Post-Florida Blues

For those of you who don't know by now, the baseball team's annual trip to Florida was a huge success. Not only did we win four games and beat a team recognized as one of the best in the country, we got reintroduced to this weird thing called the sun. I even got a little (really little) bit tan, so people don't have to shield their eyes because of my pale winter glow anymore.

On a more serious note, the trip was a blast. We played competitive baseball all week, and easily could have come home with two or three more wins from the three one-run losses. The pitching staff was solid all week, from the starters to the penitentiary. Andrew Duprat threw a complete game shut out while simultaneously hitting the same player on the other team three times (he looked at Duprat the wrong way his first at-bat) and Andrew Kelley shoved his fastball in Palm Beach Atlantic's face as we played the most exciting game I've ever been a part of.

Our northern schedule kicks off this Sunday, with a double dip down at New Haven. We're hoping to knock of an NE-10 opponent for the first time this year, after coming close twice in Florida. Whether we get to play these games, however, is entirely up to Mother Nature and how long she intends to continue this sinister plan of overlapping winter and spring.

We open up our home schedule with two games against Southern New Hampshire on Friday, April 8th. So grab your parkas and bring your friends to see at least a few innings.

One last note: the Saint Mike's baseball program will celebrate a triumvirate of birthdays over the coming weekend, with Chad Estey (Friday), Tim McDonnell (Saturday), and Tony Bonvechio (Sunday) all moving one year closer to the real world.

"I usually take a two-hour nap from 1:00 to 4:00."

- Yogi Berra

Baseball: Traditional Purple vs. Gold Weekend Continues

This Sunday, SMC baseball wrote another chapter in the Purple vs. Gold "World Series" tradition. At the end of each fall season, we split the guys into two teams and engage in a best of three series that can be described as spirited and competitive. It also involves a fair amount of artificial trash talking, vocalization of inside jokes, and lots of yelling. As a member of the Gold team this year, I was hoping to extract some revenge over the two game sweep my teammates and I enjoyed last year.

Unfortunately, my fate was the same, as the Gold team lost 2-0 and 7-5 in a long, 14-inning day. However it was a nice way to wrap up the fall season, that was pleasantly productive. The stands and sidelines were spotted with parents that made the trip to watch the games. A special thanks goes out to the Estey family and all the other parents that were involved in bringing the in-between game spread into our lives. Three hours into our day, food was quite necessary.

As Purple emerged victorious once again, our head coach, Paul Morgan, vowed to choose more wisely next year. (He is yet to win a Purple-Gold series yet. Coach Ed Poland has dominated the series). But all in all, you could tell how pleased he and the rest of the coaching staff were to see the progress the team is making.

Now it's on to the offseason for us. Class of 2010 graduate Tony Bonvechio has been awesome in creating a strength and conditioning program that has really brought a different sense of legitimacy to what we do while the snow falls. Just a heads up to the SMC community, we will be selling Super Raffle tickets in the coming months to benefit our annual trip to Florida. The grand prize is two United Airlines flight vouchers and $1,500 in cash. So if you're interested in winning cool stuff and helping us out just hunt down a baseball player. It won't be too hard to find us -- we're pretty loud, and sometimes obnoxious.

Now I'll leave you with a "Yogism" -- the odd ramblings of Hall of Fame catcher, Yogi Berra. This will be a pattern, by the way.

"Half the game is 90% mental."

- Yogi Berra