Winter baseball
My column from Saturday's Star:
Early afternoons in February are good for things like skiing, snowboarding or maybe even a pickup football game.
They’re not, however, designed for baseball games.
On Friday in Boiling Springs, Gardner-Webb thumbed its nose at the calendar and kicked off its 2006 baseball season with a pair of seven-inning games against Delaware State.
Mother Nature fought back with a blustery winter afternoon, complete with a biting wind that ripped through my jacket like a Zach Ward fastball through a piece of newspaper.
Zach, a third-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Reds last year, was also on hand for the debut of the new-look Bulldogs.
New look is putting it a little bit mildly. There are 35 players on the GWU roster and 17 of them are freshmen. Several of them got into the game Friday, for a little on-the-job training.
"Our freshmen jitters showed up a lot in our freshmen, but they showed up in our seniors too," GWU head coach Rusty Stroupe said.
Stroupe was a little concerned with the lack of clutch hits and the number of runners left on base, but with such a youthful crew, he was focusing on the positives.
"If were going to win, we’re going to have a different hero every day," he said. "Blake Lalli is our returning all-everything, but he can’t do it by himself. We used the bench more than we ever thought we would today. If we’re going to win, it’s definitely going to be a team effort."
Rusty, always the good interview, immediately copped to using a cliché. What else would you expect from a guy who is a published author ("Embracing the Chaos" — available for $20 in the concession stand) and columnist (weekly in The Star).
When he isn’t honing his writing skills, he’s rolling the dice between the lines.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth — of course, when I’m freezing, there’s extra innings — Stroupe had his cleanup hitter, Matt Maloney, lay down a suicide squeeze. Lalli scored from third without a throw, and the Bulldogs came away winners.
Two of the members of the kiddie corps are local products. Former Burns standout Josh Drewery started at short and hit second while former Crest standout O.J. McFarland watched from the dugout.
Drewery is slated to play some short and pitch a little for GWU in his freshman season while McFarland is expected to redshirt — in part because he came in with a knee injury, but mostly because there are seven catchers on the roster.
"His progress is really good, not just with the knee but with learning the college game," Stroupe said of McFarland. "It’s just a numbers thing.
"Josh is going to play a lot. He’s not likely to be in there every single game, but he’ll be playing as much as anybody."
Now that the team has had its facelift, Varsity Field could be next in line for an extreme makeover. A new scoreboard is in place for this season, and hopefully down the road, a more Division I-looking bleacher area, press box and lighting system will appear as well.
Stroupe said that plans are in the works, and as a alumnus, I’m excited about the possibility of a renovated Varsity Field.
As a member of the media, I’m even more excited about having a press box to sit in … with a good heater.
Early afternoons in February are good for things like skiing, snowboarding or maybe even a pickup football game.
They’re not, however, designed for baseball games.
On Friday in Boiling Springs, Gardner-Webb thumbed its nose at the calendar and kicked off its 2006 baseball season with a pair of seven-inning games against Delaware State.
Mother Nature fought back with a blustery winter afternoon, complete with a biting wind that ripped through my jacket like a Zach Ward fastball through a piece of newspaper.
Zach, a third-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Reds last year, was also on hand for the debut of the new-look Bulldogs.
New look is putting it a little bit mildly. There are 35 players on the GWU roster and 17 of them are freshmen. Several of them got into the game Friday, for a little on-the-job training.
"Our freshmen jitters showed up a lot in our freshmen, but they showed up in our seniors too," GWU head coach Rusty Stroupe said.
Stroupe was a little concerned with the lack of clutch hits and the number of runners left on base, but with such a youthful crew, he was focusing on the positives.
"If were going to win, we’re going to have a different hero every day," he said. "Blake Lalli is our returning all-everything, but he can’t do it by himself. We used the bench more than we ever thought we would today. If we’re going to win, it’s definitely going to be a team effort."
Rusty, always the good interview, immediately copped to using a cliché. What else would you expect from a guy who is a published author ("Embracing the Chaos" — available for $20 in the concession stand) and columnist (weekly in The Star).
When he isn’t honing his writing skills, he’s rolling the dice between the lines.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth — of course, when I’m freezing, there’s extra innings — Stroupe had his cleanup hitter, Matt Maloney, lay down a suicide squeeze. Lalli scored from third without a throw, and the Bulldogs came away winners.
Two of the members of the kiddie corps are local products. Former Burns standout Josh Drewery started at short and hit second while former Crest standout O.J. McFarland watched from the dugout.
Drewery is slated to play some short and pitch a little for GWU in his freshman season while McFarland is expected to redshirt — in part because he came in with a knee injury, but mostly because there are seven catchers on the roster.
"His progress is really good, not just with the knee but with learning the college game," Stroupe said of McFarland. "It’s just a numbers thing.
"Josh is going to play a lot. He’s not likely to be in there every single game, but he’ll be playing as much as anybody."
Now that the team has had its facelift, Varsity Field could be next in line for an extreme makeover. A new scoreboard is in place for this season, and hopefully down the road, a more Division I-looking bleacher area, press box and lighting system will appear as well.
Stroupe said that plans are in the works, and as a alumnus, I’m excited about the possibility of a renovated Varsity Field.
As a member of the media, I’m even more excited about having a press box to sit in … with a good heater.
posted by Randy Capps at 11:48 PM
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