Welcome back Catamount fans and thank you for tuning into what I presume will be the final entry of the 2020 Potomac State Baseball player diary. I am sure you guys don’t need me to tell you how crazy this past week has been not only back in Keyser, but all across the country. This past week also brought with it what turned out to be the final road trip of our season at Glenville State College on Wednesday. Before we made the trip though we obviously were putting in some work to prepare for our upcoming games.
After we completed our two-game sweep of St. Clair County Community College on Sunday we had our usual post game meeting with our coaching staff in right field as John Denver sang out “Country Roads” over the speakers at Golden Park. Coach Little informed us that with the lovely weather that was forecasted to arrive on Monday we would be switching up our usual weekly routine and have BP Monday and then take our off day on Tuesday. The weather outside on Monday was as nice as called for and it allowed for a great on field batting practice.
I’m not sure what it’s been with your Catamounts and health issues lately, but our off day on Tuesday put another one of your Cats in the hospital as one of our pitchers, Jonathan Money, was admitted for a mild heath complication. The issue was not too serious, and Jonathan was thankfully swiftly released from the hospital. Our off day on Tuesday also switched up Coffee Monday and turned it into Coffee Tuesday. Devon Neal, Trevor Thomas, Brandon Schaeffer, and I rolled over to QPC for our weekly caffeine fix. After coffee some of the boys set out on another fishing trip. Brandon Schaeffer, Dylan Dunkley, Colton Matthews, Tobin Cain, Easton Petit, and Bryce Turner went back up to Barnum to try and hook some trout.
Dylan Dunkley continued his crusade of displaying superb fisherman skills. I heard that Dunks proceeded to fall into the creek not once, but two times and he also sadly lost two trout while trying to reel them in. After a couple hours Dunks eventually reeled one in along with Brandon, Tobin, and Easton. Brandon and Easton actually seem to be good fisherman and reeled in several throughout the day.
Gameday finally arrived on Wednesday and we boarded the bus to head further into the wild and wonderful state of West Virginia around 8:30am. The drive was just a little under three hours and we arrived at Sue Morris Sports Complex at about 11:30am. We took on field batting practice and infield-outfield to get ready for the double header starting at 1:00pm. In the first game Ashton Staubs went 6.2 innings and secured the win with the help of Ben Bartilson who came in during the bottom of the seventh to earn the save. Caleb Taylor led the offensive effort by blasting a three-run home run over the left field wall that landed in the parking lot. This was a significant moment for “Gibby” not just because it was his first collegiate home run, but it finally ended the nagging that he was receiving from Trevor Thomas who was kept friendly reminding Caleb that Trevor had more bombs on the season than him. It was of course all in good fun between the two teammates. In the second game Austin Cross threw a complete game shutout and Foster Conis returned from his time on the injured list and went 2-3 with 3 RBIs on the day. We finished the day 2-0 and finally got our record back to .500.
After debriefing with the coaching staff in the outfield we boarded the bus again and headed back to Keyser. About one hour into the ride we pulled off interstate 79 and stopped for some grub at Applebee’s in Clarksburg. It was around this time that the team started hearing news of the impacts that the Corona Virus was having on the sports world. We didn’t make too much of it then because our minds were focused on the Applebee’s 2 for $25 and we all filed into the restaurant. The 2 for $25 certainly was the hot dinner topic as a bunch of Catamounts teamed up to order the special including (K)evan and Haydon, Chops and Zack, and Staubs, and Cross. I only know that these guys teamed up for the dinner special because they were all surrounding me, and I was left to fend for myself. I was forced to order the 4 for $15 appetizer sampler.
After we all finished our meals, we got onto the bus one more time and made the final trek toward Keyser. Trevor brought along Stepbrothers for the movie entertainment during the trip home. Stepbrothers is by far the team’s favorite movie, but we did find out that the coaching staff does not share our same passion for that specific take on comedy. I can only imagine how many bus movies that Coach Little has seen in his career, but it would be safe to say that this will be the only appearance of Stepbrothers, as Trevor was just barely able to salvage the DVD before it was sent to the dumpster. After the movie we arrived back in Keyser around midnight. Before we exited the bus, Coach Little told us to plan on practice at 4:00pm on Thursday to go over our first and third offensive packages.
As we began to arrive for practice on Thursday Coach Little received word that in response to the spreading Corona Virus that West Virginia University has suspended all athletics until March 22nd. As we are a branch campus of WVU we had to comply with the university’s decision. Rather than practice we had a team meeting, and Coach Little went over our future plans. The suspension of athletic play canceled our games scheduled for spring break, so we headed home to wait out the suspension and prepare to hopefully resume the season. Then on Monday the NJCAA announced that spring competition for the remainder of the academic year has been canceled. Coach Little relayed the message to us over text message and directed us to stay in touch for our future plans. This of course is an unprecedented time for everyone and puts us JUCO players in a very unique situation. The future for us is unclear, but we’ll all get through these times together.
We as an entire program are extremely disappointed with the abrupt ending to our season, but we all hope to get back as soon as we can and start putting in some more work. I will miss my brothers and the grind that we all take for granted. We will carry on; it just feels so strange not to be heading to Golden Park daily to play the game we all love. I also think that it is important for us all not to be too critical of the preventative actions that have been taken throughout the entire country. I believe we should be grateful for the governing bodies that make effort to act in our best interest.
Well I guess that is it for now Catamount fans. Thank you for tuning into the Potomac State Baseball player diary through the brief 2020 season. While my time with you has been short lived, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I had to share what life is like behind the scenes for a Potomac State Baseball player. Stay safe and healthy Catamount fans!