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 again Catamount fans, and thanks for checking in on this week's Potomac State Baseball player diary.
This past week our team had a pretty difficult time getting our scheduled games in. The weather just isn't seeming to let up, and just when we think all the snow is over, we get even more.
The past week, we were all excited to finally have our home opener at Golden Park. Unfortunately, we had to cancel it due to inclement weather. Fortunately, Coach Little had a good backup plan for us to get some games in.
Our games scheduled for that Wednesday against Garrett Community College at home were moved to this past Sunday to Glenville State.
Now, it's not like a normal college student spring break trip Mexico, but for us, finally getting to play baseball without having to travel 8+ hours is good enough.
We were very fortunate to be able to play at Glenville State. They have a practically brand-new facility that is beautiful to play at. Their facility is equipped with a fully artificial turf field, large indoor facility for hitting, and it's just an overall great collegiate facility.
After about 3 hours we finally arrived in Glenville, and the weather was beautiful. Sunny and in the 60s, just about perfect baseball weather. It was a perfect day to play a doubleheader.
The first game of the series was really a pitching dual. Colten Webb gave us another great start, going the distance throwing a complete game. In his outing, he recorded 12 strikeouts, and allowed only 3 hits and 1 earned run. One of the hits was a solo homerun for Garrett, giving them a 1-0 lead in the top of the sixth. This lead lasted the rest of the game, even though we threatened to score in both of the final two innings. It was a very tough loss to start the day. Our hitters were mixed up by curveballs and changeups, and just struggled to find ways on base and piece things together for a run. Hats off to Colten again though. That's a tough loss as a pitcher. Pitched a phenomenal game, but just couldn't get offensive support earning him a loss.
Moral was low, but after a postgame speech from Coach Little, we were ready to turn things around and get after it, trying to salvage the day.
For the second game, Brandon Schaeffer took the mound for us and kept us in the game through 4 2/3 innings. We jumped to a 2-0 lead early in the game. However, Garrett tied it us at 2-2 in the top of the 4th, and later took the lead 3-2 in the top of the 5th. Not giving in, we battled right back into the game. Highlighted by some clutch bunts, and a huge sacrifice fly by Tobias Holmelund, we scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th to take the lead back. To close things out, freshman Nathan Kerr toed the rubber and closed things out, picking up his first save. It was another great team effort to get the win. With 3 pitchers, and multiple swaps in the lineup, it really took the whole team to grind out this win to salvage the game, splitting the series 1-1, giving us an overall record of 4-2 heading into this weekend.
For this week's video, I handed my GoPro over to Dylan Dunkley, my go to camera guy to give you guys some first-person point of view of the weekend. He did a great job getting a lot of good footage, so check out this week's video below as well as on the Potomac State Baseball YouTube page!!
For this upcoming week, we're heading down south again to Myrtle Beach, SC!!! Coach Little really pulled through with this trip, giving us a little spring break trip after all. Down there we play one game on Wednesday against County College of Morris. And on Thursday we play Morris again and Cumberland County College right after before heading back to Keyser. It's going to be another great opportunity to place in some great weather in Myrtle Beach. All games are going to be played at the Ripken Experience Complex, which is one of the nicest facilities I have ever been to. For an update on how the team did, tune into next week's diary entry!
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 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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Welcome back Catamount Faithful to this week's edition of the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary. For this week's edition, I wanted to cover our spring break, how it came to be, and what is ahead of us.
This year, our spring break is unique compared to what I experienced last season. During my freshman year, we spent our week off in good ole Keyser, West Virginia and had the opportunity to host around 8-9 games at Golden Park. This year is a bit different. Initially, the plan was to host a series against Eastern Gateway Community College at home to begin break, travel to Patrick Henry Community College in Virginia for a midweek doubleheader, and finish break with another home series against St. Clair County Community College.
Due to our opening weekend trip to Louisburg, NC being canceled, Coach Little wanted to get another trip in our regular season schedule. After performing some magic, he was able to schedule us three games during the week in Myrtle Beach at the Ripken Experience complex. During the months of February and March, junior college teams travel from up north to get games in while their fields at home are typically still unable to be used or the weather is still too poor. This makes a great way to play against good teams and make sure the games are for sure going to be played. Even though the team was unhappy to have our opening weekend canceled, we were all ecstatic to learn we would get to travel to the beach over break. For a lot of us, traveling to the beach is a rare occurrence, unless you are sophomore outfielder Juwuan Weaver who grew up on a beach in Virginia Beach, VA. The rest of us only get to make one or two trips to a beach per year, and that is if we are lucky. Joel and I will make sure to document our time at the beach and it will more than likely be covered next week.
This past weekend, our field had still not recovered from the snowstorm we experienced on our way back from Dobson, NC. That caused us to have to cancel our home opener against Garrett and our first weekend series against Eastern Gateway. Luckily, coach Little was able to find us some games. He was able to reserve one of the handful of turf fields in the state of WV, in Glenville located on the campus of Glenville State College. Instead of playing Eastern Gateway we were able to play a doubleheader on Sunday against Garrett College. My diary mate, Joel Spishock, caught some great footage of the games on his personal GoPro camera. Make sure you check out his video he made covering the games from this past weekend!
When we stay in Keyser during break, it is very relaxing, and I bet a lot of the players would tell you they enjoy it. We are usually the only team in the dorms, as softball and lacrosse go on trips for the entirety of break. It is nice to not have to worry about school, each of us can commit all our free time to baseball and hanging out with our teammates the whole week. From experience, I can say that spending all the time together in the dorms, especially when we are the only ones, helps the team bond to great measures. Since we are on break, the cafeteria on campus is closed. Due to that, Coach Little takes us out to eat at restaurants around Keyser for Lunch and Dinner. The team always enjoys any meal that we don't have to eat in the cafeteria, and on top of it, Coach pays for each of the meals!
During our practices this week, we had our annual March Madness putting tournament with the hitters. It has been something that us sophomores look forward to each year. The tournament this year, much like last, did not disappoint. It has all kinds of thrills, clutch performances, and a breakthrough performance from one of our veteran players. Last year, I was lucky enough to make it to the championship where I lost to former player Tanner Lambert. I was hoping to avenge my defeat last year by making a return to the championship but was upset in the Final Four. For the second year in a row, I decided to make a video covering this tournament. Be sure to check it out and I hope you enjoy it!
Now, to continue my "10 Questions With…" segment, this week I decided to do 10 questions with…Brett Whiteman. Brett is a sophomore right handed pitcher on the team from Ridgeley, WV, where he attended Frankfort High School.
So, if I am correct, your dad played baseball at Potomac State College. Did him playing here have an influence on you coming to school here?
Not really. It is cool playing for the same team as him, but the main reason I attended Potomac State was the coaching staff.
What are you most excited about for our trip to Myrtle Beach?
Being able to play in good weather, and hopefully win some baseball games.
What is the toughest part about being a commuter student at PSC?
Finding something to do during my spare time between class and while waiting until practice.
Who is the messiest player on the team?
I plead the fifth.
If you could date any famous woman who would it be?
I got to go with Megan Fox. She is beautiful.
What is your favorite quote from one of the Potomac State coaches?
My favorite is when coach Little says, "Pitchers, you have no conditioning scheduled for today."
If you could be any animal, what would you pick?
I would be a tiger.
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Oreo is the best by far.
Who is the best professor at Potomac State?
Professor Stone. He is the coolest professor I have ever had.
What is your biggest goal for this season?
To play well this season so I can help the team make it to Grand Junction and I can achieve my goal of receiving a Division 1 offer.
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!