Welcome back to the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary! I wanted to start this week off by giving former Catamount baseball player Joe Agreste a big thank you! Agreste donated two huge TV's to put in our clubhouse at Golden Park. It is so cool to get the clubhouse and have MLB Network playing and watch baseball. It makes us feel like big leaguers! It is amazing the number of alumni support this program has. For those of you who may not have heard of Joe Agreste, he is a former player that graduated in 2007. He is a two-time Region XX Champion and made it to the College World Series in 2006 where he was named to the NJCAA College World Series All-Tournament Team. Agreste was also a Major League draft pick by the Seattle Mariners in 2006 and was 2^nd Team NJCAA All-American in 2007. Agreste would finish his college baseball career at West Virginia University in Morgantown. Agreste will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, April    

Well, it seems that the weather has finally cracked! We actually played games this past weekend in short sleeves. We played at Shenandoah University on Saturday, and it was about 80 degrees. We had a little bit of a fun experience before the games on Saturday. We were right on schedule to get to the game with plenty of time to warm up, until we hit some traffic. The traffic was backed up so far due to an accident. We were on the bus in standing traffic for about an hour and a half. This was not a great experience as the bus was fairly warm and we wanted to get off and play two games. To lighten the mood, we played a little karaoke in the back of the bus. It was a stellar turnout, until Sebastian Williamson grabbed the mic. Seabass sang Africa by Toto and could not quite hit the high note very good. It was so treacherous that we all wish we could evacuate the bus. We ended up making it to Shenandoah right at game time. The opposing coach was nice enough to give us some time to stretch, and get starting pitcher, Jeff Wong, some time to warm up. So, it was basically get off the bus, and play two games. It ended up working out for us though. The bats were alive and we won game one 16-0, and game two 15-1. The highlight of the day was when freshman Joel Spishock and Cole Miller hit back to back home-runs in game two. It was both of their first career collegiate home-runs to add to that memorable moment.

Last Thursday I went on a fishing excursion with fellow teammates Joel Spishock and Dave McQuain. We went driving through the mountains and found a nice pond to fish in. It started off very entertaining as Dave slipped and fell down a mini muddy hill. The fish were biting, a little. We did not have great luck, but it was not a bad trip. We each caught a few bass, but I would have to say that Joel caught the biggest on his cute little pink Barbie pole that we had bought him at Walmart. It suits him real nice. It was nice to finally get outside and enjoy this weather!

I wanted to give a quick shout out to my suitemate Tyler Shorter. Tyler recently popped the question...and she said yes!! Congratulations to Tyler for putting a ring on it.

That will be it for this week's edition. Make sure to check in each week to catch up on all our games, and to see what the team is doing. Feel free to follow the team on Twitter @PotomacStateBB and Instagram @potomacstatebaseball. You can also follow me on Twitter @mhenshaw4 for some exclusive coverage of the team. If you have any questions or comments about the player diaries you can email me at mjh0025@mix.wvu.edu. Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it.

Hello Catamount fans! Welcome back for another week of the Potomac State Player Diary. As we reach the final stretch of the school year and the baseball season, it is really crunch time. Classes are coming to a crucial point nearing finals as post-season play creeps closer and closer. It is very easy to become stressed or intimidated by the tight schedule that comes along with this time of the year. This week the Catamounts had the opportunity to step away from the books and the baseball diamond for a little while and give back to the community at the same time. Grace United Methodist Church is one of the several churches very close to the Potomac State campus. On Monday the 16^th, 12 Catamounts seized the opportunity to help the church paint their nursery room.

A rainy day in Keyser had limited our practice ability for the day. Coach Little texted us about an opportunity to do some community service at a local church. After team meeting, 12 of us volunteered to go down and help paint. We walked into the church to 6 large pizzas waiting on us. The pizza didn’t last long. We quickly went through the pizza while doing some prep work on the edges of where we were painting.

Freshman infielders Abe Stearns and David McQuain tape the ceiling trim before paint. 

 

Once the tape work was complete, we poured the paint, a flat tint of Biscuit Crumb, and proceeded to begin to paint with the brushes that we had.          

After about two hours of painting, the church was again filled with the smell of hot pizza. In return for helping the church paint, we were fed all the pizza that we could handle. The food was awesome, of course, but that is far from the reason that drove the players that volunteered to do so. When coach asked for volunteers, he simply chose the first 10-12, with several raised hands left uncalled upon. The opportunity to represent Potomac State College and the baseball program means a lot everyday, especially when it involves helping the community directly.

The guys hung around at the church for a little while after the job was done, talking and joking around while finishing off all the pizza that we could.

With full stomachs and happy hearts, we departed the church with a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction. We lent a helping hand to someone that could use it and furthered the Potomac State Baseball Program’s positive impact on the community.