Bobby Freking’s Blog (2009 Season)

5-3 Loss to Licking County

We fell behind early and lost our 2nd game of the tournament, 5-3, to Licking County. Reece Asbury (Miami) threw 6 innings of 4 run baseball and Brad Gschwind (Miami) had a 2 run single in the loss.

This means we play tomorrow morning at 10 am. The bracket is set up with 2 different 3 team groups. The best of each group heads to the championship game Friday night at 7. Our group consists of us, Grand Lake, and Xenia. Each team plays the other 2 teams in their group, plus a team from the other group. Grand Lake was the overall 2 seed, we were the 3, and Xenia was the 6. So to fairly match up the games with the other group, Grand Lake plays Southern Ohio (overall 5 seed), we played Licking County (4 seed), and Xenia played Lima (1 seed).

We’re currently 1-1 with a win over Grand Lake, meaning that if we finish with the same overall record, we advance to the championship due to the head-to-head tiebreaker. So we’re 1-1, Grand Lake is 0-1, and Xenia (with a loss last night to Lima) is 0-1. Xenia and Grand Lake play each other today, so 1 of them will have 2 losses and essentially be eliminated from the tournament, because someone is guaranteed to go 2-1. That leaves us and the winner of that game. If it’s Xenia, we play them tomorrow so the winner would advance to the championship (Us 2-1, Xenia 1-2, Grand Lake 1-2). If it’s Grand Lake, a win by us or a loss by them tomorrow puts us in the championship (Our win= Us 2-1, Xenia 0-3, and Grand Lake either 1-2 or 2-1, with us winning the tiebreak).

Confusing? Yepppp, but I can make it real simple: If we beat Xenia tomorrow morning, we are guaranteed to be in the championship game tomorrow at 7. Mike Jefferson will be on the hill for us. On the year, we’re 3-1 against the Scouts of Xenia.

I’ll be back tomorrow to post a wrap up of the season and hopefully the news that the Cincinnati Steam are back to back Great Lakes League Champs.

3-2 Win vs. Grand Lake in tournament

We won 3-2 this afternoon to knock off the #2 seeded Grand Lake Mariners. Ian Kadish (Marshall) threw 7 solid innings for the win. Drew Schmidt (Xavier) had a big knock with 2 outs in the top of the 7th to put us ahead 3-2. Michael Schum got the save. Tomorrow’s game is scheduled for noon @ Xenia against Licking County.

23-12.. 3rd place regular season finish

Well, we went 10-3 over our final 13 games to finish the regular season in 3rd place. The playoffs consist of the top 6 teams out of the 10 team league and were supposed to start today at Xenia, but rain forced the games to be postponed until tomorrow. With the rain out, the format has changed from a double elimination style to a round robin like tournament. Each team will play 3 games between Wednesday and Friday morning and the top 2 records will face off for the championship Friday night.

Our games will be Wednesday at 330 (Grand Lake), Thursday at noon (Licking County), and Friday at 10 am- yeppp 10 in the morning (Xenia). Ian Kadish (Marshall) will be dealing for us in the first game and I imagine 2 of either Reece Asbury, Brian Sand, Mike Jefferson, or Matt Weber, will start the other 2. I think we have a pretty good shot at making it to the championship Friday as we have a pretty deep pitching staff.

I’ll be back after each game to let you know how we did, because the front of our site is sometimes a little slow to update. I promise I’ll really be back this time.

Live from the All-Star Game

I pulled into West High in the top of the 2nd inning and I must say that I’m impressed by the crowd. Looks like probably a hundred or so more people than we normally get at our games. I got here just in time to see Kolbrin Vitek, courtesy of Lake Erie and Ball State, hit a bomb over the left field fence. The dude is hitting .386 this summer and hit 13 home runs for Ball State this year, pretttty dang impressive.

It’s 1-1 right now in the bottom of the 4th. The players are divided into the ‘blue’ and the ‘red’ teams. It was 1-0 ‘blue’ team when I got here- not sure how they scored, but Vitek’s blast tied the game for the ‘red team’. The only Steam player I’ve seen in the game is Ryan Strausborger (Indiana State) and he’s struck out his first 2 times to the plate (I’m not sure he’s struck out 2 times the entire summer).

The entire section below the press box is full of Major League scouts. I can count 13 of them right now.. pretty cool.

I can smell the popcorn. Be right back.

All-Star Game (continued)

My Xavier teammate John McCambridge from Licking Country, and a member of the ‘red’ team, just worked a 9 pitch walk. Coach Googins would be proud.

It’s still 1-1 in the 5th.

I’m back. It’s the top of the 7th inning right now and the ‘blue’ team is winning 5-2. They’re the home team and the team that the Steam players are on. Brad Gschwind (Miami) and Jon Edgington (Miami), both from the Steam, entered the game in the 5th inning at both the middle infield spots. Mike Jefferson (La. Tech) is pitching right now.. The ‘red’ team had 2 on and 2 out and Jefferson just got the strike out to end the inning. Jon Edgington is due up 2nd in the bottom of the inning.

On a side note, did anyone see what Chad Johnson said today? Apparently he wants to ‘tweet’ DURING Bengals games and the league firmly said ‘no’. Big surprise. But what isn’t surprising is that he said he’s going to do it anyways. Sort of a weird thing to rebel against if you ask me. It’s a shame that he’ll never be as good of a receiver as he could be because he’s such a moron off the field.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 7th Edge just hit a line drive up the middle for a single. Him and Gschwind have both gotten hits in their only at bats tonight. 5-2 bottom 7, 2 outs, runners on 2nd and 3rd.

A pop out ended the bottom of the 7th. A guy from Dayton just took the hill for the ‘blue’ team. That can’t be good- might be a loonngg inning.

Surprisingly, the pitcher from Dayton has given up 2 runs here in the top of the 8th and there’s still a runner on 2nd with 2 outs.

Middle of 8. 5-4 blue team. They just announced that the game is going to go the full 9 innings regardless of the score. Most likely so the guys can get opportunities in front of the scouts. Also, if the games ends in a tie after 9 innings, a home run derby is going to decide the winner. That’s not something you see everyday. Gschwind and Strausborger are due up 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the 8th.

Brad popped out to second base and Straus struck out. The blue team went 1-2-3 and we’re headed to the 9th. Michael Schum (Wright State) from the Steam is coming in from the bullpen right now and it looks like he’ll get a chance to pick up the save.

A line out to left started the inning and the next guy, from the Anderson Servants, took 3 straight balls before swinging through 3 straight pitches for the strikeout. 2 outs in the top of the 9th.

The way Schum throws, sort of submarine style, but not totally, makes it extremely tough on a right handed hitter to pick up the ball. Schum just recorded a strike out with a guy on first to essentially end the game. Like I said before, they’re going to play the bottom of the 9th just to gives some more guys some chances in front of the scouts. I counted 13 of them before and now I’m counting 16. That’s some pretty good exposure and speaks volumes about the quality of baseball in this league. Anyways, Edge is due up 3rd in the bottom of the 9th.

I’m hearing rumors that Kolbrin Vitek, the guy from Ball State and Lake Erie, is going to be named the MVP of the game. He hit the lone home run of the game, but not sure what else he has done. He came out of the game around the 5th inning.

Edge walked with 2 outs and a guy from Lake Erie grounded out to first base to formally end the game. 5-4 ‘blue’ team.

A couple of tidbits.. I learned that Ian Kadish (Marshall) started the game for the ‘blue’ team and pitched a scoreless first inning with a couple of strikeouts. The MVP of the game actually made 2 errors in the field. Whoops- I guess it doesn’t matter when you drop bombs.

Anyways, I’m out of here. Great atmosphere tonight. Mr. O’Conner really put on a spectacular event. We practice tomorrow night and then start the second half of the season by playing Friday and Saturday. Thanks for reading, I’ll be back sometime this weekend to let you know how we did.

July 15, 2009.. 13-9.. All-Star Break

We had a great win over Grand Lake right before the All-Star Break. Ian Kadish(Marshall) threw extremely well again, which probably explains why he’s 1 of our 6 All-Stars this year. The other 5 joining Ian on the squad are OF Ryan Strausborger (Indiana State), Jon Edgington (Miami), Brad Gschwind (Miami), Mike Jefferson (Louisiana Tech), and Michael Schum (Wright State). Congratulations fellas.

The game itself is tonight at Western Hills at 6:05. Last year there was a great turn out for the and hopefully this year will be the same.

Billy O’Conner update: Billy has gotten 3 starts behind the plate for the Texas Rangers rookie league squad in the Arizona league. He’s hitting .429 (6-14) and has 2 RBI to go along with his .467 OBP (Billy Beane might be looking into a Billy O’Conner for Matt Holliday trade).

July 9, 2009.. 12-9 (1 game until All-Star Break)

Since last Friday we’ve been road warriors. 6 games all on the road, including 2 doubleheaders, have made for a busy last week or so. We’ve gone 3-3 during the stretch and can’t really find our stride right now. The main reason: inconsistency. If we get good pitching, the bats are quiet. If we’re swinging it well, we seem to walk a lot of guys and the pitching struggles. The best example of this was last Friday (7/3) when we played the Lake Erie Monarchs at Adrian College (which was a surprisingly great facility). We were in the midst of a stellar performance by starting pitcher Ian Kadish (Marshall), but couldn’t score any runs and were locked at 0-0 after 5. Pinch hitter Tim Issler (Ball State) managed to single in a run with 2 outs in the 6^th to get us on the board and Travis Shaw (Kent State) provided the insurance run with a solo shot, his first of the summer, in the 7^th. We got the win mostly because of Ian’s Aaron Harang-esque start, but knew we needed to start hitting if we were going to take advantage of this kind of pitching.

The second game at Lake Erie didn’t go so well. We didn’t hit and we didn’t throw it well and lost 7-0. Coming off of getting swept by Lima in a doubleheader, we were glad to get on the board with a win in the first game, but a doubleheader sweep ourselves would have been a really solid way to get back on track. Anyways, a 4 hour drive later, we had Saturday off and headed to Anderson, Indiana for another doubleheader Sunday.

Anderson has always been the proverbial ‘cellar dwellers’ in the Great Lakes League. We opened up our summer with a 10-1 win against them at West High and came into the doubleheader thinking we needed to win 2 to make it a successful day, but at the same time realizing that in the game of baseball, anything can happen; and it sure did in the first game. We jumped out to a 5-0 lead after 4 innings and were seemingly headed for a win in the 7 inning contest. Heading into the bottom of the 7^th, we were comfortably ahead 5-1. The rule is that the first game of the doubleheader is 7 innings and the second is 9 UNLESS the first game goes into extra innings, in which case the second game becomes the 7 inning game. Brian Sand (Cincinnati, the 2^nd best college baseball team in Cincinnati) threw great for us for 6 innings and came out in the 7^th with a couple of guys on base and the score 5-2. Anderson took advantage of some walks from our bullpen and sent the game into extra innings. I think at this point we were almost sort of stunned that we couldn’t close out a 4 run lead with wood bats in the 7^th, but managed to get the leadoff man on and sacrifice him over in the top of the 8^th before stranding him on 3^rd. With 1 out in the bottom of the 9^th, Anderson singled in a run and we lost the first game- definitely our worst loss of the season.

We bounced back for a 3-0 win in the second game in large part because of the pitching by Matt Weber (Findlay). However, the first game really left a bad taste and we left knowing that we let one slip away. Next up was a rematch with the Hamilton Joe’s on Tuesday.

The game against the Joe’s was another one where the idea of anything being possible in baseball really took shape. We were down 4-3 in the top of the 8^th. Now, at a lot of these fields, we play night games. Night games require lights (really?). The thing is with about 50% of the fields we play on is that the lights really aren’t sufficient enough to play at night. If there’s a fly ball and it gets above the lights, it’s nearly impossible to see if you take your eye off of it for a split second. In the top of the 8^th, we benefited from this THREE times and had 3 sure fly outs turn into 3 extra base hits and 5 runs. It was a quirky way to win a game, but the way things went in Anderson over the weekend, we were thrilled to catch a break like that.

Last night we drove to Lima to try to avenge the doubleheader sweep they had of us last weekend here in Cincinnati. I must say, this was one of the coolest atmospheres we’ve played in all summer. They have a small allotment of seats, but they pack people all around the fence that surrounds the field. I think they announced that the 708 people there for the game was the best attendance they’ve had all season (what else is there to do in Lima?). While introducing the starting lineups, they pick a ‘beer batter of the game’ from the opposing team. If this player strikes out, they sell half price beer for the remainder of the inning. Trace Voshell (Ohio) was picked from our team. We all had a good laugh when, in the top of the 1^st inning, Trace struck out on 3 pitches and promptly stated that it was man law to provide the people with cheaper beer. Anyways, we struck for 2 runs in the first and jumped out to a lead. We cruised into the bottom of the 4^th, still up 2-0 when, with 2 on and 2 outs, Lima hit a blooper down the right field line that was obviously foul and was called fair. Now, I’m not one to buy into complaining about umpires all too often. 99% of the time they put in great effort and get most of the calls right. They may miss a couple, but as long as they get themselves in good position and give it a good effort, they’re good in my book. However, this fly ball was 300 feet down the right field line and the home plate umpire seemingly forgot it was his call. He was still behind home plate when he threw up the fair signal. It allowed 2 runs to score and the inning to continue. Coach Joe was none to happy with the call and came out for what I think was his best argument of the year (love you, coach). I was playing 1^st base and I can tell you that the ball was AT LEAST 3 feet foul. All in all, this prompted a 5 run rally and we fell behind. We tried to battle back behind the hot hitting of Ryan Strausborger (Indiana State), but fell short 8-4.

In order for us to get on any kind of hot streak, we need to be consistent. We need to put up 4-5 runs a game and get a quality start from our pitcher. I’m still not too worried, because we’ve seen flashes of it and I know we can do it. We have a game tonight against Grand Lake and then we’re off for a week due to the All-Star break. We need to put a good game together tonight and go into the break on a positive note. Thanks for reading.

BF #19

p.s. For that person who has referred to our team as the ‘Storm’, it is in fact, the Steam. s-t-e-a-m.

July 2, 2009.. 9-6

Not a good day for us. We dropped both games of the doubleheader- 9-0 and 5-1. We couldn’t hit the ball with any consistency and our pitchers struggled at times to throw strikes. Big disappointment since Lima was in first place and we were within striking distance. Just one of those days you need to throw out the window and forget about. We leave in about 8 hours to head up to Lake Erie for another doubleheader. It’s a 4 hour drive, so that’s motivation enough to play our best once we get there. Ian Kadish (Marshall) is throwing the first game and Ben Thomas (Xavier) is throwing the second.

Congratulations to Jon Edgington (Miami) who was named the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League Player of the Week. You’re the best Jon.

July 2, 2009.. 9-4

We’re on a roll. Sorry I haven’t been here to post updates for a couple of days- this summer has been kind of crazy. We took both games of the doubleheader against Stark County and won our game Tuesday at Xenia. We’re starting to pound the ball and our superb pitching hasn’t missed a beat. We play a doubleheader tonight against Lima (makeup from the rain out a couple of weeks ago) at West High. I hope everyone can make it out to support us! I’ll be back after the game to recap the past week or so.

June 27, 2009.. 6-4

After our loss at the beginning of the week to Grand Lake, we’ve put together back to back complete games for 2 wins. Wednesday at Hamilton we got another stellar pitching performance from Reece Asbury (Miami). I haven’t looked at the stats (mainly because my batting average is most likely currently somewhere around my body weight), but I don’t think Reece has given up a run all summer. He has a lot of movement on his fastball, which makes it harder to square up with the smaller sweet spot on wooden bats. Speaking of wooden bats, we only scored 2 runs against Hamilton, but Travis Shaw (Kent State) hit 2 of the hardest balls I’ve seen hit all summer and they both held up for the center fielder. If we were using metal bats, he probably would have had 2 long balls. I know I keep dwelling on the wooden bats, but it makes such a drastic difference that it’s somewhat fascinating. Anyways, we were able to push 2 runs across and beat the Joe’s 2-0 at Foundation Field in Hamilton.

Thursday we travelled to Xenia, Ohio (where?) to play Athletes in Action at their relatively new field. It’s all turf, which is interesting, but instead of being rained out due to the 45 minute down pour right at 7 o’clock, we were able to play essentially right when it stopped. It was an interesting experience as they had no music, P.A. announcer, or promotions of any sort that we’ve been used to all summer. But, we have a few personalities on the team and we were definitely able to entertain ourselves during the game in the dugout.

We jumped on top 3-0 in the first inning when I hit a 14 chopper down the left field line to score 2. Mike Jefferson (Louisiana Tech) gave us a good start and handed a 3-2 lead over to the bullpen in the 5^th inning. We added a run in the 8^th, they came back with another in the bottom of the frame, and we decided to hang a 10 spot in the top of the 9^th. We had some timely hitting and took advantage of a couple of errors that they made on 2 fly balls. The lights at their field aren’t the best, so when the ball gets above them, it’s pretty hard to pick up. You can’t really blame their guys for dropping the balls, as it was extremely tough to see, but nonetheless it sparked our 10 run inning. Much to the chagrin of the guys in the dugout (Reece Asbury and Cody Elliott were pretty hungry and wanted their post game pizza), AIA came back in the bottom of the 9^th with 5 runs to make the final score 14-8. The 9^th inning was the single longest inning I’ve ever been a part of, but I’ll take it every time.

Getting two wins on the road in the middle of the week was huge. We had a disappointing loss to Grand Lake on Tuesday and I wasn’t sure how we were going to respond. Coming out the next 2 days and shutting out Hamilton before putting up 14 runs against Athletes in Action was pretty big for team morale. We have a double header tomorrow at Western Hills starting at 2. It would be huge to sweep the Sunday double header for the second week in a row.

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back to recap the double header tomorrow night.

BF #19

 

2 Wins in a row..6-4..June 26, 2009

We’ve had two great games the past two nights. A 2-0 win over the Hamilton Joe’s last night and a 14-8 win over the Athletes in Action Scouts tonight, both on the road. We just got back, so I’m going to shower and hit the hay, but I’ll be back in the morning to recap the two W’s.

Through 8 games… 4-4… June 24, 2009

Alright, so we’ve finally figured out all the logistics with the blog, and I’ll be able to post updates on a game to game basis now. Since my last post, we went on a 3 game win streak, before losing tonight to Grand Lake at Western Hills HS.

Before I get into the last 4 games, I’d like to congratulate former Steam player and my former Xavier teammate Billy O’Conner. Last week Billy signed with the Texas Rangers and is currently in Arizona with their rookie league team. I’ll post some updates about Billy as they come. With Billy’s departure (he started the season coaching us), we’ve welcomed two new coaches to the staff- Mount St. Joe assistant coach Jeff Newman and former Xavier/Baltimore Orioles draftee Jordan Wolf. Coach Newman is the new 3^rd base coach and Jordan (since he’s my former teammate I get to call him by his first name) is now holding down the fort at 1^st base.

Okay so let’s start with the good stuff; we’ve been hitting the ball a lot better. In our 8-5 win last week against Hamilton, we banged out 12 hits to their 4. Ryan Strausborger (Indiana State) broke out of his mini-slump with a leadoff homerun and was 3-5 on the night. Joey O’Gara (Indiana) got his 2^nd win of the season and Mike Jefferson (Louisiana Tech) pitched 3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Hamilton was coached by another one of my former Xavier teammates (who isn’t? I know), Jordan Conley. He graduated this season and was our shortstop and closer. Since the game last week, he tried out for, and made, the Florence Freedom and is set to join them sometime this week. It’s been pretty cool this summer seeing some of my former teammates and buddies sign to play baseball professionally.

We had a couple of days off before heading to Ohio University to play the Southern Ohio Copperheads in a doubleheader. Coach Mark did his best to entertain us on the bus again, but that’s another story. Heading into the doubleheader 2-3, we knew we needed to, at the very least, split the 2 games and head back to Cincinnati with a win. However, we got a little revenge from getting swept in our doubleheader the previous weekend, and won both games. The first game was 7 innings (the second game is 9 innings during the doubleheaders) and we got some great pitching, giving up only 4 hits. Brad Gschwind (Miami) led our offense going 2-3 with 2 RBI’s.

The second game was our best hitting output of the season as we put up 11 runs and won the game 11-2. I must say that during this game, I reached a personal milestone: my THIRD stolen base of the season. I don’t think I’ve had 3 other stolen bases my entire life (thanks for the wheels dad). Anyways, Jon Edgington (Miami) had another big game and led the team with 3 RBI’s.

In my first post, I mentioned how with wooden bats you need to execute the fundamentals and smaller aspects of the game to be successful and we epitomized that in the 2^nd game at OU. So, the 2 wins put us at 4-3 on the summer and made the nearly 3 hours bus ride home a lot more tolerable.

That brings me to tonight; the most frustrating game of the season. We played Grand Lake and they came in leading the league with a 6-1 record. In the first inning, we jumped on top 1-0, but had the bases loaded with 1 out and couldn’t get anymore runs in. My college roommate, Drew Schmidt, and I struck out and grounded out to end the frame and left 3 big runs on the bases. It was definitely a positive to get on the board first, but that feeling was somewhat negated by us failing to get the subsequent runs in. We would load the bases again in the 3^rd, but this time, Kyle Bluestein (Jacksonville State) came through with a big 2 out single to drive in our 2^nd and 3^rd runs of the night. The game remained 3-0 into the top of the 6^th. It was then that we essentially self destructed. Grand Lake hung a 4 spot on us and we couldn’t get anything going the rest of the night. We left 9 guys on base and lost 4-3. It was our 1^st loss at home this summer and was one that we probably should have won had it not been for our inability to execute with runners on base (myself included).

It’s a long summer. We haven’t started out great, yet we haven’t started out bad either. We’re 4-4 and have 4 more games this week. The big thing for us is to develop more consistency in our approach. We started doing the little things this past weekend at OU but somewhat regressed tonight against Grand Lake. All in all, we haven’t been playing the best baseball and are still at .500. With the talent we have on our roster, I’m sure we’ll start coming into our own.

Now that we have everything figured out with the blog, I’ll be able to update it a lot more often and not have to cover a week’s worth of games in one entry. This way I’ll be able to write a lot more about the juicy details. From Tim Issler and Adam Clark’s pre-game antics to updates to the all important ‘walk out songs’ (…err Drew Schmidt’s inability to pick a good one), it’ll be a lot more entertaining.

Tomorrow we’re at Hamilton for a rematch against the Joe’s. I’ll be back with an update after the game. Thanks for reading.

-BF #19-

 

Through 4 games… 1-3… June 16, 2009

Hello everyone and welcome to the Cincinnati Steam blog. I’m Bobby Freking, a soon-to-be senior at Xavier University, and I’m going to be keeping you up to date (and giving you all the juicy details, of course) with the Steam this summer.

Being from Cincinnati, I’ve known a lot of guys who have played for the Steam in the past, and have always heard how well you’re treated while playing for them. This is my first year on the team and I’m already impressed with how first class of an organization it is. From Mr. O’Conner, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Brumfield to Coach Regruth, there’s a strong commitment to not only winning, but doing it the right way and improving as a player throughout the course of the summer.

Well, 4 games are in the books, and we haven’t started how we’ve wanted to, or how this team is used to starting in year’s past. We’re 1-3 and have lost 3 in a row to Licking Country (2) and Grand Lake. The pitching has been top-notch; we just seem to be having some trouble getting adjusted to using wooden bats. As you all probably know, during the school year we use aluminum bats and the difference between the two is huge. I have a feeling that we’ll get it rolling sometime during this weekend or next week. It would be a shame if we didn’t, because we’re getting some great starting pitching. Joey O’Gara (Indiana) threw 4 innings of 1 hit baseball in our only win against Anderson, and Reece Asbury (Miami) threw 4 shutout innings last night against Grand Lake.

We were rained out on opening night, but thanks to some great work by the grounds crew (headed by Max), we were able to play last Saturday night without a problem. As I mentioned above, Joey O’Gara gave us a great start and we started out pretty hot with the bats. Jon Edgington (Miami) hit a homerun and was a casual 4-4 in his first night hitting with the wooden bats. We came out on top 10-1 and were feeling pretty good about ourselves. The big thing with the wooden bats is that you really need to play good fundamental baseball to score runs. There aren’t nearly as many extra base hits as there are with aluminum, so getting runners over in key situations, and putting the ball in play with runners on base is pretty imperative to having success. We did pretty well against Anderson, but have hit a little bump in the road since.

This past weekend we played a doubleheader in Newark, Ohio against the Licking County Settlers. The cool thing about summer baseball (other than the fact that there’s no preseason conditioning) is that you get to play against a lot of guys that you’ve played with or against in the past. Personally, I knew about 5 or 6 of the guys from Licking County because of my semester at Akron, and past 2 ½ years at Xavier. Unfortunately, we lost both games 3-2. Again, we got some great pitching, but could only muster 9 hits on the day.

Last night we played about 3 hours away in Celina, Ohio against the Grand Lake Mariners. The bus ride up there was pretty fun due to Coach Mark’s extensive collection of movies and the stand up humor of pitcher Adam Clark (Lincoln Trail CC). We got there around 6, took batting practice, and then all got to watch our teammates milk a cow. Yep, Drew Schmidt (Xavier) and Ryan Bellamy (Xavier) both took part in the annual ‘farmer’s night’ and competed against 2 players from Grand Lake to see who could get the most milk out of a cow in 3 minutes. Naturally, the Xavier boys took the cake, much to the dismay of the Grand Lake faithful.

Well, the game didn’t go the same way, as we lost 5-0 in front of a pretty good crowd. Reece Asbury (Miami) gave us a great start and we were in the game, with the score being 1-0 through 7 ½ innings. Our hitting woes continued, but we hit some balls pretty hard.

Hopefully we turn things around tonight against a newcomer to the league, the Hamilton Joe’s. Their story is pretty cool, being named after Joe Nuxhall, an all time Reds playing and announcing legend.

-BF #19-