Stanley’s Stance No. 3

May 15, 2000

Journal Entry No. 3 May 15, 2000 – Charlotte, N.C.

Hello baseball fans! Let’s talk Tiger baseball. This past weekend the Tigers traveled to Virginia to take on the Cavaliers. The first game was a battle, which we won 9-7. Jarrod Schmidt was the winning pitcher, going five innings. Kevin Lynn pitched the next three before being relieved in the bottom of the ninth by Mike Proto and Nick Glaser.

The Cavs came ready to play in the second game, winning 11-0. The game was suspended on Saturday in the bottom of the sixth, and completed on Sunday. The weather took a turn for the worst late Saturday evening, as it was reported that a tornado had touched in the Charlottesville area.

The Tigers struck early in the third game of the series scoring 20 runs on 20 hits, all in the first five innings. The hitting attack was led by Casey Stone, who collected four hits and three hits, respectively. Schmidt, Jeff Baker, Mike Calitri, Ryan Riley, Brian Ellis, and Khalil Greene all collected two hits apiece. It was good to see our bats come back to life after being silenced in the second game of the series. The win went to Matt Additon.

We left Charlottesville Sunday evening at about 7:30, and arrived here at the Hilton in Charlotte at 12:30 that night. The team had Monday off, so a bunch of us decided to make a trip to Pineville Mall.

At about 4:30 Monday, Coach Leggett informed the team that we had been awarded a regional site for the NCAA Tournament. Being awarded a host site is a great accomplishment for the program, and hopefully will be the first step to reaching Omaha.

Tomorrow will be back to business as usual as we will practice at 1:50 at Knights Stadium. The field will be nothing new to the Tigers, as we played Miami in ’99 at Knights Stadium. We are actually the only ACC team to have previously played at the field in recent years. Our first game of the tournament will be on Wednesday at 5:00 against Virginia. I hope you all will make plans to attend or listen by radio or computer.

Injury and sickness update: Ryan Mottl appears to be recovering from his weekend cold, as does Steve Reba, and trainer Jeff Bodenhamer. Michael Johnson is still recovering from a broken bone in his hand, and hopes to be able to begin taking limited swings some time this week. I am still recovering from a hand injury that has been very nagging. Recovery is a slow process, but hopefully we all will be full strength for the stretch run.