Turning Point...

What a draining weekend...physically, mentally and emotionally. Four very tough losses to a good baseball team, 10-7. 8-6. 8-7, 10-9. What I take from this weekend is the coming of age of a program ready to explode on the SCAC. Rhodes came into Atlanta with a 12-2 record, the returning SCAC pitcher of the year, an offensive averaging nearly ten runs a game, and a boat load of momentum. Rhodes is a team that starts juniors all over the field who have played together for nearly 2 1/2 years...they were in our situation two years ago. What they ran into this weekend was an Oglethorpe team that played full throttle every pitch of every game. We played a gritty, hard-nosed style of baseball that is just so much fun to watch. That is what I dream of as a coach. Give me a group of guys with character, attitude and determination...I'll show you a team that is going to win A LOT of ball games over the next four years.

Losing four games in conference is hard to swallow, but there were more positives than negatives this weekend. I'm sure I'll leave out one or two but please feel free to post some of your top moments from the weekend:

Tim Ernst now holds the OU career hits record at 191...congratulations!
Gutsy start by Chris Lucas in Saturday's 2nd game...5 innings of really solid pitching...
Mario Rivera continues to get better...he can win a lot of games for this team...
JJ Rizzo had a clutch HR against Flanagan, wow....
Stephen Archer, all he does is hit and hit and hit some more...
Andrew Llano continued to hit and made some very nice plays in the field, especially the diving play in game one...
Good to see Robert Pavelka get hot with the stick, and to see his blocking skills improve. What about those two caught stealing's in game 4, both on low curveballs!! Teams think they can run against us...keep trying boys.
Ben Giddens is starting to find his stroke...a couple of big hits and a couple of "Atom balls"....
Evan Baker was solid at 2nd base and swung the bat like we know he can...

Really we played good enough to win a couple of those games. Unfortunately we didn't get too many breaks this weekend. I feel bad for the rest of our teams on the schedule...if we play like we did this weekend, and get those breaks to even out....watch out!

The fun doesn't stop...

Tuesday 2pm against Heidelberg
Tuesday 6pm against Franklin and Marshall
Wednesday 3pm against Heidelberg

Both teams are very strong...one day to regroup and rest the bodies and then back to the field.

On a side note:

Most of you know that John Hale was not with us this weekend. His girlfriend was in a terrible car accident and has spent the last four days in the hospital down in Florida. She is doing better and is hopeful to return home soon. Our thoughts are with John, Margo and their families.