V-Burg

A two game sweep of Vestaburg leaves us with an 8-3-1 record thus far. Not much to brag about in these games, just two solid defensive and pitched games. Offensively, a lot of balls were hit hard including 2 home runs and 4 warning track shots, but the wind was blowing fiercly inward, causing a lot of line drive hits to be gloved for outs.

Game 1: W 5-1

Game 2: W 10-0

Brooms.

Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.

The first game tonight against Montabella was simply sloppy. Defensively we kicked the ball around, offensively we struggled through the first 4 innings. After a 6 pitch first inning for Joe Huss, he gave up a 3 run bomb to the 8th batter in their lineup. We eventually pulled out an 11-8 win though. The second game we hit the ball hard, and I was sharp on the mound. I finally pulled out a sharp curveball and used it to my advantage teemed with the elevated fastball. The result was a 5 inning - 11-0 romping.

Offenively: 2 hits

Pitching: 5 IP, 0 R, 0 BB, 5ish K

One for the North

On Friday we played Escanaba. They were going to be around since they were playing in the Mt. Pleasant tournament on Saturday, so they wanted a game with a decent area team. We came into the game having already played 3 games this week, so pitching was at a premium. Starting the game was Adam Wheeler. He looked good his first two innings, giving up 1 hit and no runs. In the bottom of the first Ethan Rotz laced a single to right field, followed by a sac bunt from David Novak. With a runner on second and one out, the pitcher fell behind Mike Acker and walked him. Tom Albaugh belted the first pitch he saw over the center field fence. 3-0 Coleman. In the top of the 3rd inning, as a runner was coming in from Escanaba, Corbin Killam gunned him down at the plate by about 10 feet. Waiting with the ball was Albaugh. Upon arrival, the kid from Escanaba tried to lower his shoulder and run over Tom. If anyone knows Tom, you know that he wouldn't have any of that. Not only did the kid end up on the ground, but when he got back up Albaugh shoved him back down. This caused the Escanaba coach to flip out and get up in Albaugh's face and use some 4 letter words - completely out of control for the situation. Both sides got calmed down, and both players were ejected and will sit out one more game. As the game went on, our 3-0 lead was reversed for a 4-3 Escanaba lead. We tied the game at 4 and put in Erick Geiling to pitch. The two pitchers we used were our 5 and 6 in our rotation. The game ended up 11-7 Escanaba in the bottom of the seventh. With 2 outs and the bases loaded Mike Acker flew out to Center Field to end the game.

For our best hitter being absent after the first inning, and our number 5 and 6 pitcher against their top 3 pitchers - I say we faired very well.

Offensively:

0-2

Splittsville

The Irish.

The Catholic school, Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart. They have been a thorn in our side every single year. Two out of three years, we only lost one game to them. However, even that single loss to them out of 4 games each season is nauseating. We started off this year in similar fashion by being handed a 5-1 loss in the opener. Joey pitched well, his throwing error in the first lead to 3 runs and probably set the tempo for the game. We hit the ball hard. We hit the ball hard, but right to people. 1-9 came up and smashed the ball, only one was a base hit. When we did get runners on, hits could not drive in the runs. The second game went much smoother at a tune of 10-2 in favor of the Comets.

My day was much better than my previous ones. I played a solid first base for 14 innings, and had a very good approach at the plate. No hits were recorded in the first game for me, but I was being aggressive and swinging at the pitches that I wanted to hit. Now, it's all about the timing and rhythm. The second game I went 2-4 with two hard hit singles.

All in all, it was a nice recovery for us. However, if you watched the Tigers early in the season, that is exactly what happened to us the first game. Our hitters weren't hitting, and it just seemed like lack of effort - even though it really wasn't. We couldn't get in sync.

Now we just need to put it all together.

It's a Game of Inches

Baseball is truly a game of inches, and whenever we have played Beaverton it is truly evident. With the defending Division III state runner up coming to our home turf, we were ready to battle. What a battle it was indeed. Toeing the rubber for the Beavers was their returning All State senior pitcher, Ryan Longstreth. Right from the start we saw what he was going to bring, a low 80s fastball, a pretty sick curve, and a devastating change up. The first inning was a precursor to how nasty his stuff was that day, 3 strikeouts - all were caught looking. Three innings went by with no score. In the 4th inning, Beaverton plated one run. It took us until the 6th inning to push across the even making run, run the score to 1-1. A pitcher's dual for the ages - Joe Huss against Ryan Longstreth, both went strong to the 8th inning. Longstreth was lifted for another talented left hander, Ryan Oard. He did nothing but struck out his first 4 batters. Beaverton pushed across the go ahead run in the 9th inning on an error by the right fielder. However, it is important to note that on a 2-2 pitch a seemingly perfect strike was thrown to the person who scored the run. This pitch was so perfect that the base umpire told our whole team that the umpire behind the plate "blew that one." We went into the bottom of the 9th with one goal ahead of us - score a run. We failed to do so, we failed to put anyone on base even. The game ended with the state runner up on top, 2-1.

However, as I titled this blog - it is a game of inches.

With one out and a runner on first, Adam Wheeler dug into the box. He smashed a 2-2 pitch to right center field and I watched as the fastest kid in the area put a bead on the ball. Jake Oard leaped like nobody I've ever seen before, and made one heck of a circus catch to stop Adam Wheeler from the easy triple he deserved. One more inch, and the game had a whole different tone. I guess that is why Oard, and Longstreth are slated to play for SVSU.

As for me, I couldn't have picked a worse night for a horrible game. Defensively, I was sound. However, offensively I had no hits and a whole lot of strikeouts. This was a night that SVSU, Northwood, CMU, Gladwin Legion, Berryhill, and Sanford Legion all had scouts out.


In the second game, I pitched the first three innings and did nothing but further my sore hamstring. The game was called for darkness in the 4th with us ahead 4-3.

We play Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart at home tomorrow, which is Thursday at 4. Then, on Friday we picked up a 9 inning game with Escanaba which will also start at 4 pm in Coleman.

That's Embarrassing...

On Monday we played Ashley. Ashley is a school with a student body of about 250. Our school has just over 300. In baseball, Ashley is miserable. Last year we beat them in 4 games at a total score of 99-1. They were all 3 inning games that were called due to the 15 run mercy rule through 3 innings. One game even rang in a score of 39-0. This year, we still handled them easily with scores of 25-5 and 15-0, but my hitless first game was nothing short of embarrassment.

The first time I came up to bat against Ashley, I was ready to drive in some runs. With the bases loaded, everything added up for me. The pitcher had walked 4 people already, so I was taking a couple pitches like a smart hitter would. I eventually came to a 2-2 count. The next pitch was a lazy fastball about belly button high that looked like it would end up on some green grass. However, it ended up in the catcher's mitt with me swinging out of my shoes.

K

My second at bat resulted in a walk on 5 pitches.

BB (0-1, K, BB)

Third at bat...I came up with the bases loaded once again. This time, I had another 2-2 count on me. I swung hard at the knee high fastball on the outside half of the plate and made solid contact. However, this solid contact happened to be a knee high liner that bounced right in front of the second baseman that he fielded, but made a horrible throw to second. The error scored a couple runs and left me on first.

E-4 (0-2, K, BB)

My third at bat I got into a 2-1 count and struck a middle out fastball that ended up higher in the air than I had hoped. The right fielder missed the ball, and absolutely horrible play in which I ended up on second from.

E-9 (0-3, K, BB)

My last and final at bat I had a runner on second waiting for me to drive him in. I saw the first pitch and hammered it. It was a beautiful stroke to center field, just like they teach you. Only, it was hit directly to the center fielder, who didn't even so much as make one step right, left, or back.

F-8 (0-4, K, BB)

I don't know how many RBIs I had, it doesn't really matter though considering how poor my day was offensively. We face the state final runner up for Division III tonight, Beaverton, who like us, returns nearly every starter from last year. Toeing the rubber tonight will be Joe Huss in game 1, and myself in game 2.

It's History

On Thursday we played Midland Dow, a Division 1 school compared to our Division 4 school. It was 38 degrees and freezing rain was periodically coming down. I was the starting pitcher. In the first inning, we scored a run to open the game. I gave up one hit in my side of the first and the threat was nullified as he was stranded on first. The next 5 innings went smoothly, I failed to even give up a hit. We took a 1-0 lead into the final inning, the bottom of the seventh. I got the first two outs and the game seemed to be clinched. Their big slugger came up and I went right after him. He hit the first pitch I threw right up the middle and almost took my face with it. He was held to a single. A free pass was issued to the next batter, I walked him. This was the first time a runner had reached second base the whole game. However, I buckled down and delivered a strike on the outside corner. The 0-1 pitch was a change up, and as soon as I let it go I said "oh shit." Needless to say, the pitch ended up belt high and on the inside corner, and from there ended up in left field. However, if the ball had been played correctly, a run would not have scored. Instead, the ball went underneath the glove of the left fielder. 1-1. I struck the last kid out on 3 pitches and we went back into the dugout with a tie. We came out and scored a run in the top of the 8th and had the bases loaded still. The umpire grew sick of the rain, and insisted we stop the game. Since we ended the game, it had to go back to the previous inning - resulting in a tie.

How ridiculous.

Stats:
Offensively: 1-2, Walk

Pitching: 7IP, 1 Earned Run, 3 Walks, 7 Ks

If you'd like to read the write-up in the Midland Paper, here's the link. We actually received a very favorable write-up.

http://www.ourmidland.com/articles/2008/04/11/sports/1052655.txt

Scoreboard, Scoreboard

Not quite the start we had expected for our team. Playing a pretty talented Clare team, we should have handled them. However, the makings of a first game of the year were definitely there. The aspects of opening day were sloppy defensive play, not throwing strikes, and not hitting in hitters' counts. The first game opened up and the initial inning went great; we got three up and three down with a strikeout defensively. The bottom of the first frame went scoreless with the bases loaded. As the game went on, we ended up 2-0 around the third inning. At this point a couple of booted balls at second base, and a lot of walks cost us 6 runs: 6-2 Pioneers. At this point, we could have called it quits; we didn't give up. A 6-2 Pioneer lead was taken into the bottom of the 6th inning. At this point, everything changed. 3 runs were scored by us Comets: 6-5 Pioneers. Erick Geiling went out for his second inning of work in the 7th and got in a bit of trouble. Two outs and the bases loaded, enter David Novak. One pitch was all David needed to silence the Clare faithful and bring us back in for our chance to tie up or win the game. Ethan Rotz lead the inning off with a 7 pitch walk. We loaded the bases and tied the game on a grounder to second base that resulted in an out at first. With runners on second and third, Joe Huss stepped in. Waiting on deck I witnessed the game winning hit that said much more to Clare than their constant banter and taunting said to us. The game was over, Coleman with the 7-6 advantage. It wasn't pretty, and it was less than impressive. However, the comeback and the willingness to stay in the game was very impressive. The season starts at 1-0.

On the day offensively:

0-3, K, 1 RBI

I Know the Pieces Fit

April 8, 2008 - a day that will live in infamy. April 8, 2008 is opening day for our Coleman Comets baseball team. Carrying a number 5 ranking into the season, we are poised for some great games, and hotly contested match ups. Today, I prepared. I prepared at practice with a lot of hitting, a lot of fielding, a lot of first base work, and a lot of pitching; also, I did a lot of running, two miles to be exact. After practice, however, I got ready. I sit here right now in my baseball uniform, in its entirety. Head to toe in black, blue, and white, I sit here. You see, I just got back from a larger town to the east. In this trip I got my hair cut to its intimidating length of barely stubble. Also, in this trip I purchased a pair of M-Frame sunglasses, Oakley knock-offs. And finally, I bought an ankle guard. It was made for a soccer shin guard, but I converted it to one of the foul ball guards for you lower left leg, just like the one Magglio Ordonez wears. However, the one I have doesn't protect the foot like Magglio's does.

Anyways, I figured I'd take the time to list our projected lineup. This is my guess at our lineup, it will be something very similar.

Ethan Rotz - Left Field
Will Acker - Second Base
David Novak - Shortstop
Tom Albaugh - Catcher
Joe Huss - Right Field
Adam Wheeler - Center Field
John Porter - First Base
Nate Hasenfratz - Third Base
Corbin Killam/Eric Geiling/Adam Richmond - Designated Hitter

Joey King - Pitcher

David Novak is slated to pitch game two. Myself and Joe Huss are going to be pitching against Midland Dow, and then next Tuesday against Beaverton. On Saturday, we will be in Detroit playing Royal Oak Shrine at 10 am.

Wish us luck!