Feb. 11, 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 junior right-handed pitcher Zach Von Tersch
Hello Yellow Jacket fans,
With the season fast approaching, I hope all of you are as excited as we are.
We had a solid practice today of stretching, batting practice, and a short intrasquad game. And although there was a little rain early on in the practice, nothing could dampen our spirits. In particular during batting practice, Matt Simonds made quite the catch before slamming into the wall in deep left center, and Mark Pope showed great hustle chasing down all of the wind-aided homeruns and throwing them back onto the field.
During batting practice, you will see a lot of us pitchers just standing out in the outfield, clustered together near the warning track, sometimes chasing after a ball. While it may sound boring…..well you’re right, it is. But we have fun with it. Today, one pitcher, looking off in the distance, asked “could I throw it harder than those clouds are moving?”, and another pitcher made a comment later on how all this standing we are doing is really going to pay off when he makes his next trip to an amusement park. Things like that make something like batting practice a little less boring for a pitcher.
Once we started the intrasquad game, a few plays stood out: Jeff Rowland made a nice diving catch. Brandon Miller took a throw to the helmet while stealing 2nd and then proceeded to score. Connor Winn hit a homerun while Tony Plagman, the veteran that he is, flew out just in front of the wall in right field, knowing to save all his homeruns for the season.
With only 9 more days and 7 practices until our first game, my teammates and I are pumped. Thanks for checking in, and we hope to see you all at Russ Chandler Stadium on the 20th!
As a side note, if any of our readers out there are attending this weekend’s men’s basketball game against NC State, we’ll see you there! Our entire team will be signing autographs and handing out posters on the concourse prior to the game – stop by to see us so that we aren’t bored!
I guess that’s it for today – don’t forget to check back in tomorrow to see what freshman Jake Davies has to say!
Go Jackets!
Past Blogs/Q&A’s:
Countdown to First Pitch: 10 days – blog by Thomas Nichols
Countdown to First Pitch: 11 days – Q&A by Tony Plagman
Countdown to First Pitch: 12 days – blog by Connor Winn
Countdown to First Pitch: 13 days – blog by Mark Pope
Countdown to First Pitch: 14 days – Q&A by Jeff Rowland
Countdown to First Pitch: 15 days – blog by Matt Simonds
Countdown to First Pitch: 16 days – blog by Jay Dantzler
Countdown to First Pitch: 17 days – blog by Chris House
Countdown to First Pitch: 18 days – Q&A by Jason Haniger
Countdown to First Pitch: 19 days – blog by Derek Dietrich
