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.
Hello devoted followers and welcome back to another Potomac State Baseball diary entry!
This week was a busy week for our team, as we're starting to get right into the middle of our schedule. The schedule and demands on your time is a hard thing to adjust to. Before we would just have practices every day, and it would really be nothing more than that. Now, we're getting into the routine of having games almost every other day, and it will continue to be like that for the remainder of the year.
This past week was a real blessing for our students, one of my favorite times of the year, which is spring break. For spring break, most students go home or go on vacation to some nice beach, but for our team it isn't like that. Spring break is just more time for baseball.
Like I said last week, Coach Little really came through this year, giving us an actual spring break trip down in Myrtle Beach, where we would play 3 games.
Last Tuesday we loaded up the buses and made the long 10-hour trip to Myrtle Beach. Immediately once we got there you could just sense the team's energy and how ready we were to play some baseball in some warm weather. It was a whole different environment for us Keyser boys, getting out of the snowy mountains in exchange for sunny warm beach, but I know we didn't mind it any. Personally, I never thought I'd be able to wear shorts and a t-shirt again.
It was tough to mentally get ready for a game, when you feel like you're on a vacation, but that's why we have coaches for. They brought us back to reality and reminded us that it was a business trip.
We were very lucky to be able to play at the Ripken Experience in Myrtle because it is really such a nice facility. I couldn't tell if it was the nice environment, or the fact that we could go to the beach after the game, but on Wednesday we were all gassed up for our game against County College of Morris.
That game really showed the grit of our team. We were down 3-0, and down to our final 3 out when things came alive for the team. In the last inning we battled back, and after a clutch double by freshman Haydon Almond, we tied things up and forced extra innings. In the bottom of the 8th we walked it off when freshman Foster Conis scored from third on a wild pitch. After coming in relief to close things out, freshman Tyler Bradford got out of some tough situations and picked up the win. Along with Almond, sophomore Abe Sterns led the offense, also having multiple hits in the game.
After the game, we got to go back to the hotel and enjoy our time at the beach for a little bit, but then had to get refocused again for our doubleheader the next day.
The next morning, we played County College of Morris again. Might have been beach hangover for this game, but we couldn't get our offense or defense to work, losing 14-6.
After a quick reset, we began the second part of our double-header against Cumberland County College. Cumberland's pitching got the best of our hitters, and their hitters barreled many baseballs against our pitchers, handing us an 8-1 loss and making our team 1-2 in our games in Myrtle. Haydon Almond had the only RBI for us, from a solo homerun (his first) in the 2nd inning.
Check out my video on the Potomac State Baseball's YouTube Page to see our spring break in Myrtle Beach Recap!
In dismay, we made the long trip back to Keyser. The losses were tough but we had to get ready for our first home games against St. Clair County Community College.
The first gameday at Golden Park this past Saturday brought some life back to the team. Getting to see the mountains and hear the Golden Park soundtrack played over the speakers is really one of my personal favorite experiences. Our offense was able to manufacture many runs on a multitude of hits all through the lineup. By taking advantage of walks, and working favorable counts, we were able to put up 25 runs. Colt Webb got the win on the mound, holding St. Clair to 2 runs through 5 innings. Austin Chavis led the team with 3 hits in the game, while Pete Costigan and Tobias Holmelund both recorded their first homeruns of the season.
For the second game of the series this past Sunday, our offense continued to fire, recording 18 runs. Brett Whiteman recorded the win on the mound pitching 4 innings. In relief were Nathan Kerr, Andrew Liller, and Abe Stearns to close out the game. The combined 4 pitchers held the opposition to 8 runs, giving us a 18-8 victory, sweeping the series, improving the team record to 7-4 heading into this week.
In the upcoming week, we Catamounts play University of Charleston JV on Wednesday, at Shenandoah University on Saturday, and CCAC-Boyce at home on Sunday. Check in next week for the results!
Thank you for tuning into this week's player diary! Please join in next week for updates on the team, as well as some exclusive team videos. Also, for more coverage follow the team's 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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Welcome back Catamount Faithful to this week's edition of the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary. For this week's edition, I am planning to describe what a #GameDayatGolden is like for a Potomac State baseball player. Before I do that, I wanted to show you this week's video for the player diary. I decided to have a little fun with the players and do some trivia to see if your Catamounts are smarter than 5th graders. Check it out!!
On a home gameday the first thing that must be done is eat a good breakfast to fuel you throughout the day. If the cafeteria is open, I usually eat an omelet and a bagel with some other sides. If it is a weekend series where we have to be at the field before the cafeteria opens, I eat the breakfast of champions of two sausage biscuits and either orange juice or coffee from McDonald's. Breakfast varies for each player, but typically I try to keep that consistent on gameday. If it is a day where we have class, we attend until a certain time before we are excused for classes. Personally, I like to get to the field nice and early to take my time getting ready.
Once arrived at the field, all the players fight for parking spots farthest away from the foul ball danger zone, so our cars do not get damaged. Following that, we head in and get all our laundry that teammate Tobias Holmelund, who works as a work-study job does for all of the players. Usually Coach Little either previously notifies us what uniform we are wearing, or he writes it on the whiteboard we have in our clubhouse. While getting dressed, we have the luxuries of being able to watch TV and access our phones due to the clubhouse having Wi-Fi. We are lucky to have this luxury and it would be possible without all the players before us paving the way and earning these perks for us. When each player is done getting dressed, we go out and get some extra work in or get mentally prepared until Coach tells all the hitters to go stretch. He lets us know by firing up the good ole pregame playlist. When "Walking in Memphis" starts blaring over the speakers at Golden Park, everyone knows that it is go time. Each song on our playlist is timed up so we know where we need to be at all times.
We begin getting prepared for the game by doing our regular stretching routine. Following that, the hitters separate into two groups with one group getting their arms loose and throwing while the other group heads to the tunnels to hit. After half of our BP time is over, we switch roles until the other team's turn to hit. While our opponents hit, we typically find some pitchers to hit fungo to the infielders and outfielders. This way we can get as many gameday reps leading up to game time is possible. About twenty minutes later we all convene into the home dugout and sit eagerly waiting for Coach Schafer to start out pregame in and out. We always take in and out before the away team when at home. As we are as patiently waiting in the dugout, when the time arrives coach asks one of the players "What time is it?" the player then answers with "Game time" and all of us sprint full speed to our positions as "Gimme Some Lovin" plays in the background. Once again, three songs, that are timed up to exactly ten minutes let us know how long we have left to finish in and out. When we finish in and out, that is when everyone's attention is necessary to study our opponent during their turn at in and out to learn as much as possible. With about 10 minutes until game time we do our routine of practicing our baserunning "starts" then have a short hitter's meeting before getting down to business.
Following the game(s), whether it is one or a doubleheader, each player is assigned a field duty. Following our post game discussion in right field, each player goes and attends to their duties before they may enter the clubhouse to change and leave. Once a player has gotten their field duties completed, they may go in the clubhouse. When in the clubhouse we all turn in our laundry and if it our group's turn, we argue over who is sweeping the clubhouse that day. Following that we exit the clubhouse and field and prepare to get ready to repeat everything again on the next gameday.
Now, to continue my "10 Questions With…" segment, this week I decided to do 10 questions with…Foster Conis. Foster is a freshman utility player on the team who pitches and plays outfield. He is from Ridgeley, WV, where he attended Frankfort High School.
What is your favorite food?
Lasagna
What player on the team can put down the most food?
Christian Reyes. Easily
If you could be any person for a day who would you pick?
Justin Verlander. He is living the life.
What is your favorite movie?
I got to go with Deadpool. It's hilarious
If you could play any sport other than baseball what would you pick?
Basketball
What is your favorite part about Keyser?
McDonald's and being close to home.
Who on the team is most likely to become a millionaire?
Other than myself, I have to go with Dylan Dunkley.
If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you pick?
Venice, Italy
What was your hardest transition from high school to college?
The work ethic that college requires and the seriousness.
What are you looking forward to for the rest of the season?
Being around the boys and battling our tails off each and every game.
That's all for this week's edition. If you have anything you would like to see in the diaries or learn more about, you can contact me through email (akb0019@mix.wvu.edu) or Twitter (@andrewberry_15). I would also encourage you to follow the team on social media. Please subscribe to our YouTube account @PotomacStateBaseball to be notified when Joel or I upload a video. Thank you for reading, and until next week, Go Catamounts!