Hello College Baseball Fans,
When College Baseball Daily gave me the opportunity to write a blog for their website, I wanted it to be an inside look at what it’s like to be a college baseball player. I hope that my readers have enjoyed my blogs to date. It has been a blast being able to write about what I love to do most.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to give readers a look inside the minds of some of our players and get their take on what being a college baseball player is like for them. Today, we are going to profile shortstop, Dillon Dobson, and starting pitcher, Jeffrey Springs.
Dobson is a sophomore from Hamptonville, N.C. and is majoring in exercise science. He is a physical specimen who can destroy just about anyone in the weightroom and on the basketball court. Seriously, if Taylor Lautner and Blake Griffin had a baby, it would be Dobson.
Springs, a junior from Belmont, N.C. is majoring in business management. In 2012, as just a freshman, Springs started perhaps the biggest game in Appalachian State baseball history. In the final game of the Charlottesville Regional, Springs took the mound against the University of Oklahoma and pitched six quality innings, allowing five runs and striking out four against a high-powered OU offense. Ever since, he has been a vital part of the starting staff as one of the main weekend starters.
I sat down with both of them and asked them three questions to help give readers an idea of what goes on in the mind of college baseball players.
1. What’s your favorite thing about being a college baseball player?
Dobson: “The friendships with my teammates. It’s a different kind of bond than most teams. Being with 35 guys every day for nine months creates something special.”
Springs: “My favorite thing about being a college baseball player is the opportunity to go out everyday and play the game I love at the highest level.”
2. What is one memory from your playing career so far that you believe you will take with you after you graduate?
Dobson: “My first career home run. I can still remember the pitch, the swing and the feeling I had running around the bases. It certainly is a feeling I will never forget.”
Springs: “The memory I will take with me after I graduate is the journey that our 2012 team had winning the Southern Conference and being three wins away from the College World Series. And having the chance to get the ball in the regional final game against the University of Oklahoma. Just the memories made with that team on and off the field are something that I’ll never forget.”
3. If you could trade places with anyone on the team who would it be and why?
Dobson: “Noah Holmes. He is the nicest and most mild mannered person I know. I wish I could be half of the man that he is. The one thing that will always stick out about him is that he is the same person every single day. Regardless of what he is going through you can count on him to be the same guy.”
Springs: If I could trade places with anyone on the team, it would be Dillon Dobson. The fact that he gets to play everyday and the freakish abilities he has on and off the field.”
I hope you enjoyed reading their answers and getting a behind-the-scenes look at some of Appalachian State’s baseball players.
Playing for the dogpile.
God Bless,
Ty Zupcic
