Almost everyone has gotten through the opening day jitters, the stumbles, and the nervous mistakes. We are finally starting to settle into the season and enjoy the competition and camaraderie that comes along with it. The returners are resuming their roles and the newcomers are finding their place of comfort within the lineup. The opening day excitement has passed, and it is now that each team’s true colors will begin to come out.
After 6-12 inches of snow fell throughout the Midwest this past week, cancelling a number of class days and school activities, having a true and optimally productive practice was borderline impossible for the majority of teams. However, like a lot of other programs, we found a way to get things done and work on the things we struggled with in our opening series. Fortunately, we have an indoor facility, where we can take live batting practice and throw bullpens, etc. While campuses were closed, baseball programs were not.
Without diving to heavily into the topic, the ultimate issue here is the time of year that the college baseball season takes place. To have arguably the most “outdoor” sport begin its competitive season in the middle of winter is totally asinine, to say the least. It makes no sense for us to practice throughout the months of September and October, in 80 degree sunshine, only to spend our season traveling hundreds of miles just to play a game above freezing.
Toughness will be seen throughout this period of pre-conference play and the teams that have prepared themselves accordingly will be the ones left standing at the end of May. These next few weeks won’t necessarily reveal the best teams, but the teams willing to scratch and claw for every win they can get. We will fight for everything and we will dismiss every challenge we are dealt with. We will continue getting better and will achieve at our greatest capability.
Adam Akin
Assistant Head Baseball Coach
Kentucky Wesleyan College
