February 14, 2009

Countdown to First Pitch: 6 days

Feb. 14, 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 pitcher Kevin Jacob.

Hello Yellow Jackets Fans,

Thanks for checking in, hope you are having a fantastic Valentine’s Day. Ours started off early in the morning, spending time with our true love – baseball. The freshmen got to the field extra early today to show off their groundskeeping skills by removing the tarp so we would be able to go about our practice. Practice started off with the normal run-stretch-throw with a slight drizzle, but it wasn’t enough to keep us off the field. After the hitters took some swings in the cage and worked on some defense, it was time for intrasquad.

Zach Von Tersch and I were today’s starting pitchers, and we would like to thank our strength coach Steve Tamborra for stretching muscles that we didn’t even know we had. Once Tersch and I became as flexible as Gumby, we got down to business. Even though it gets repetitive – seeing the same faces at the plate – we go at it like any other game. Cole Leonida got the best of me with a double off the centerfield fence, but I’m pretty sure Brandon Miller, my catcher, tipped him off. Regardless, he was stranded on second. Matt Skole, on the other hand, forgot to hold onto his bat and proceeded to launch it a good 100 feet – fortunately, it was foul. Once our pitch count was met, it was time to call for relief – Zach Brewster, Mark Pope, and Thomas Nichols came to the rescue.

After the game was over, it was time to go over to the basketball game against NC State, where we signed some autographs and made a halftime appearance. For those of you who came up to us and asked for an autograph, thank you! We really appreciate the support. If you happened to forget about the signing, don’t fear – just come out to a game and we’ll be there! Our two captains, Jason Haniger and Chris House, did a great job of addressing the crowd, and Thomas Nichols looked great in his fresh Oakely’s and arm sleeve. If you weren’t there, House mentioned that we’re ready to go to Omaha, and I thought I’d give you some reasons why he’s right.

Top 10 Reasons the Yellow Jackets are ready to go OMAHA.

10. Although Tony Plagman may look big and scary, he can actually hit the ball a long way.

9. Zach Brewster is now throwing to the catcher’s mitt instead of the backstop.

8. Manager Miles Costello said he’ll break dance if we make it to Omaha.

7. Zach Von Tersch said his mom will make the trip from Iowa and bring us fresh baked cookies.

6. With the generous donation from Mark Teixeira, we can finally bribe the umpires. (just kidding Mark!)

5. Andrew Robinson finally got over the departure of his hero Brad Rulon and is throwing dirty sliders.

4. Matt Simonds has been working on walking out of the dugout and not eating warning track. (If you can recall he took a nasty fall last year while retrieving a foul ball.)

3. We really want the food money and free stuff.

2. Better us than Georgia.

1. There’s a really good chance we’ll get an interview with Erin Andrews.

Hope you guys enjoy your Valentine’s Day, and don’t forget to come out to see us February 20th. Until then, What’s the good word?

–Kevin Jacob