Blohowiak is back for his third season of blogging, while Porcaro gets his first go at it. Today is their second entry for the 2012 season.
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Oh Carolina, you keep callin’ me home
I think that’s an Eric Church reference. For anyone who knows me, knows that any reference to country music is few and far between. The three-game set this weekend against the Eastern Carolina Pirates was the first of the 2012 season.
It felt really good to get outside and see the ball off our hands and off the bat. The result of the weekend was most definitely not in our favor, and we have plenty of things we have to do better. We must give ECU credit however, they hit the ball well and pounded the zone on the mound, and coupling those things together will garner positive results.
The excitement amongst the team is very high, and who can blame us? We flew out of Midway in Chicago into Raleigh, NC. Greenville, where ECU is located, was a short bus ride away (1.5 hours). Greenville is a beautiful place, well for the two gamedays, with green grass and warm temperatures. I'm writing this as we’re riding the bus back to Raleigh to fly back home and the weather is quite Midwestern early spring (rainy and foggy). We woke up this morning to workout at the facility at ECU. Needless to say, that place is amazing. No wonder athletes such as Chris Johnson, Vonta Leach, and George Koonce were produced there.
There really isn’t much for me to say at this point right now. The games were a great opportunity for us to see where we are at, as well as what we need to work on. We are working very hard at correcting or honing our skills to put on the best performance game to game that we can. We may not win every game but you can bet that this team will play hard and will work as hard as we can.
There is some unfortunate news to relay. Derek Peake, sophomore outfielder, squared around to bunt a ball in game three and was hit in the finger, breaking it. He is not sure how long he will be sidelined for until he meets a specialist, and any update to us will be relayed to the readers of this blog. Prayers for a speedy recovery, he is a great player and teammate. Have a great day all!
Quick thoughts from Blow.....
Being polite to strangers is definitely preached down here ... Kudos to Mitch Ghelfi on his first collegiate hit this weekend ... Eric Semmelhack, Mike Schneider and Cale Tassi really put on a good performance on the mound, despite some adversity ... I forgot how important eating breakfast is ... thank you continental breakfast (especially the waffle maker) ... ALSO, I forgot how important sunscreen is when it is sunny out ... I'm a bit burnt ... the max squat by an ECU football player was 837 lbs ... Chris Johnson ran a 4.25 40 time there as well ... crazy crazy crazyyyy ... Here’s Paco!
Welcome back nation. Thanks to everyone who followed along this weekend whether it was through GameTracker, blog or another resource. Also, big thanks to the families that made it down to East Carolina to cheer us on. Much appreciated!
Well, this weekend didn’t go exactly as we had hoped it would, but you got to swallow it and move on. We've got to use this as a learning experience for the rest of the season. We made our fair share of mistakes this weekend and now we need to find a way to correct them.
In game one, we got a very good start from junior Eric Semmelhack. He settled in after the first batter and kept us in the game. From a hitting standpoint, we were held in check. Their starter controlled the tempo and pounded the strike zone. It was just one of those days where you got to tip your hat to the opposing pitcher for throwing a great game. I’ll tell ya one thing though, Jon Capasso made one of the sweetest plays I’ve seen when he robbed a home run in left field (Pictured at left). Follow him on twitter @joncapasso.Game two was a rough one. We didn’t play Panther baseball. Highlight of the game was in the third inning when Derek Peake (@Peake_A_Leake7 follow him!!) clutched up with a 2-out RBI double to plate our first run of the year. From there it went downhill and we ended up losing 16-1.
Cale Tassi (@caletassi10) gave us a phenomenal start in game three. He only gave up just one run through six innings of work. He put is in a great position to win and kept ECU’s hitters off balance all game long. Our hitters had much better approaches at the plate than the previous two games. Unfortunately, good teams don’t go away without a fight and ECU rallied late to sweep the series.
Tough series, but it’s time to get back to work and get ready for Minnesota.
Paco’s thoughts ... ECU’s field is really nice; I especially loved their grass. According to an ECU fan Kaleb Engelke, AKA the Gulk, is on the All-American “flow” Team. I’m still trying to figure out why southern accents make people sound so friendly.
Until next time ... follow me on twitter folks @MdotPaco1
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