Welcome back Catamount fans and thank you for tuning into this week’s entry of the Potomac State Baseball player diary. This past week brought along the first games of the 2020 season played at your Catamounts’ home field, Golden Park.

The week at home however did not get off to the start that we had hoped for. On Wednesday we played host to Garret College and lost the matchup 10-9. We were bested on both sides of the ball both offensively and defensively. Our lineup posted only eight hits to their eleven, our defensive had one more error than the opposition, and we gave up nine base on balls to their seven. Although the outing was rough for your Catamounts, there were a few bright spots: Devon Neal found the time to blast another home run over the right field wall and Graham Brown also launched a home run down the left field line, the first of his collegiate career. Coach Schafer’s health also began to take a turn for the better and he was able to rejoin us as our regular third base coach. 

Following the loss on Wednesday the team gathered in the clubhouse at Golden Park for a team meeting on Thursday at 4:00pm. Our home opening loss was not sitting well at all within the program and as early in the year as it is, we still found ourselves at a crossroads of the season.

The coaching staff led us through a detailed discussion on how we can improve our on-field performance and right the ship for the rest of the season. Ultimately, we had to put the loss behind us and focus on preparation for the upcoming weekend of games against St. Clair Community College out of Port Huron, Michigan.

After the meeting we jumped out onto the field to begin our preparation. Coach Kowalo led us through a series of base running and bunting drills followed by playing out live game situations. We always enjoy getting out onto the field to get some work in, but everyone could feel a little bit of a rise in the practice’s intensity. We’ll continue to do a better job as a team of bringing our all to the field every day. Our practice on Friday was scheduled around that of St. Clair’s who was stopping by to open their season on their way down to the Ripken Experience at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and we found ourselves back in the player development center for the usual run through of hitting groups.

The original plan for the weekend was to play St. Clair in a three-game series with a double header on Saturday and a single nine inning game on Sunday. However, the plans were shifted due to weather concerns  and we ended up playing two single nine inning games over the weekend. The action on Saturday started with Jonathon Money toeing the rubber and he ended up working through four and two thirds innings and striking out six in route to his first win of the season and the team’s first home victory of the year. Devon Neal led the offensive attack again and drove in four and was followed by Preston Taylor who collected three RBI’s of his own.

On Sunday Coach Little elected to have Colton Matthews make his first pitching start of the year and he worked through five innings and earned his second win of the season and our second home victory. Trevor Thomas blasted his first collegiate home run over the left field wall as part of the seven Catamount hits on Sunday. Despite what the scoreboard said this past weekend the team is still searching for its offensive groove, but we look forward to the upcoming opportunities to step into the four by six-foot batter’s box and grinding out some quality at bats. We were still able to finish the weekend 2-0 and with spring break right around the corner we look forward to the plethora of upcoming games on our schedule.

The 2020 team gained a new member this past Friday as Coach Little introduced us to James Moffitt, (pictured) who will be helping the program out through a sort of team manager type of role. James has had a passion for sports all throughout his life but has been kept from playing due to physical limitations and significant health issues that have resulted in multiple surgeries throughout his young life. James finds himself here at Potomac State College pursuing a degree in Sports Management in hope of finding a career as a high school coach or a college scout. James tells me though that he will be happy to work in any position within the field of athletics. James is one of five siblings and is from Hedgesville, WV where he graduated from Hedgesville High School in 2019. We are thrilled to have James be a part of our program as he emulates the exact type of mental toughness us players strive to have on the field. And don’t mess with Jimmy because he has told me that he earned a black belt in Taekwondo.

This past week also brought with it the series premier of Dave on FX Networks. Dave is a comedy that tells the story of Dave Burd aka Lil Dicky and his rise from being a YouTube star to becoming a prominent figure in the “Rap Game.” Some of the baseball players on the team have taken a particular liking to the new program because of the striking similarities in appearance that one of our pitchers, Ben Bartilson, has with Dave Burd. Ben is a pitching transfer from the University of Charleston (WV) that majors in throwing sidearm with some Business Administration on the side. He and a number of other players, including myself, look forward to following the new television series.  In case you couldn’t tell Ben is the one pictured indoors with the fake gold chain. This photograph was also of course captured before Ben’s participation in the program’s mandatory “Monday Shave Days.”

With the exception of a few commuters, most of the baseball players here at Potomac State live in the dorm known as University Place (UP). UP has four floors, three that are above ground and then another on ground level known as “The Ground Floor.” The ground floor has numerous advantages over the many other floors in UP. Most notably the laundry room and the vending machines are all on the ground floor and residence on the ground floor calls for minimal use of the elevators, which allows the beneficiaries to avoid the heavy elevator traffic. The ground floor also simply has a lot less people living on it than the other floors in the dormitory. My roommate, Brandon Schaeffer, and I recognized these advantages during our freshmen years last year and signed up to live on the ground floor this year. Since being back on campus for our sophomore years we have indulged in the aforementioned advantages, but the ground floor offers many other benefits that we like to refer to as “Residential Freedoms.” Other baseball players that call the ground floor home include Justin Stone, Jake Ours, Dylan Dunkley, and Christian Reyes. The lack of dormitory neighbors allows us to host our beloved poker nights and even get some safe, noncontact layup lines going in the hallway using our doorway Skillz hoop. Recently, the seeming seasonal change of weather has inspired us to decorate the tree right outside the window of our room with a bird feeder. We hope to be able to share some photos of birds that stop by to visit us as the year progresses.

Thank you for tuning into another week of the Potomac State Baseball player diary! Check it out again next week as we have a busy week of six games by way of three double headers. We hope to soon get our heads back up above the water with a winning record.