With this past opening weekend of college baseball and watching a couple of the local, semi local teams. I have some thoughts on what might be going through some players and coach's minds. There is definitely some variety of emotions that these teams are going through. Of the colleges that I follow pretty regularly two went undefeated this weekend, two were swept this weekend and on team split four games.
Lets start with the two that did the sweeping. Louisville baseball and Tennessee Tech baseball both went undefeated this weekend. First of all this is very tough to do. Tennessee Tech played Jacksonville State four games and took all four. First let me say to beat a team three times is tough...beating a team four times in a row is almost impossible. What a great weekend for the Golden Eagles. Great start to their season and if they can ride that high all year they will be tough to beat. Louisville played three different teams in three days. Including a 10-7 win vs the #22 team in the country, Maryland. Louisville baseball is not unfamiliar with winning. They have been a national power for the past 6-7 years. It looks like they will be a force to be reckoned with again this year. With these two team starting undefeated the best thing for them to do is to stay humble. Remember, don't get too high when things are going well. Winning if you aren't careful can bring complacency. Players and coaches alike need to stay hungry and remember the next team on the field wants to win too.
Morehead State split this weekend 2-2 with Jacksonville State. Hard to know without being there what this weekend was like. Was Morehead lucky to split or should they have won the series. The coaches know...the players know. Baseball is a fickle sport. If they should have won the series then they can learn from the losses. If they were lucky to earn the split then they can learn from the losses. Funny how that works. Teams, coaches and players will always learn more from losing than from winning. Hopefully they will continue to improve and make a run in the OVC.
Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky Baseball had tough weekends. Kentucky went to Chapel Hill to play #9 UNC and dropped three games by a total of 4 runs. Ouch! That hurts. Some people will take the close loses as a consolation to winning. Yeah, right! A win is a win a loss is a loss. However UNC is not slouch program being preseason ranked #9 and first year coach Nick Mingione knows that the only way to get better is play better talent. Of course UK has to compete in one of the toughest baseball conferences and starting out with a patsy is not his style. I am sure that this week the Cats will review their games vs UNC this weekend and make a couple of changes and be ready to roll out next weekend more prepared for their week through Virginia when they play Liberty (great program), ST. Joseph's, Old Dominion and Delaware. Eastern Kentucky University Baseball traveled to Tucson AZ to play #7 Arizona University. EKU not afraid to play anyone has dropped the first three game of a four game series. They actually play again today at noon. Hopefully they can salvage one win and come home on a high note. Things don't get much easier for EKU this week when they travel to Louisville on Wednesday to play the Cardinals. I will say that when you begin your season 0-3 its really easy to start finger pointing and trying to find excuses. Good teams will learn from these losses. They will quickly know their strengths and weaknesses and make adjustments. Bad teams will finger point and back bite. Kentucky and EKU have great coaches and great players and the more they play together the better they will get. Mentally they both just have to stay strong and the wins will come. Confidence is the key.
Good luck to all these teams and hopefully they all make a regional!
Coach Bale
