Today matters very little if we don’t win tomorrow.
We split with Whitowrth, winning the first behind a complete-game effort from St. Pierre and 7 runs in the first two innings from our offense. It was a letdown to drop the second game by almost the same margin we won by in the first game, though. The box score makes it seem like we were in the second game, but we had to score in the last inning to make it appear that way. However, on the optimistic side of things, the first two games have set up one of the greatest events in the game of baseball: the rubber match.
We have a chance to win our first conference series of the year, something we strive for every single weekend. That is what is exciting our team tonight and that it what will be motivating us tomorrow when we aim to finish this weekend on a win. On a long road trip like this, there is absolutely no better feeling than winning the Sunday game and traveling back home with more wins than the host team.
One constant today, as it has been our whole season, was our hitting. But if we are going to win tomorrow, we won’t survive just on hitting; we need timely hitting. There were several situations today where we could have capitalized but failed to do so. Those situations will surely come up tomorrow, and winning those individual battles will most likely determine whether we win or lose the game, and this series.
An interesting note/prediction for tomorrow. We didn’t hit any home runs today, even in a small ballpark on a sunny day where the ball certainly carries. Baseball is a funny game. Maybe we continue our home run slump tomorrow, or maybe we are due to hit a couple out of the yard.
Look for an extended blog tomorrow – no promises, but we will have a 7-plus hour bus ride, and after tomorrow we will have played half our conference games.
