better pictures of our stadium

All day event

In the last post I mentioned we had a double header. It wasn't what we expected. Our game against Myrtle Beach (Braves) got rained out so usually what happens is we play two 7 inning games. But the Dash had sold out their luxury boxes or something so rather than exchange those tickets out and lose money the front office had us play two 9 inning games. Something like that.

So I got to the field at 8:45 for our 12pm game which we lost 5-0. Then we waited around at the field for the night game at 7pm. I started the game and went 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits. I don't think I had any 3 ball count. It was 1-1 after 6 when I was taken out. It remained that way and we went into extra innings. I think the mutual feeling was like "wow really? extra inning in the 2nd game of a double header?"

We didn't know what was in store for us. The innings kept sailing by. They scored a run in two different innings, but we tied it up both times and so we kept going. Our bullpen was really thin and we had to stretch guys out to amounts of pitches/innings they weren't used to. About the 15th inning the feeling changed to something like "well who cares how long this goes we gotta win this damn game no matter what."

20th inning. We are now out of pitching. We put in our utility infield/outfield guy Kyle Shelton who played 12 innings at 2nd base, 7 innings in Left Field and now he was on the mound. Leadoff hit, bunt, fly ball, fly ball...scoreless inning. We came in all pumped up . During the game we were trying all kinds of stuff to start a rally. We did "rally mids" (your pants are mid shin...brutal look basically), we tried pants above the knees. We tried "rally shades" (everyone wears sunglasses). We had our sleeveless jerseys on so in the 20th we rolled up our sleeves so our bare arms were showing. We had guys on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs and our catcher who had caught all 20 innings got a base hit to right field and all rushed the field and celebrated. We threw a party out there it was awesome.

We all rolled into the clubhouse and just starting yelling and screaming for about 5 minutes no joke. We started banging our charis and we flipped over our couches and tables and started throwing playing cards up in the air. It was beautiful chaos. I think we were all delirious.

So we got a 20 inning 5:30 hour victory...still the 2nd longest game I ever played to the 5:40 in the college world series. This one felt waaaaay longer. 29 innings in a day turned out to be a blast.

link to game article:
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100520&content_id=10230876&vkey=news_t580&fext=.jsp&sid=t580

Ok those 2 weeks since I wrote really went fast. We came home from that last road trip and had a short 3 game series at home. After that we went on another 7 day roady to Potomic (DC area, Nationals) and to Lynchburg (VA, Reds). We went 6-1 on the road so we are still playing well and in first place. I pitched 3 good innings against Potamic, my third inning they had a guy on 2nd with 2 outs and we were winning 6-5. I really reached back and threw the best pitches I had all night and struck the guy out on 4 pitches. It was good to find out I still had more in the tank when I needed it at that point. I threw the hardest I have all season right there with 3 2-seamers away and a cutter up and in for the K.

We are back home in Winston now thankfully for 7 games. Our game yesterday got rained out so I will start the second game of the day night doubleheader tomorrow against Myrtle Beach.

A cool thing that happened recently is that my teammate form UCI, Bryan Petersen got called up to the big leagues for the Marlins. He got a hit in his 1st at bat. He is the 2nd Anteater to play in the MLB after Brady Anderson. With the way the program has developed into a national powerhouse year after year there will be many more eaters to follow. But Petey is leading the way, he is a true professional and always had that quiet confidence and professional demeanour. So congrats to him.

Dash 1st baseman Seth Loman offers the words of wisdom for today
"You can't snuggie your way to the big leagues"

Kangaroo Court

I am writing this from my hotel bed in Frederick, Maryland. Just got back from Chipotle, it was the best I could do for Cinco de Mayo. Chipotle is probably the most American Mexican food ever but it gets the job done.

We won 2 of 3 at Wilmington and have lost the first 2 games here against the Keys. Both have been tough losses, we have made a few costly errors and haven't come up with those big 2 out hits with runners on.

Sometimes I like to share with you what goes on behind the scenes. Such as what happens in the bullpen which I will get to in the future. Every few weeks we hold Kangaroo Court. For those who don't know, Kangaroo Court is a system where you can write people up and fine them for things they do on and off the field. Different clubhouses have different rules. We carry around "the box" so you can fine people even on road trips. Here are the basic parameters:

In order to fine someone you get a piece of paper and write down the fine. You have to write your name and a witness on the paper too.

When we empty out the box for court we have 3 judges. They read the fine and the accused has to stand up and argue his case. This team has a rule that if you don't argue you get a double fine. This is good because you always hear that persons side of it and it gets pretty funny. At the end of the year we collect all the money and use it for a party.

Fines range from .25 to $1 but you can get double max fined for $2.

One Latino guy racked up $8.25 last time in the first 2 weeks, he did some serious work. The total was like $65 so he paid a huge percentage of that haha.

Kangaroo court is a great time, it's hilarious what some of these fines are. I won't say too much because what happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse. I managed to escape this one with only $.25 being owed. One guy in spring training was convinced I was a serial killer....so you know $.25