ODAC Champs!

It has been over a week since our players won the ODAC Championship and it was a great performance by the entire team. It is a difficult challenge to come through the loser’s bracket and face elimination each game but our players kept a positive attitude and believed more and more with each win. Our pitchers were key to giving us the chance to win and our hitters eventually hit their stride with a 10 spot in the second inning against RMC which erased a five run deficit and give us momentum that lasted throughout the remainder of the tournament. Our defense was also much better during the tournament with a number of players stepping up to make big plays.

We took last week off to heal our troops and began practicing for NCAA Regional this past Monday. We will practice three days this week before exams and resume next Tuesday following the last exam. We will not hear who is in our regional or where we are headed for sure until Monday morning the 17th of May. We will likely head to the south regional at Fayetteville, NC (host Methodist College) the 18th and play on the 19th. Most of the teams we think we will face we played this Spring, which is why we play a challenging schedule.

On behalf of the team, I want to thank all alumni, parents and friends of our program for the numerous congratulation responses following our ODAC Championship accomplishment. We will certainly do our best to win the regional. Thanks again for your support!

Spring Break Recap

The Spring Break Trip did not go as expected. Wins were in short supply and rain was bountiful. We were not able to play the final two games of the trip against Reinhardt and Piedmont and for the first time, came home a day early from our trip. The start of the trip was somewhat positive with a split on the road at HSC. We had a chance to win a tough first game after getting to HSC’s ace pitcher, West, for 11 hits, only to lose in extra innings. In the second game we came out slugging and never looked back as we tagged the #2 starter Daniel for 7 hits and 6 runs in two innings and had 20 hits in the game, winning 21 -4. Alex Foltz gave us a solid performance with seven strong innings on the mound. At Lagrange, we got a solid start from Freshman, Joseph Lucas, who pitch 6 strong but the bullpen could not hold the fort. In the Adrian game, Kevin chandler pitched well enough to keep us in the game but was plagued by 8 errors as we did not come ready to play a top ranked Adrian team.

After a little soul searching and challenging our players to play with energy, determination and the will to overcome adversity, the team exploded for 21 hits and 23 runs against one of our perennial ODAC rivals, VWC. The second game will be played Friday, March 19^th at 3:30 as rain damped the day once again and allowing us to get in only one game on Sunday. The weather this Spring has made it difficult for teams to get in games and practices. We have cancelled three games to date but hope to make up at least two of them before the season ends.

As we move forward from here, we must become a team that stays positive, believes in one another, is determined to overcome obstacles and plays with enthusiasm. Once we accomplish those things , our wins will come. We have talent and we have a good group of players who I feel are good enough to beat anyone on our schedule. Once we get a few players to step up in key situations in the tough games and either make the big pitch or play or get the big hit, our confidence will grow. Keep hanging with us, we will get there.

BC Wins Battle Against Gettysburg

The team made playing games happen this past weekend by putting in a lot of time and hard work shoveling the field. We stressed to the players the sacrifice past teams made to get the field ready for play and they answered the call like all others. In fairness to them, no other team has ever had to remove 12 plus inches of snow from the field so these guys have set a new standard. The players and coaches worked from Tuesday to Saturday morning to remove snow from the field in order to get a doubleheader in on Sunday. As a result, we cancelled our games with Messiah on Saturday, who could not play on Sunday, and scheduled two with Gettysburg, who was cancelled with St. Mary’s on Saturday. The result was two good wins. Both Drew Elkins and Alex Foltz gave us five strong innings as starters in a predetermined five-inning role. Five other pitchers provided solid relief as we prepared the staff for the 10 games in 10 days stretch beginning Thursday. Andy Chrismer (5 for 7 with 2homeruns and 7 RBI) and Brett Howell (4 for 6 and 3 RBI) led us offensively as we scored 21 runs on 23 hits in the doubleheader.

As we look ahead to the 10 games in 10 days stretch, we will face pre-season top 10 Shenandoah U. on Thursday and clearly we must give ourselves a better chance against them this year by avoiding the 19 walks we gave them last year in the two games we played. Friday we play Greensboro College and the on Saturday open up the ODAC season at Hampden-Sydney with a doubleheader. Sunday we travel to Georgia to begin a four-game Spring Trip and return home to play Virginia Wesleyan in a conference doubleheader on Saturday. Pitching will be the key to our overall success this year and the 10-game stretch coming up will be the test to see where we are on the mound. Offensively, we expect to be able to manufacture runs when needed as well as hammer the ball when opportunities arise. In both cases, we expect to improve with every game and return from the trip a better ball club.


I will attempt to blog again during the trip and following our games with HSC. Go Eagles!

Rough Start to 2010

We have started the season 1-4 and have made it tough to win games up to this point due to spotting our opponents early runs. In three of our four losses and prior to yesterday’s loss to CNU we have spotted our opponent 3 (Methodist), 4 (Averett) and 5 (Rowan) runs respectively in the first inning. Thus, our first goal yesterday (Sunday) against CNU was to put a zero on the board in the first inning and that we accomplished. Drew Elkins did a spectacular job yesterday giving us 7 strong innings on the bump. He has pitched well both times out this season providing us with a chance to win in each game. However, yesterday he was matched by the strong performance by the CNU senior ace Josh Brinkman. Both teams played well and CNU took advantage of their opportunity in the bottom of the ninth to give us our second straight ninth inning loss.

The day before we battled back from a four run first inning deficit against a strong Rowan team to tie the game only to lose in the bottom of the ninth. Other than our first inning woes, our pitchers have been progressing each time out. Unfortunately, an early deficit creates additional pressure on your offense to respond earlier, takes away your aggressiveness offensively and leaves no room for error on the mound for the remainder of the game.

Offensively, we are being lead by freshman, Andrew Hacker, who went 2 for 2 with a home run and 3 RBI in the game against Rowan. Unfortunately, he rolled his ankle trying to avoid the tag at second on a missed hit and run in the fifth and is now out of the line-up indefinitely.

Offensively, we continued to swing the bats well and once our pitching settles in I expect us to turn the tide and start winning games. Defensively, we managed runners better and held an aggressive CNU running game down.

As far as the week ahead, we are off Monday. The Shenandoah U. home game on Wednesday is unlikely with snow still laying on the field. With our infield tarp down, I do expect to play this weekend against Messiah with rain and warmer weather in the forecast this week.

Opening Weekend

The weekend trip to Methodist was a positive start to the season. Realizing we had not been on a field since February 4^th I was pleased overall with our play this weekend. The first game we struggled early to manage the Monarch running game and effectively make our pitches. We looked like a team that had not been outside much.

Between games we adjusted (just like halftime in football) and did the things we expected to do in game two.

Our pitching was on point in the second game and we manage to get the offense rolling. Our hitters started to see the ball better after four at-bats in game one and thus we had more success scoring runs in game two. Foltz (Sr.)threw well in game one and Elkins (Sr.), Chandler (So.) and Lucas (Fr.) pitched well in game two. Two freshmen, Jonathan Mason and Andrew Hacker both had RBI hits in their first college at-bats and went four for seven with three RBI. A number of players got on track in game two as we pounded out 13 hits to win 10-3. Defensively, we were solid making only one error in the doubleheader.

Next we look to travel to Averett U. for a single game on Thursday followed by two single games at Christopher Newport against Rowan U. on Saturday and CNU on Sunday. I’ll catch up with you next Monday.

Ready to Start the Season

Twenty plus inches of snow haven’t stopped our preparation for the opening weekend of our 2010 season. We were originally scheduled to play three games in Richmond this weekend but due to snow across the state we are now scheduled to play a three game series with Methodist in Fayetteville, N.C.

The ODAC vs. USA South match-ups have been rescheduled between Greensboro and Fayetteville (NC) and Newport News and Norfolk (VA). We have not played Methodist since the high scoring affair at the NCAA Regionals in 2007.

The players are excited to get going and are looking forward to the 12:00pm game time and doubleheader tomorrow followed by a single game. We will be throwing all of our starters (six) and another four relievers over the three game weekend.

I am expecting our pitching to give us a chance to win while our offense will need to take advantage of the opportunities we create or are giving throughout the weekend. Of course, the latest forecast for Fayetteville is 2-4 inches of snow Friday night, which may move our start to a doubleheader Sunday.

Wish us well!

Merry Christmas from Coach Kendall