Hello College Baseball Fans,
I want to start my first in-season blog by talking about what a great atmosphere playing at the University of Arkansas was. Playing at different SEC parks is always an experience and UA was no different. We faced a high-quality team this weekend that had a front-line pitching staff and took advantage of timely hitting. One thing I will take away from the experience was how well most of the fans treated us throughout the weekend. When you have fans right on top of you in the outfield like that you never know what you are going to get, but they were classy and had some pretty clever things to say, especially the fans out in left field where I was playing. If any of you who were in attendance are readers of the site, I want to say thanks for making this weekend fun and allowing me to play along with all the heckling you guys threw my way.
Murphy’s Law applied perfectly to how our trip to Arkansas started out. Our first flight out of Charlotte on Thursday was canceled thanks to Winter Storm Pax that blanketed the Southeast with snow last week. That cancellation caused us to have to fly out on two separate flights on Friday morning. When we arrived at the airport on Friday, Murphy’s Law struck again as one of the team’s flights was canceled. That meant that we had to fly to Arkansas and play the first game with only two-thirds of our roster. It keeps getting better, the one flight that wasn’t cancelled wound up being delayed for two hours and we arrived in Fayetteville only an hour-and-a-half before game time. It was your typical “show and go,” as we had just enough time to stretch, throw and take a couple swings in the cage before it was time to play. The rest of our team ended up catching a flight later that night and joined us around midnight.
Although the weekend didn’t go how we would have liked, there are always things to take from it. The thing with playing high-caliber teams is that they take advantages of your mistakes and make you pay for them. Playing teams like that will only help make us better, as it causes us to learn from our mistakes and move on to our next opponent ready to go. The road for us doesn’t get any easier as we head to Knoxville, Tenn. on Tuesday to face another quality SEC team in the University of Tennessee before going to Raleigh, N.C. for a weekend series against NC State.
We knew from the beginning we were going to be tested and it will force us to play at our highest level every single day. We will have to play smarter and improve in all areas every chance we get but I promise you that this team will find a way to do that. We will be ready for the challenges that will continue to be ahead of us and soon will be a team that people will be talking about.
In the mean time it’s time for me to sign off as I’m continually being heckled by our athletics director, Charlie Cobb, in the seat behind me. Hopefully my new friends “out in left field” will become season long readers!
Playing for the dogpile.
God Bless,
Ty Zupcic
10 comments
Ty, thank you for your comments about your experience at Baum Stadium this past week-end. I have been a Razorback baseball season ticket holder for years and have always sat just behind the visiting dugout among the hecklers. Your teammates are among the classiest visiting players we have seen and we enjoyed having you at Baum. Best wishes to you and your teammates for a very successful season. Your team was very competitive and has a lot of good talent. I hope your team makes it back to Fayetteville in the future. God bless you.
ty— i, too, sit near your dugout plus tailgate all day by the 3rd baseline. you guys were first class all the way. i sincerely hope you guys had a great time even though “the murphy’s law” did get ya!!! we were sorry for yall!!! best of luck the rest of the year…..
Thanks for the post. Heckling is a fun part of the game and Baum does it right. There are certainly some favorites of the crew “out in left field”, but rarely do they cross the line (unless we’re playing LSU). Good luck to App State the rest of the season.
Ty, you are a real class act. Come back and visit anytime. I thoroughly enjoyed watching you play, swaying back and forth … back and forth …
Great to hear from one of the opposing team. I for one will always be nice toward the other team. Sorry for those who aren’t. have a great year.
I’m glad that you enjoyed your time at Baum. We like to think that we make it hard to win there, but that we respect the game and the opponents.
I wish that y’all had been able to get to town in a more timely fashion. It really wasn’t fair the way it worked out. But I’ll take it. 🙂
Ty – we missed you out there in Left on Sunday. You have a great attitude and handled yourself well. Good luck to you the rest of this season.
ty u are a very good playerand guy u are the type of player that I wont my son to look up too I have a 10 year old son that plays compative baseball his team name is DC ELITE out of olive branch Mississippi he sure can use some words of encouragement he has a bad attitude when it comes to loseing here is my email address vanvoorhissteven@yahoo.com have a good season this year
Ty , thanks for the comments about the fans at Baum stadium ! Seems like you are getting comments from about the same area of Baum. Our season tickets are located just behind the screen and just to the right of the opponent dugout so we get a bird’s eye view of the opponents and the Mountaineers were a class act, as well as very competitive, your team should do well this season. You guys did a tremendous job playing short handed. We enjoyed you as well as the rest of the Mountaineer team and wish you the very best. If you liked the atmosphere at Baum check out our fan group page on face book Diamond Hogs and More , 1000 plus members who love college baseball. I for one will be keeping an eye on your success this season (my post on Diamond Hogs and More before the series began mentioned you as one of the players to look out for) I should have mentioned #42 Dillon Dobson as well that kid was crushing the ball ! Best wishes on a successful season and feel free to check out Diamond Hogs and More in the future. Youre welcome at Baum anytime !
Ty, You were a good sport and your team played well. Good luck to you guys the rest of the way.
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