College Ball 2014

Hang in there lefty.  Things seem to get VERY competitive at this level.  Older guys get preference partly because they are a known commodity.  The younger guys have to prove themselves.  The double edged sword is how do you prove yourself unless you get in?  Hopefully, lefty jr. will take advantage of his opportunities and work his way in.  Even in college, its a marathon, not a sprint.  Hard to stick to that at times, but I'm sure your son will be fine in the long run.  Patience.

Son's team had a good weekend - swept their conference opponent 4-2, 11-3 and 4-0.  On a five game winning streak after dropping the first two games.

 

He had a double and several walks.  OBP is good (.400) but his batting avg is slowly coming up - just under .200.  But he is the starting 1B for the moment and hitting in the 4 hole.  Says he is hitting the ball hard but just not getting the breaks.  He started out the same last year as the DH, but hit his stride about mid season.

My freshman SS got his first D1 hit in his first at-bat.  It was very exciting.  He has had the opportunity to play in 6 of the first 8 games.  Not starting but getting an AB, stealing a base, scoring a run or late inning defense here and there.  Watching a lot of baseball and loving it.  The Camels are 6-2 and on the move!

Was excited for opening week of my sons last year of ball. He was scheduled to have a double header on Saturday, and then an away game that is near our house on Tuesday. I was scheduled to work on Saturday but arranged to have someone cover for me. Well, Saturdays games were rained out, and they moved Tuesdays game to Sunday, and made it a double header. We had a college visit, and talk to the coach arranged for Sunday for my High school junior son. I ended up seeing no games. Team split the double header and son went 4-7.

Flew in and surprised the boy at practice.  He was so excited and really looking forward to pitching in front of us.  My wife and I also met the coaches and later, the new girlfriend.  I know I've read in previous posts that there's no time to meet girls.  However, he met this girl (50 mi down the road at Baylor U) using social media.  My how things have changed.  Good luck to all your boys this weekend and hang in there 2013leftydad.

13 LHP Dad... Funny you mentioned that.   We went to go see son on home opener - which turned into (2) DH due to weather.  We spent more time with son's girfriend than we got with him.  Just as you stated happy to see us.

 

Luckilly - in my son's case, GF goes to same school and is also a student athlete.  I appreciate that cause they know the struggles and time commitments sports require.  In his case, study hall can at least be spent with her (since both need study hours).

After a very long road back returning from TJ Surgery and other nagging injuries, bsbl247-son finally made his collegiate debut on Tuesday night and had a pretty good 3 innings on the bump.  I'm extremely proud of him, he has worked his rear off and deserves a little good fortune.

 

 

This is great news for your son, for you, your family and one I could guess created a bit of a lump in the throat!!!!! The way his team is (not) swinging the bats so far  will hopefully coincide with many more good innings to keep them toward the top of the BigWest.

Great news bsbl247. Just being able to go 3 innings after what he has gone thru is big news!!  Keep it up!!

Congrats bsbl247! You forgot to mention no hits, runs, bb, & 6k's! Most would call that a great outing, a humble father calls it pretty good. Continued good fortune!

bsbl247, outstanding! Hope he comes back all they way!

bsbl247...  particularly knowing some of what he's been thru, GREAT to hear!!!!

Unbelievably good news.  No one deserves it more than your son and your family bsbl247.  We see lots of complaints here when kids have to go a few games waiting their turn let alone a few years.  Amazing how sometimes things turn out differently than we expect.  Hopefully, this was worth the wait.  Well done young man, well done.

Awesome news thanks for sharing. There is nothing like seeing your son fight through adversity and having success. It's not only a true sign of character but an indication that Mom and Pop did some nice things along the way as well. Congrats and enjoy this time. Its very special.

I'm throwing the penalty flag on this comment for gross understatement:  No runs, hits, or walks, 6 K's, 29 pitches and all Dad can say is "pretty good 3 innings"?  

 

Seriously, congrats. 

That's just fantastic - and quite an outing!

bsbl247. congrats ! Let us know how he does in the future.

Here's a college bball tourney for you.

 

http://www.chron.com/sports/co...pressive-5275591.php

“I'm throwing the penalty flag on this comment for gross understatement:  No runs, hits, or walks, 6 K's, 29 pitches and all Dad can say is "pretty good 3 innings"?  “

 

Wow, even if there wasn’t an injury and a long layoff that is one heck of an outing.  Congrats to bsbl247's son.

Hopefully he has many more outings ½ as good as that one.   Those first games back on the mound are killers for parents, we see all of the hard work that goes into the preparation and you just hope to heck that it goes well.

 

 We got to see our sons 1^st inning last week after a minor setback.   15 hours in the car for 8 pitches, 2K's and a groundout, best 4 minutes I’ve spent in a long time.

 

The car is getting packed already for next weekend’s trip!

Wow. Im so happy for your family and your son. Ive known you since recruiting process and had the pleasure to.meet you. This made my day. So excited. )))))))

Hurray, bsbl247 and son! So happy for you both!

Thank you very much everyone, I appreciate it.  I will come clean and admit that I was a nervous wreck.  My wife got up to get a drink from the snack-bar after the 5th inning. She didn't see that our son had jogged to the pen to warm-up.  When she returned to her seat his walk up song was beginning to play and she was completely surprised. Our Eater Family was just as supportive and happy as my HSBaseballWeb Family and cheered every pitch.  

On a side note, I was cold Tuesday night, but due to my baseball superstitions, I didn't put my jacket on until he finished his outing.  Hey, you never know what is working and I didn't want to take a chance. 

I'm listening to today's game on the internet...it just started.  My son's roommate is on the bump in game one.  Have a nice weekend everyone, and thanks again for the support.  

bsbl247, Hey, its only weird if it doesn't work!

I hear that! 

 

Son's team plays last years regional tournament winner tomorrow.  Should be a good test to see if they can be competitive for the regional tournament.  Hopefully they can take the series.

 

They won Thursday.  Instead of a DH, they played a single 9 inning game - won 11-10 to make it 6 wins in a row.  Son was 1 for 2 with two walks and a run scored.

Son just sent a text.  Lost the first game, but won the 2nd.  He was 0-2 in game 1 and in game 2 he went 1-1 with a HPB, BB and catcher INT.  Going into today's game the team was ranked 24th in the nation.

 

Hoping they can win game 3 tomorrow to win the series.

Son's team had first game of the season. Son started on the mound. He pitched well and got his first win of the season.  Team is 2-0.

Now it's conference play and the boy is in a relief role.  During yesterday's DH, came in and pitched two innings with 4 ERs and a big bomb hit off him.  Watch out if you're in Oregon, it's probably still headed in that direction.  He came in today, top of the 9th with the bags packed and no outs (top of the lineup).  Got a F9, almost 6-4-3 (1 run), grounder to 1B.  Baseball is a unique sport--get shelled on day, effective the next.

You can say that again about it being unique.  It is kind of like being naked in public.  When things do not go your way, everyone knows it.  In football, I suppose the quarterbacks and cornerbacks may feel this way but other guys can hide.  Baseball is man y mano and there is no possible way to hide.  If you are in the lineup, maybe no balls come your way defensively but you are eventually going to hit.  For pitchers, it's you against them right out of the chute.  What many people don't get about baseball is those kids you are playing against have scholarships and have parents and grandparents rooting that their kid essentially beats your kid.  Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.  Failure is part of the game.  The cool thing about baseball is that you can indeed change things tomorrow - if you get the chance.  In some ways, none of this makes sense and in other ways it makes perfect sense - if that even makes any sense.

Son and team had a great day.  They won 7-2 to take the series and son was 3-5 with a double and RBI.  Woo hoo!

 

Now its a 5-6 hour ride back to "home".

 

 

Just back from a very cold weekend in Northern Maryland. That is such wonderful news and I couldn't be happier to hear it. Best of luck to your son going forward. I know it has been a long road back and the best is yet to come!

 

I was just checking out some box scores and I saw that your son got his first college win over the weekend, great stuff! A real nice first two outings.

Hello everyone,

  I've been reading the posts on here for a couple of years and find it very informative and entertaining. My son is a soph at the same school that lefties dad's son attends. He had a very good freshman year starting 99% of the games, split between the of and dh. Looking forward to good things this year even tho team is young, 5 position players are returning starters. Team won first 2 games this past Sat. with pitching and defense looking good. Congrats to lefties dad, his son picked up victory in game one & looked sharp. Hopefully team will play first home game on Wed. then off to Myrtle Beach for a week of games. Going to try and make a couple of those. GO BISHOPS!

One of the things I still don't understand....

 

Giving a kid a scholarship and then redshirting him while other players not underscholarship are playing?  I know its a position thing (too many 3rd baseman, etc) in addition to limts.  I would have thought coach knew that going in.  What good does it do bringing in a kid on scholarship and having him sit a year?

 

I've seen that with 2011's, 2012's and now some 2013's on my son's team.

Redshirting a scholarship guy and playing Juniors and Seniors who are not scholarship guys is not that uncommon. The coach more or less reserves the redshirt kid for the future. It is not uncommon at my son's school for most incoming freshmen to be redshirted. Some guys of course leave after the redshirt season if they see that they may not play a lot in the next season or two. In my son's case, he was the only freshman outfielder and there were six juniors and senior outfielders as well as a sophomore DH who became an outfielder also in front of him. Some had scholarships and some almost certainly did not. The main hang up was that the centerfielder in front of him was two time all conference at the time. The next season he played parttime as a redshirt freshman with the all conference center fielder still there and about six or outfielders at the school. By the next season he was a starter and has been ever since.

I've long since (tried) to stop figuring out what college coaches are doing, but my guess is that even though a player is on scholarship, the coach thinks that someone else will better help them win, but they remain confident that the scholarship guy can still help them in the future. Maybe they think the scholarship guy just needs another year to get bigger and stronger and they would rather have that guy around to help the team for 4 full years rather than have him sit the bench freshman year and then only have 3 years to help the team.  Just a guess.  

My son's team played their first DH conference games yesterday.  It was only his 3rd start and 5th appearance (weather cancelled 2 starts).  He went 7.1 innings 1 earned run, 0 walks, 2hbp, 6k's.  Coach wrote on game recap it was an outstanding performance.  We won both games against a team picked to finish ahead of us.  I had trouble this morning getting my shirt over the big head i have.  Good luck to everyone this year.

Heading south tomorrow, to watch sons spring games.

 

Good luck and safe travels.

 

We were planning on going to my son's games this weekend.  Normally a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday.  As of yesterday they had changed it to single game tonight and doubleheader tomorrow.

 

Son just send a pic of the field - covered with about an inch of snow.  Ugh!  Suppose to get up to 65 F today, but I don't know if it will melt in time and if the field will still be playable (or be able to make it playable).  It's complicated by the fact that it's a 4+ hr drive for us.   Still waiting on an official decision.  Hard to say - last year they played a game in a steady rain - son was really surprised they didn't stop.  It was so bad the plate umpire was sliding when standing still behind the catcher.

 

They swept a non-conference opponent Thursday to improve to 10-3 overall (5-1 conference).  Son went 2-6 with 2 doubles.  Right at the end of the 2nd game it began snowing - ended up with 2-3" of snow by the time it stopped yesterday afternoon.

So Saturday's game was cancelled and we decided not to go since we would have only been able to attend the 1st game of the doubleheader on Sunday and maybe part of the 2nd game.  But after getting son's text about today's results I wish we had gone.

 

Team swept both games and now have won 12 of the last 13 games.  Son went 2-6 with a double. Team has a 1/2 game lead in the conference.

Big reach out to swampboys son who pitched an awesome game yesterday.  He pitched 7 innings, 4 hits and 1 ER against a top team in a top conference.  The proud Papa couldn't be there, but we all know what it feels like when you're listening to the radio, watching the moving weebles or video on the internet....you want to be there!.   Awesome job J!

Thanks, Fenway.

 

I didn't get to see my son throw, but I was able to see Fenwaysouth's son take the mound for the first time after missing a year to injury, and it did not take him long to shake off the rust and assert himself.