Welcome to the 2019 Potomac State Baseball player diary homepage. This season, Sophomores Andrew Berry (Morgantown High School / Morgantown, WV), and Joel Spishock (Carmichaels High School / Carmichaels, PA) will take the lead on the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary. Note: Berry’s entry will be in BOLD font.
Welcome back Catamount fans to the 2019 chapter of the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary. In these diaries that I will be bringing to you, I hope to be able to give an inside look of our program and basically show the public what it is like to be a part of the 2019 Potomac State Baseball team. My partner Andrew Berry and I plan to give you weekly summaries of what has happened, so be sure to stay tuned to get all the action. To start things off, I suppose I should introduce myself, so you know where your information is coming from.
My name is Joel Spishock, and I am currently a sophomore at WVU Potomac State College. As far as my studies go, I am majoring in civil engineering, and I am also minoring in communication studies. I originate from the small town of Carmichaels, PA, where I attended Carmichaels Area High School. Now that I have introduced myself, as Coach Little would say, “let’s go to work.”
Driving across the Keyser bridge on August 14th and arriving back on campus, to me it felt like I had never left. Last year we had a great season, posting an overall record of 35-11, but came up short in Regional Tournament with back to back losses to Harford Community College and Hagerstown Community College to end our season. At the end our last game, there was a lot of heart break, and I can imagine that the returning sophomores still had that bad taste in our mouth as we returned. I feel like I speak for all of us by saying that we knew we had something to prove this coming spring. But like every sport, great seasons are made in the off season, and for us I knew the fall would be crucial.
We had our first team meeting that same August night in the clubhouse. Walking into the clubhouse, I began to remember all of the teammates who left last year, but was happy to see all of the returning guys again to catch up on things. There was a lot of new faces, and with any new team, at the beginning you’re uncertain on how the chemistry will be between everyone. After some time, I figured out that we got a lot of great new guys, and I am confident that with the group that we had we could build a winning team that can compete at Regionals and hopefully make it all the way to Grand Junction for the national championship. Our first practice was held on the following Saturday at the beautiful Golden Park, and it was perfect day, unlike most of the fall that followed.
The offseason is the most important part to any great team in my opinion. The offseason is where you learn the game, get repetitions, and improve your game, as well as get strong mentally and physically. There was nothing about this past fall season that was easy.
A normal week during the fall would consist of practices from Tuesday-Friday, with games on Saturday and Sunday. For a normal practice, all infielders would report an hour before practice was scheduled and would run through many fielding drills with the coaches to improve our defensive game. After that, we would have normal team practices with all team members to develop our defense was well as our hitting. Every day was a chance to get better and each repetition could be the difference between winning or losing a game. Like Coach Schafer would always say, “You can’t win a championship in one day, but you CAN always lose it in one day”. Along with our practices, we would have team lifting every Tuesday and Thursday nights during the season. Everything was all about getting prepared for the games on the coming weekend.
Trying to play a game during this fall was no easy task by any means because mother nature was not a fan of baseball. This fall had a large amount of rainfall which led to a lot of group effort to putting our field tarp on to preserve it, and it was led to numerous cancelations. However, we made do with the best we had. On most weekends, we would hold intrasquad scrimmages against each other, and on some weekends, we were able to go and play outside opponents. Getting to play other teams was always a good experience and challenge because we got to see how we stacked up against others, and it helped put into prospective how much improvement there need to be. Through the season, we got to play a lot of good, local teams like Fairmont State, Frostburg State, and Garrett Community College. We also got the chance to play some further away opponents like Shenandoah University, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and George Washington University at the end of our season. Against these teams, we matched up extremely well with them and battles, which showed that we had made a lot of progress from our very first practice. A highlight of the fall was being able to play VCU at their home field, The Diamond, which is also home to the minor league team the Richmond Flying Squirrels. The park was truly unbelievable! The size and scenery made it feel like you were really playing in the big leagues. It was easily the nicest place I’ve ever played.
Wrapping up our fall season, sadly we weren’t able to play our alumni game due to rain, but we were able to do our 100 Inning game (yes, we really play 100 innings). The 100-inning game was a grueling game that took the whole day, but extremely fun nonetheless. And the end of that brought the end of the 2018 Potomac State fall baseball season. There were a lot of big steps made in developing our team, and I am very confident that we’ll be able to compete in the spring.
In the weeks that led up to winter break, we had team lifts on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. Some of those lifts included carrying objects out of the rec center to get ready to build our new hitting facility. At the end of November, we had our brand-new hitting facility in the Kelley rec center, and it is SWEET!!! (Video coming soon). In there is where we also had hitting practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays to wrap up the fall.
Aside from all the work that is put into school and sports, there are some ways that we found to enjoy our off days. Lucky for us, Keyser is home to many hometown restaurants, where you can get some of the best food out there. Aside from that, there are some places that require traveling that we had adventured to. Some of our trips included swimming at the Jennings Randolph Lake, camping trips in Romney, WV, and even trips to Frostburg, MD just to get Moe’s (Best Mexican fast food out there). And in the spring, there will be many more crazy adventures to stay tuned to see where the country roads take us!
After our winter break, and we just had our first team meeting of 2019 this past Sunday. It was good to see all the guys again and catch up for all the lost time. The meeting started the beginning to what will be a very long and exciting spring season. It’s going to be a long journey with a lot of ups and downs, and hopefully in the end, I’ll be able to tell you all about our experience in Grand Junction, Colorado, in the national championship. Our first team practice will be held on Thursday, the 10th, and hopefully we’ll be able to practice outside (fingers crossed).
Thank you for tuning into the first player diary of 2019! Please join in each week for updates on the team, as well as some exclusive team videos. Also, for more coverage follow the teams twitter (@PotomacStateBB) and Instagram (@potomacstatebaseball). If you have any questions or suggestions on videos, please email me at jts0033@mix.wvu.edu.
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Hello Catamount faithful and welcome to another year of our traditional Potomac State Baseball player diary. My name is Andrew Berry, and I am from Morgantown, WV where I graduated from Morgantown High School. I am a sophomore infielder studying Business Administration and plan to specify in Marketing after graduation from Potomac State. Along with my teammate and very close friend, Joel Spishock, we will be bringing you a closer look inside the Potomac State Baseball team for the 2019 season. Here you will have an all access pass to all the sounds, sights, struggles, triumphs, and experiences of being a Junior College baseball player. Our goal is to make you feel like the 32nd member of our baseball program. We plan to take you on our six-month journey beginning in the mountains of West Virginia and hopefully ending in the mountains of Colorado for the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction.
In the 2018 season, our team posted a 35-11 record which was one of the best regular seasons under Coach Little and Coach Schafer. That team also sent 12 sophomores on to 4-year schools in the NCAA’s Division I, II, and III. Sadly, once the postseason came, our team had an early exit in the region XX tournament. The fellow sophomores and I now realize that the torch has been passed on to us. We need to maintain the high standards the players set before us while working towards a better showing in the postseason for this year. That work began on the night of August 14th when Coach Little held our first team meeting of the year. A lot of emotions ran through the clubhouse at Golden Park. Teammates and friends were reunited after three long months. New players and a new coach and former Catamount Andrew Kowalo, were introduced to the squad and welcomed with open arms. Following the meeting, each and every man in the room was chomping at the bit to get started. From our first practice, we hit the ground running. Freshman quickly had to get adjusted to the speed and lifestyle of college baseball while sophomores had to learn to take on leadership roles. As we moved along, the road wasn’t always smooth. In fact, some could say it had many bumps and turns in it. We began learning the essentials of being a Potomac State ballplayer, which I bet hold a special place in the heart of all former players. It started with realizing that there is no other option but “MINE, MINE, MINE” when calling for balls and Coach Little makes sure we know that one. Coach Schafer spent endless time with us teaching what a quality at bat truly is, what pitches we hit best, having an approach when hitting, and the almost infamous 19 useful swing packages. Most importantly, Coach Schafer made sure we knew it’s a given that we play hard no matter what. All of that happens before we get to the actual practice! As Coach Little says, “College Baseball is a grind” and let me tell you he does not lie. Day in and day out we worked our tails off trying to become the best players possible for the spring season. Hours before practice all of us were at the field hitting or getting some kind of work in. This expanded greatly with the help of Coach Kowalo. I think I can speak on behalf of all the infielders when I say our daily early infield work was crucial and those countless repetitions will pay off in the spring. As Coach Little says, “We’ll enjoy the fruit of our labor.” We then follow that up with team practice where the real work is done. From the favorites like bunt coverages or 1st and 3rd situations to the always anticipated Friday 3-group batting practice, there is always something to work on and perfect. Add in lifting two to three days a week and we sure did keep our hands full while also keeping up on our studies.
The fall season also brought forth a lot of fun experiences for the team. We had the privilege of playing multiple NCAA schools from each division. The two highlights were when we were fortunate enough to travel to Washington, D.C. to play George Washington University and Richmond, Virginia to play against Virginia Commonwealth University No need to worry, as we made sure to get in our fair share of Golden Corral trips along the way. To end the fall, we also got to participate in our biggest fundraiser and a fun day for all, the 100-inning game. To all who made generous donations to our program, we appreciate you greatly. You are what helps keeps the train rolling and we cannot thank you enough!
The biggest take from the fall, is that our team spent a lot of time creating bonds and relationships. When people say that playing on a team is like a fraternity and brotherhood it is the truth. This helps greatly with building team chemistry, and along with the hours of hard work each and every player sacrificed during the previous semester, it is a lethal combination. This will help us perform better as a team and a single unit in the coming months.
As for what is happening currently, the team has just recently started the spring semester and we are going through our first couple days of class. We were greeted back into town with a few presents from Santa!
Following that, Coach gave us the rundown on the upcoming schedule and what to expect in the near future. Our pitchers began their bullpens this past Monday and our first day of practice is Thursday January 10th! We are very excited and cannot wait to get the season started.
To stay updated with the 2019 Catamounts, check in weekly as Joel and I plan to show you different perspectives of what it is like to be a Potomac State Baseball player. We also plan to work together and with other players to cover every aspect imaginable. We have a lot planned for you all! Saying that, if you have anything you would like to see in the diaries or learn more about, you can contact me thru email (akb0019@mix.wvu.edu) or twitter (@andrewberry_15). I would also encourage you to follow the team on social media. Thank you for letting me lead you in this journey, and until next week, Go Catamounts!