Anyone who was able to make it to Hawkins Field last weekend was greeted with three great college baseball games. The atmosphere on Saturday was phenomenal, and compares very favorably to a NCAA Regional site. The Stanford Cardinal are a very talented baseball team, and have a great chance of making the College World Series at the end of the year. Kenny Diekroeger and Stephen Piscotty are as good of a left side of the infield as there is in college baseball this year, and they are very well coached.
Fortunately, we were able to win two of the three games, thanks in large part to our pitching and clutch hitting. Anthony Gomez knocked in the go-ahead runs on Friday and Saturday, and Jason Esposito had four RBI on the weekend. Conrad Gregor also deserves a shout out for his first collegiate hit being a home run on Saturday. Sonny Gray had a stellar start on Friday, allowing just three hits and one run in six innings of work. And once again, Mark Lamm and Navery Moore shut the door in the 8th and 9th innings in Friday and Saturday’s games.
We have a quick turnaround this week, hosting the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers today. WKU beat us in Nashville last year, so hopefully we will be able to avenge that loss. The Brown Bears then come to Nashville this weekend for a three-game series.
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Along with video games (mentioned a few weeks ago), another interesting dynamic to our team is the music that is played in the locker room. We are very fortunate to have a great locker room setup, complete with a big screen TV and stereo system, and we definitely get good use out of them both. Once the first person gets to the field about 12:30, it’s a good bet that music will be playing until we hit the field for our practice or game.
There are no limits to the type of music played in the locker room—it usually depends on whose iPod is being played and who chooses the song. Whenever Connor Harrell, Sam Selman, or any of the other Texas guys get their hands on the iPod, George Strait is probably going to be played. Mark Lamm and I usually go with Darius Rucker or some other country music. Aaron Westlake always finds a way to play some alternative California music; Jack Armstrong handles the techno; and Jason Esposito, Joe Loftus, Bryan Johns, and Will Clinard make sure we play enough hip-hop. And, of course, we always play Taylor Swift. Last year, Keenan Kolinsky left T Swift a ticket on our pass list at each of our games, and the tradition has continued into 2011. So Taylor, if you are reading this, we’re still waiting…
The two most popular songs currently are MGMT’s “Electric Feel” and ISA’s “Moving Like Berney”. “Electric Feel” is the hitting song of infielder Sam Lind, and it has taken the locker room by storm. It is definitely the early season favorite for best newcomer hitting song. “Moving Like Berney” is a dance song that is all over YouTube, and whenever we are in need of a good laugh, we turn it on and see who has the moves to pull it off. Conrad Gregor and Steven Rice are by far the best at moving like Berney. Maybe our video guys can film them one day for Part 2 of the Vanderbilt Dance-Off? We’ll have to see what we can do.
Until next week—Go ’Dores
Drew Fann
Jeremiah 29:11
