Feb. 7, 2007

Hello Green Wave fans, and welcome to another exciting season of Tulane Baseball! I'm honored to have been selected to fill the shoes of Billy Mohl (and Tommy Manzella before him) as team correspondent for TulaneGreenWave.com. Hopefully, I will be able to give all of you Green Wave fans out there an inside look at what is going on with the team on the field, on the buses, on campus and in the classrooms as we move through the 2007 season towards a national championship. Be sure to check back on the "Captain's Corner" regularly for updates throughout the year.

Well, it is finally here - opening week! It's amazing how the time flies by. It seems like just yesterday we were all getting back from summer ball, moving back into our houses and dorms, restocking the fridges and buying our books in preparation for the fall semester of 2006. There was the feeling of absence left by players who had moved on coupled with the anticipation of meeting the "new faces" that were to join us for this 2007 season and become part of a program on a mission.

There's something magical about this program and the way new players are able to seamlessly transition into it. I still remember my first days on campus and how welcomed I felt by the team. It's fun now being on the other end of that and getting to help the new guys get acquainted with the team and their new surroundings. The freshmen and transfers on this year's team meshed very well right from the start. As a team captain, it is comforting going into fall workouts not having to worry about any bad seeds becoming distractions to the team.

Fall workouts began almost immediately once classes started, and let me tell you Gavin Ozaki and the rest of the strength and conditioning staff had no mercy on us this fall. Workouts were intense and competitive, just the way they should be. The players of years past created a culture of hard work and dedication that still permeates the program today, and we take it upon ourselves to ensure that that mindset continues once we are gone. As the fall rolls on, you start to notice the improvements that players are making, and then get to see how those improvements translate on to the baseball diamond during Fall Practice.

This year's fall practice was as competitive as I've seen it since I joined the program. Everybody showed up to ballpark in the fall with the mindset of winning a starting job. There was no room for anybody to take a day off because there were so many different people building cases each day. That kind of competition makes for some intense and exciting intrasquads, as well as a tough job for Coach Jones when it comes time to write out a starting lineup. I'm glad that's not my decision, but I feel confident going into this year that whoever is on that lineup card will be there because he worked hard to earn the job and that he is ready to help this program reach the next level.

Last weekend was our first taste of action as we pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Tulane Alumni Squad. The Alumni Weekend is one of my favorite weekends of the year. Not only is it a sneak preview of this season's Tulane team, but it is also a chance to catch up with old teammates and to get to know the players who made the program what it is today. This program has a legacy that is hard to describe, and Alumni Weekend always serves as a reminder to me of how fortunate I am to have been a part of this program. It's a real honor to share the same field and wear the same jersey that guys like Jake Gautreau, Andy Cannizaro, Brandon Belanger and Nathan Southard wore. Alumni Weekend certainly does a good job of getting everyone excited about the upcoming season. Thank goodness opening day is less than one week away - I'm not sure if we could take the anticipation for much longer.

We open up with a three game series against Southeastern Louisiana this weekend. The series kicks of Friday night at Zephyr Stadium at 6:30 p.m. This series is different than most because we will travel to Hammond Saturday afternoon to play game two of the series before returning to Zephyr Field on Sunday for the finale. It has been a few years since we have played against the Lions so you can bet that both teams will come out hungry to set the tone for the series. There have been a lot of upsets around college baseball already this young season so we know that you can never take a series, a game, an at-bat or even a single pitch for granted. We are hard at work preparing for this series and we will be ready when Friday evening rolls around.

I hope to see all of you in the stands this weekend and throughout another great Tulane Baseball season. Thanks a lot for reading, and be sure to check back for future updates. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Roll Wave!
Matt