Welcome to the 2024 Potomac State Baseball player diary homepage. This season, Sophomores Ben McDougal (Bridgeport High School / Bridgeport, WV), and Kris Sutton (Cobb County High School / Calhoun, GA) will take the lead on the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary.
Hello Catamount fans and welcome back to this week’s edition of the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary! 10 days. 10 nights. That is how long we have until the team heads down to Sumter, SC to open our long-awaited season. With the season approaching as fast as it is, we really had to take advantage of the weather and hit the field hard this week. We were on the field almost every day this week and there was no better feeling. Most of our practice time was used to hit on the field in a fashion we like to call 3 Group BP. The way we set this up is truly all in the name. The hitters are split into three groups with a group hitting on the field, a group hitting in the cage, and a group that takes the field. Our batting practice is set up this way to ensure that hitters get the most reps as possible for the day. All this is taking place while the pitchers are strung along the outfield to make sure none of the balls are lost. Also, to give credit where credit is due, none of our field time would happen at all without Coach Little devoting countless hours into making sure our field is in tip-top shape. Between the mowing, raking and constant imrovements- Golden Park is as fine a field in the region.
Next, this week a talent show was held on campus called Keyser’s Got Talent. People from all over the area gathered to participate. The winner was awarded the $500 1st Place prize. Why was this significant to the baseball team you may be wondering? Only because we had one of our very own decide to participate in the talent show. Jaylon Sanders took the stage to sing Location by Khalid with all his teammates in attendance to cheer him on. He simply did not disappointed. The man has a serious stage presence. It’s a shame to say that he did not walk away with a prize, and we all think that the judges should have taken our bias into account. All jokes aside, everyone that participated in the show did a fantastic job and the judges did a great job in picking the winners.
We finished up the week with some intrasquad on the field that gave us our first game like experience at Golden Park for the spring. Any chance we get to play on our field is greatly appreciated, especially when our hitters get to face live pitching. The first day was a major success. Over the completed weekend, we got in 18 innings in with 13 guys throwing and I think it was definitely a great way to simulate game day at Golden. With questionable weather coming in, we tarped the field to optimize our chances of playing on Sunday and it worked out. The rain didn’t bother the field one bit, and before we knew it, we were back out on the field for day two of intrasquad. It was just as successful a day as the first.
As for the Day in the Life for this week, enter Andrew Sokol. The first thing to note about him is that we rarely call him Andrew. Always just Sokol. To make the Day in the Life part of the diary more exciting I asked Sokol a few questions so that you as the reader don’t only get to watch what his day looks like, but also who he is.
Sokol is from Rostraver, Pennsylvania where he lives in a household with his mom, Paula, his dad, Scott, and his two sisters Katie and Claire. Being from Pennsylvania, he is also an avid Pittsburgh sports fan. Sokol says that he came to Potomac State because it gave him the best opportunity to play baseball and that since coming here, he has built relationships with friends that he will remain close with forever. He is currently studying Sports Management and as for his future, he is juggling a few ideas around. His main goal right now is to find his next school for the rest of his collegiate career.