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Baseball Journal

Great update, Jesse.

We went 4-1 last week beating martins Ferry, St. Clairsville twice, and Weirton, WV.
Our loss was against Cambridge 9-8.
I'm happy with the games against St. C and Cambridge. Even though we lost to Cambridge it was a moral victory. Both of those teams made the regionals last year an have alot of returning players.

We are now 7-4 and have a tough week starting today.
 
On Monday we beat Buckeye Local.
Tuesday our game against Brooke, WV got cancelled due to a bomb threat at their school. they couldn't even travel.
Wednesday game against Buckeye rained out, but our field was ready and they refused to switch game to our field. Pussies...
Thursday no game.
Friday rained out vs. Harrison Central
Today we swept Union Local. Our sophomore pitcher threw a 3 hitter in game one. Our other sophomore pitcher threw a no hitter in the second game.

We are now 10-4.
 
Sounds like all is going GREAT, Mike!

We've had two practices so far with our 9 and 10 year olds. They look to be a decent team in the making. Unlike last year, there are only a couple of kids who do not grasp the concepts. :)
 
Been busy as hell! Between my season and Kody and Klay starting up, I might as well put a tent at the ballfields.
Saturday had Kody and Klay's team opening up in the Bronco division (11-12). Klay had a double and two singles. Kody hit a ground rule double to LC and two singles. Plus, he threw out a runner trying to steal second from behind the plate. The change in him in one year has been unreal. He's been in the weight room with the football team since February and man has it shown. He is just so much more confident now.

My high school season is going pretty well. We finished in the top 4 in the OVAC 5A class, nudging out Morgantown and Parkersburg South. Unfortunately, we lost to number 2 seed Edison on Saturday in the semifinals. They've beat us all 3 times we have played this year now. Fuggers got our number.
We did bounce back last night in a regular season matchup beating Wheeling Park who came in with a 19-3 record and were the number one seed in the OVAC playoffs in 5A.

We are now 13-6. Below are the highlights of last nights Park game. Watch the catch to end the game by our leftfielder!
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid836271994001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAT9mJtOk~,1r6oh4HDyOy0tBfcrkEZGTZpOBtMeTlx&bclid=1138334184001&bctid=2342046055001


Also, below are highlights from an earlier game that helped us get into the OVAC playoffs. We beat 13-2 Harrison Central 9-8 in a wild one.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid836271994001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAT9mJtOk~,1r6oh4HDyOy0tBfcrkEZGTZpOBtMeTlx&bclid=1138334184001&bctid=2319606172001

What I love most about this team is their work ethic. They come everyday ready to play. I also love the fact that at Catcher is a Junior, First is a junior, second is a sophomore, third is a sophomore, CF is a junior, and RF is a sophomore. My number one pitcher is also a sophomore. I'll only be losing my SS and LF. Although the SS is an unreal player is going to be so hard to replace.
 
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Wow, Mikey! Sounds like your loaded for next year. I give you and Jesse a lot of credit. The time that you give to your players and the coaching these kids are getting from you guys, are paying big dividends. Great work guys! Your dedicated to the sport and those boys maturing as players.
 
Glad to hear things are going well for you Mike, especially in the future! Maybe I don't want to do a DH now!!!

We won back to back league games against Gallia and Chillicothe in the last two days to improve to 9-4 on the season. I finally have my guys playing to their potential with a little more room for improvement. Realistically, we could finish 15-5 on the year which is a nice improvement on their 11-7 season last year with more talent than we have now. I had a kid quit who was a decent ball player due to an issue with the varsity coach. I have a kid out with an injury and won with 9 last night. It hasn't been easy, but we are getting it done.

There's a lot more going on than I can share off the field. Suffice it to say, I may have a shot at the varsity job much sooner than expected. We've lost the prestige we had within the community that my class and those behind me helped build. There's growing unrest with the status quo and I have big plans/ideas to change that and bring us back to the days of being a baseball school. If I get the varsity job, my goal is to stay for 15-20 years or more. We need stability and I want to be that guy. I love what I'm doing and it will only get better. Taking this JV job was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
 
Thanks guys...

Way to go Jesse. I can envision you being a "player's coach". I hope you get to acheive your ultimate goal of heading the program you were once part of.

I can tell you, although I'm at a consolidated school, it is still my home district and it is very rewarding. The current HS is still my old HS building and it is very much home. It's just different in colors and name. There is a sense of pride involved in having this job and I think that is biggest part of me doing this for so long. My last year will be 2019 when Klay graduates. That'll put me at 20 years at the helm. Then I'll let some other idiot deal with parents and board members. Lol
 
Good stuff all around Mike and Jesse. Your doing a great job out there Jesse from everything that Ive been hearing, the team parents seem very happy and that is a big plus. I honestly don't know how either of you guys have anytime to even wipe your ass, Im trying to help out with my kids and sometimes it gets very overwhelming.
 
cotty16 said:
You should see my lawn right now. I'm going to have to use a brush hog pretty soon.
Click to expand...

Yep. I'm embarrassed at how my place looks. I had games M, Tu, W, practice tonight, game tomorrow, DH at Athens Saturday and no energy on Sunday! And I have my kid by myself 3 nights a week. Got some serious work to get done!
 
On our way back from a split in Athens today. I had 10 kids and they had 17. They were 11-2 coming in to day with their losses coming against Parkersburg who we split with, and Parkersburg South who beat us twice. We played a great game in the first one, but fell 4-3. Had a 3-2 lead most of the game before they earned 2 runs with smart baseball and good execution. They were joking around about "giving us one" in between games and that pissed my kids off. Told them they couldn't give us anything that wasn't theirs, so go take it from them. We were up 9-0 after 2 and won 16-5 in 5. Take that "give us one" stuff and shove it!

We are 11-5 with 4 games coming up against teams we should beat. Winning with 10 kids and no pitching is tough, but we are doing it with solid D and hot bats. Pretty proud of them right now!
 
That is a proud dad moment Mike. I actually had a proud moment last nite also, my boy got to start last nite at the mound and did pretty well. He had 5 K's and allowed 1 run in 3 innings, granted he's no fireball but he threw strikes.
 
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Great stuff Mike! I still remember my first legit shot. He'll never forget that moment!!!

Glad to hear Austin is doing well Aaron. All it takes is strikes like Mike said. I'd kill for one kid that threw 80% strikes!!!
 
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