February 11, 2009

Countdown to First Pitch: 10 days

Feb. 10, 2009

ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech baseball team begins the 2009 season Friday, Feb. 20 when it opens a three-game series with Lipscomb. Every day, leading up to the first pitch, a different member of the 2009 squad will check in with their thoughts on the upcoming season. Today’s blog is by sophomore second baseman/pitcher Thomas Nichols.

Today was a great day for baseball at Russ Chandler Stadium and the Jackets took another step in the right direction for a successful season. The day began with the usual routine of stretching and running before we would join as a team in the infield and discuss important aspects of small ball with Coach Hall. He basically relayed the importance of knowing and understanding every situation before it takes place on the infield as well as the outfield. We worked on first and third situations as well as pickoffs for the pitchers.

Once we proved that we could somewhat (meaning things are never good enough at this level – we have to suck it up and keep plugging along) execute every situation thrown at us, Coach Hall decided it was time to throw some signs in there and get us familiar. This is when the you know that the season is drawing near and LOTS of fun is right around the corner. Once signs were introduced for the first time we broke up into our teams and ran a five inning intrasquad game.

Jed Bradley took the mound first and got off to a somewhat rocky start while pitching against a veteran lineup on the other team. After the first inning though, Jed returned back to his usual form and pitched like everybody knew he was capable of.

I feel like our pitching and hitting is definitely beginning to mesh together and look like a worthy contender for the ACC Championship. Once we get settled in and everybody knows their role and is 100% content with where they stand as far as the team is concerned, we will have great depth to the lineup simply because of the talent that is brought in every year.

Every position player understands that nothing is guaranteed as far as starting positions go, so I believe that creates the friendly competition that will always keep our program as a top contender. We look forward to a great season despite the many different rankings we have been assigned, and I hope to see everybody out there on the 20th of February at four o’clock.

Thanks for your time Jackets fans! OHHH yeah, and TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!