happy and ready to watch Michigan State take care of business in the Final Four. Well, for those of you who were only able to witness Sparty come up short last night, you can guess that things didnt work out as planned. Indiana Tech came out to Ilitch Ballpark yesterday and handed us the beating instead and left smiling, knowing they took care of business against a more talented and better all around team. People can sit there and dissect all the possibilities as to why we lost but it just comes down to getting outplayed in every facet of the game. They beat us in the field, on the mound, in the batters box and in the dugout. They probably even had cleaner uniforms, ate a better breakfast and listened to cooler music before the game. Even the hurricane-force winds benefitted them more so than us. Whatever the reasons, at the end of the day we just got beat. As Coach Haeger said after the game however, the great thing about baseball is there is always an opportunity for redemption and luckily for us and unfortunately for them, we are taking a select number of Crusaders down to Fort Wayne on Monday to provide the same kind of service to them in their bandbox of a home field. I cannot predict the future but I can say that Indiana Tech better be ready to play on Monday because they will not be met with smiling faces and a team reeling from an upset. This team will be focused, geared up and ready to walk into their home turf and shake things up. My old high school baseball coach used to have some colorful words to use in order to get his point across and the thing he said that stuck out most to me during my senior year went something like this: "I don't know what you guys gotta do to get ready for this game; kill a cat, eat some glass, go out in the cattails and drink some mudwater for nourishment or something I don't care, but whatever it is you gotta show up ready to go." This sort of thing applies to us on Monday. Whatever it is that we need to do in order to come out swinging then we need to do it because we were punched in the face and now we have to respond, and I believe that we will.
Fortunately for us, this all happened in the first series of the conference season and now we are able to take a step back and realize that we aren't invincible and that the rest of the teams in the WHAC don't owe us a thing, nor do they care about our record or our regular season WHAC title last year. It's a brand new season, with new players and new expectations. When other teams see what Tech did to us yesterday, they will expect to be able to play with us and our job now is to set them up for a rude awakening. We have to come out and show everyone that yesterday was an aberration and we still expect to be the team to beat this year.
When it all comes down to it, we are better than how we played yesterday. We know it, you know it, and everyone else in the league will know it.
Blog No. 5 - RAIN
Rain. It's been the word of the year for this team so far. We've played 19 games and currently sit about halfway through the year at 16-3. We've had about 11 games rained out ... nearly half of our season has been taken from us by Mother Nature. Its been frustrating to say the least for everyone: Coaches, players, myself because I sit here with nothing to write about, and you fans out there because you have no baseball to watch and are sitting here reading about whatever else I decide to throw your way.
Since there hasn't been much baseball to speak of, other than a double header sweep of Albion last Friday, I figured I would kind of take things behind the scenes about what we do when we can't lace up the cleats and play some hardball.
The season is definitely a grind... we miss a lot of school, spend long hours on busses and during road trips we don't get a lot of sleep. We struggle to keep our grades up and doing homework consistently becomes more of a nice idea rather than actuality. Thankfully this school is full of teachers who support what we are trying to accomplish and give us a lot of slack to make up homework. Shout out to Ms. Johnstone who is allowing me to not only make up a midterm I missed three weeks ago, but is letting me take it home to do as well. Its things like this that teachers do for us that make being a student-athlete possible. A lot of other people feel as though we are getting fed with a silver spoon and have things made a little easy for us but that is far from the case. The guys on this team work very hard to be where they are both on the field and in the classroom and only those people who truly know us can see that.
As far as what we could do on the field in the past week, we finally have been able to get on our home field and practice and be outside and away from the stuffy gym that we called home for the last few months. Even though the first few days of practice were chilly, it just felt good to practice and have some fun out where we belong. Since it's rained at the sites where we were supposed to play, we have had a couple intrasquad games to keep our minds right and play ball the best we could. Two of the freshmen redshirts, Tyler Schofield and "Little Nicky" Aaron Saarela, have gotten their work in by giving the hitters some good live looks during these games.
I wish I had more to talk about right now but hopefully the weather clears up next week for our first home game of the year on Tuesday at 1 pm against Indiana Wesleyan. Hope everyone can make it out!
Blog No. 4 - Florida Part II - Rain delays and a good outing on the hill
Since Hurricane Ditka decided to make an appearance down here in central Florida the last couple days, I figured I would take this time to kind of recap some of the festivities and shenanigans that took place over the last week. Both baseball and life in the houses has been a good time for everyone. When we first arrived down here, we knew that we would have our work cut out for us all week. As far as the physical toll that it would play on our bodies, I don't think that anyone could have predicted how tough 15 games in 10 days would be on us. I feel like everyone has had some issues staying healthy and staying energized. We started the week running through teams like the '86 Bears and have kind of sputtered towards the finish line here in the last couple games. We let an obviously undermanned Evangel team hang with us and beat us and also let three games against Calumet College stay much closer than they should have been. But I guess that's the nature of the beast sometimes; that many games in that many days will make it tough to bring the old "A-game" to the ballpark every day.
That being said, we have played some very good baseball. While the weather has cut short our week, going 10-1 against some good competition and hopefully getting two more in tomorrow before we play Oregon Trail all the way back to Michigan is a very good trip. On Sunday against Calumet, Sam pitched quite the gem, striking out 10 batters and walking none while only throwing 80-something pitches and in game two I was fortunate enough to have some great defense behind me in only allowing one hit to help take two from them. The defense has really been pretty phenomenal all week and a lot of our wins can be attributed to that. 
As far as life off the diamond, good times have been had by all as can be evidenced in our house, which looks like someone broke in and just decided to throw things around for a couple hours... good times. We went from having no food to spending 300 dollars at the store last night and trying to figure out how we're going to eat it all in the next... 12 hours. It's been an adventure trying to organize a house with 10 guys in it and we've done a pretty good job for the most part. Sometimes dishes don't get done for a while and we've had to resort to drinking orange juice or milk out of these classy plastic martini glasses.
A lot of other great things have happened down here also: we found a gecko during our rain delay which is pretty awesome, Donny Holland got his first career hit, Matt Kay finally got his homerun and tried his hardest to finish the game before it was shortened by rain so it would count, and a lot of other memories were made. We played ahead, came from behind, did work on teams and had our character tested. If this trip is any indication of what this season has in store for us, then a lot of good things will be coming our way. As a guy who doesn't play much, I get to see a lot of what happens on the bench and on the field. I see how much these coaches care about how we do, I see how much the guys on the field want to win and I see how much the guys on the bench support the team. We truly are one unit and are close with everyone. As Coach Haeger always says, it's not about having the most talented group of kids - because we aren't- but it's about having the kids who care more than the other team and want to win more than they want personal glory. As one of those guys I definitely see it from the rest of the team every single day. We might not always come out on top, but were always giving 100 percent.
I'd like to take this time to give a shout out to the best number 7 assistant coach in all of college baseball. Coach George owns Coach's Corner on Farmington and 7 Mile Road and would appreciate seeing anyone who supports the team come out and enjoy a nice hearty plate of Coach's Nachos. Hopefully this earns me a free steak later this week ;)
Sometimes its not about how often you win... ohh wait... yeah it is! Way to do work fellas
Blog No. 3 - Florida - We're going to SHABOOMS
As most of you thousands of fans know, we have made it to Florida and got things started on the right track with three wins in two days. We were fortunate enough to take two from William Penn today (Thursday) through some good pitching and phenomenal defense. The outfielders filled up SportsCenter's Top 10 plays of the day all by themselves and really won the games for us today. Last night was a little less suspenseful however as we beat SUNY-Canton 13-1 in one of the coldest nights I have ever experienced down here in Florida. It was definitely evident that we were a little worn out from our 20 hour bus trip but we made some plays and Drew Fry MASHED at his finest with a three run homer to get things started. Any way you slice it, our trip has been efficient so far, starting 3-0.
As far as the bus ride went, it was fairly uneventful but that's probably a good thing. Jeff Mann got the trip started with a nice little motivational speech and we watched some very laid back, G-rated educational videos to get us in the right frame of mind. Seeaaabreezesss!
We got into Florida early on Thursday and stopped for a nice little breakfast at the Cracker Barrel to kick things off in the Sunshine State. Once we found our way to the complex, we discovered that for some reason our houses weren't ready yet, so we piled into one temporary house and 32 guys fresh off a day-long bus ride attempted to share 1 bathroom and 8 beds. You do the math. Eventually things got settled except for the house I'm staying in and we had to wait until after the game to un-pack our things. I will say this; you can only imagine Garrett's (Rebain), (Robert) Fraser's and my delight when we walk into our room to find bunk beds and pink High School Musical bed sheets. You can't really comment on something like that, just let that thought marinate in your noggin for a bit.
After we took care of business today, the world's coolest Polish-Middle Eastern-American-Irish-Mexican-English guy Tarik Khasawneh and I went shopping at Wal-Mart for a few essential food items to the tune of about 230 dollars ... for the first half of the week. It might seem like a lot but there were special foods we had to pick up because of the two Canadians living with us (Kyle Bolton and Sam Haldane). Kyle pitches tomorrow against Notre Dame (no not that Notre Dame) and Sam and I will split double header duties on Monday against Calumet College of St. Joseph. I see a lot of K's in the forecast!
Speaking of K's, I do have to give a nice shout out to Jeff Mann and his 10 strikeout-no walk performance in only 5 innings last night. He was working on a no-hitter until an excuse me swing got enough on the ball to get a base hit. Don't chase the ball! PFP. Coach Collias should give you some lessons later.
Anyway, its' been a good trip so far and hopefully gets better as we keep emptying the meat wagons and keep the pain train rolling. I do have to say good luck to the softball team this week as they start their season in Arizona tomorrow. Pre-season number 14 in the nation people, "they ain't a joke"! You can read all about that in Rachael's blog.
I'm going to SHABOOOOM's
Trent
Blog No. 2 - Florida - Here we come!
So its 11:30 at night with two papers, a few assignments and a midterm all coming up in the next 36 hours and I choose to spend my precious hours writing to you folks about what's yet to come in the world of Crusader Baseball. I don't know if you should feel special or appreciated or what, but consider yourselves lucky because it's at least 3 hours past my bedtime.
Anyway, on Wednesday of this week your beloved team will be hopping on the big bus and making the trip down south to beautiful Orlando to run through 15 games in a 10 day stretch. Among those that will have the Blue Cru staring them square in the eyes is William Penn University. For those die-hard fans who remember from last year, we took three out of four from these fellas and rest assured we've earned quite the bulls-eye on our backs because of it. There are a few other teams down there as well who, as Coach Haeger put it "had their seasons ended by us last year, in a sense."
I would like to at this time point out that yes, I did say that we would be taking a bus to Florida this year instead of those convenient bird-like machines that make travelling long distances in a short period of time very possible. But what are a few backed up toilets among friends when it means you get to bond with your closest friends for 22 hours straight? Heck Yes I say.
While it would be natural for many people to think that going to Florida for Spring Break would be a time for fun in the sun, cold drinks and swimming with some dolphins, us on the team know that its really about baseball, arguing about how to distribute grocery money, wearing uncomfortably wet uniforms to the game because you forget to change the wash, and Zach Flavin lying around the house at all times in his sliding shorts, making everyone as uncomfortable as possible. Can't Wait!
As far as the baseball side of things, the team will definitely have to show up to the field ready to play every single day. With ten straight days of baseball and at times more than one game in a day, our mental toughness will be challenged just as much, if not more so, than our physical toughness. It's going to be a gauntlet that we will have to take head on and persevere through the sore muscles, tired minds and thoughts of just getting it over with. Every day, every game, every inning has to be an individual battle that we try and win, and not look forward to tomorrow and definitely not take a play off. We worked too hard all fall and ran too much in the winter to take any opportunity that we have to play the game we love for granted. Sometimes we all forget what a gift it is to play baseball; guys complain about doing things that once upon a time would have killed for the opportunity to do. Getting the chance to go to Florida and see all the hard work we have put into this for months makes everything worth it and even makes many people wish they had done more.
The beauty about being in Florida though is that in addition to beautiful baseball weather, it also provides all of us a nice way to relax a bit once we return "home" after our games. This year the team is staying in some nice townhouses with each their own individual pool. So while you're all up here shoveling your driveways, we will be celebrating our latest victory out by the pool in Orlando chilling with Mickey Mouse.
I wish I had more baseball related news at this time but Kentucky was too busy being, well... Kentucky and we couldn't go. Check back in a few days for more updates.
Until then, remember this: No matter what you do, DO WORK!
Trent
February 25, 2010 - First Road Trip of the Season
So here we go, blog number one of what I hope will be many to come. Its an honor to be here writing about the Crusader Baseball team and I hope that those of you who take the time to read these rambling, incoherent, boring and drawn out entries don't fall asleep before the end of it... just kidding! I'll try and keep it entertaining as possible for you all.
Getting to travel to California was something that the entire team was excited for. We worked hard to come out strong this season and make our mark early and often and show them how the MU does work. Not many of us had ever been that far west and San Diego was the only thing we could think about once it was presented to us months ago. It was going to be fun but at the same time we were there to take care of business. We flew down in some "G'ed out" suits, had people asking all about us, had some fun on the airplane and definitely made an impression; but that's just how we roll.
By far one of the best parts about going on this trip was the warm weather, getting lost and sleeping in small beds with other guys on the team. I mean if you ever get the opportunity to share a small bed with Jeff Mann, I highly suggest you take it. The other two guys with me in the room were John Ballarin and Tyler Schofield (unfortunately for him he's a freshman AND Canadian). In all seriousness though, it's a good opportunity to spend some time with the guys you need to rely on most throughout the next few months without any distractions from the rest of your busy life.
After dismissing San Diego Christian 7-1 behind a solid pitching performance from The Count and a pinch-hit home run from the second best looking red-head on the team (I've got your back Duff (Tim Duffy)) Danny Harder, we were able to relax a bit by getting the first one out of the way. The season had officially begun and we were about to make our presence felt with authority.
After a tough game-one loss to Biola, our first test as a team was upon us. We had probably been looking ahead to our matchup the next day with Point Loma, the number two team in the country, and didn't come out ready to play. Biola was a good team, a great hitting team, and they put it to us. Coach Haeger challenged us to show ourselves what kind of team we were in game two and we responded. The man with the coolest hair on the team - Ted Toune - sent a three run shot out to center field to put us ahead and in extra innings Zach Flavin bounced back from a rough start to the year with the game winning homer to left. It was a total team effort and it felt good to know we weren't fazed by a loss. Point Loma was next.
The game at Point Loma was definitely the highlight of the trip. Not only did they finish runner-up behind Lubbock Christian in the NAIA World Series last year, they were the preseason number 2 and undefeated coming into the game, but they also play at one of the most scenic ballparks in America...see that Kyle? America. It sat behind their campus and overlooked the ocean. We hopped out of the nice, roomy vans and everybody, even the coaches, was taking pictures. Even the little bit of rain that annoyed us before the game wasn't going to put us down. Point Loma came out strong against JB (John Ballarin) but he settled down and ended up throwing a complete game gem. We won 5-2 behind great defense from people like my hero Billy Hardin, Mike Gansser, Matt Kay, Mr. All-Decade Shawn Little himself, and the "MASH" mentality of our team that gets in your head and takes you out of the game. Things like 'Knock Knock... Who's there?! Nobody!!' threw them off their game and through no surprise to us, we came out on top.
Game two was much of the same as Jgood (Jeremy Gooding) made his first collegiate start and impressed everyone allowing only one run. Behind his performance and a nice pimped out homerun from my man Duff that's still probably swimming with the fishes, we won the game 6-1. Not only did we take two from the number two team in the nation, but we then went into their dorms and ate all their food and probably made the other students look at us and say "Point Who??" But like I said earlier, that's just how we roll.
That double header was definitely the highlight of our trip but there was still some baseball to be played. We had one more day and one more game left to play against a good Cal State San Marcos team. Our heads may have been a little too swoll after the previous day and we all came out a little lackadaisical and couldn't get the job done, losing 8-4. Still, coming back from the Golden State 4-2 isn't bad and definitely got the season off on the right track.
Looking back on our trip to California there are a lot of memories that were made by everyone. From Chris Kangas' sudden engagement to the love of his life Gina, witnessing Canada lose to the US in hockey, an appearance from Party Boy, finding out from the best rapping flight attendant ever Jeff Mann's secret, Schofield's mustache and playing some good baseball, its a trip that we all enjoyed and definitely will remember.
Up next on our MASH tour was supposed to be Kentucky but apparently it snows there sometimes so it was cancelled. I think it will be a blessing in disguise as we get some guys healthy and rest up to go remind everyone in Florida who might have forgotten from last year what the MU is all about.
Trent
Trent Pohl is a junior right handed pitcher for the Madonna University baseball team.
