Week Eleven

Week Eleven proved to be just as interesting as the other 10. This week started off with a very poor pitching outing at Lynchburg on Wednesday that made it seem like we were falling off track again, but the team turned it up a notch this past weekend against NC Wesleyan to help us tie for 3rd place in conference and take the 4th overall seed in the conference tournament. If you would have told us a month ago that we would finish tied for 3rd in conference we would not have believed you. We had come off of sweep by Averett where would could not pitch or hit well and now we come off consecutive sweeps where our pitching was good enough and our hitting was real well. I am honored to be part of a coaching staff and a team that has made a run like this and I look forward to riding this momentum into conference tournament later this week.

Week Eleven

April 2 - 6:00 to 10:00
April 3 - 4:20 to 6:20
April 4 - 1:00 to 5:30
April 5 - 3:30 to 5:30
April 6 - 11:00 to 3:00
April 7 - 12:00 to 5:00

Total hours: 21:30

Week Ten

Week 10 provided to be more of the same of the previous weeks but I was also a part of Methodist baseball history on Saturday evening. Saturday evening before the game the school recognized and honored Coach Austin for his 1,000th win as the coach here at MU. I was honored to be apart of the coaching staff and team that helped Coach win his 1,000th and I hope to help Coach win many more. Coach said he was relieved that that win was over now and that he could just go out there and coach and his team could just play baseball. The team may have been pressing trying to win that game for him and now that it is over the team seems to be play more loose and easy. Both games since the win the team has hit better and pitched much better making it a lot more fun to go to the ballpark every day. The game is a lot more fun when you win and I hope we can continue to have fun and add more wins to Coach Austin's total.

Week Ten Hours

March 26 - 3:00 to 6:00
March 27 - 3:30 to 6:00
March 28 - 4:30 to 6:00
March 29 - 1:00 to 6:00
March 31 - 3:00 to 5:30
April 1 - 3:00 to 10:00
April 2 - 11:00 to 5:00

Total hours: 27 1/2 hours

Week Nine Hours

March 20 - 1:30 to 8:00
March 21 - 3:00 to 8:00
March 22 - 4:30 to 6:00
March 23 - 4:45 to 6:15
March 24 - 10:00 to 12:00
March 25 - 10:00 to 8:00

Total hours: 26 1/2 hours

Week Nine

This week has started off great with a come from behind win late against North Central. On Tuesday I experienced my first 'good feeling about today' as a coach. I've heard several of my former coaches talk about good feelings that they had going into a game and I always thought that they were saying that to possibly give us a little motivation. I noticed my 'good feeling' today when I was throwing batting practice to the team before the game. Coming off a day off the team seemed more relaxed and ready for today. The past couple games the team has seemed to have been playing with too much pressure on themselves but today I did not sense that and the team had a great round of batting practice and carried the good batting practice into the game with a solid 9 run and 13 hit outing, probably the best offensive output we have had this season.

Week Eight

After a complete beat down from CNU on Sunday we were looking to bounce back during the week against Virginia Wesleyan on Wednesday. Unfortunately, we lost that game too and our losing woes continued when we were swept by Averett University this past weekend. I now believe that a losing streak takes more of a toll on a coach than it does a player. A player during a losing streak actually begins to loosen up and not put as much pressure on himself to win and play well, this in turn actually helps them play relaxed and better. However, for a coach, he constantly see him second guessing himself and trying to figure out which situation would work out better. During a losing streak a coach also might over analyze things and put too much thought into them and will constantly hold himself accountable. A coach will also take responsibility for a loss, and give credit to his players for a win, but during a losing streak you can see/feel the stress and physical toll that it takes on him. I see this in Coach Austin. I see what losing does to him and I can feel some of it myself. I do not feel as much as he does but I do constantly finding myself trying to figure out where we went wrong during any play/situation in the previous game. Hopefully, next week will be better and this losing streak will turn into a winning streak.