Feb. 12, 2007

"A setback ain't nothing but a setup for a comeback" - Lorenzo Neal, San Diego Chargers

Well Wave Fans, it certainly wasn't the opening weekend I think we all anticipated. After bursting out of the gates Friday night with a 19-4 win, things seemed to be looking up for us as we made our way out to Hammond for the second game of the series. You have to hand it to the Lions, though. They shook off that loss and came out the next two days with a sense of resolve and took the series from us two games to one.

Its tough to couch a disappointing weekend like this in a positive way, but as I told the team following Sunday's loss - we can either accept responsibility for what happened and hold ourselves accountable to make sure that we are better prepared next weekend, or we can let doubt set in and start pointing fingers at the risk of setting our season back even further. I thought Lorenzo Neal's quote was appropriate after the disappointing weekend.

I believe we took the series loss personally, and I was happy to see the majority of the team at The Wilson Center today getting extra work in on their own. Monday is our only off day each week, so I was encouraged by the fact that most of the team took the initiative to get to the field and work on their game. College baseball today is too competitive to take very many days off - if you aren't out there getting better, you can bet someone else is. I am still as confident in this year's team as I was going into the weekend, and a big reason for that is the work ethic and dedication of our guys.

I've been around college baseball long enough to know that even the best teams lose games. The 2001 Tulane team that won 56 games and went to Omaha lost two out of three games to Saint Louis that season, and in 2005 we lost two out of three to Louisville late in the season. In 2004, Cal State Fullerton won the National Championship - 31 games into that season they were below .500. All of this really speaks to parity in college baseball today, and I believe that the teams that know how to bounce back from tough weekends are the ones who continue to be successful.

I overheard our sports psychologist and resident zen-master Lance Green talking about stoicism this weekend with some of the guys. I think this is a good opportunity for us to practice being stoic - you can't get too high on the good days or too low on the bad ones. We are going to get a lot of good reps in this week at practice with the mindset that we are committed to the things we need to do to win, and with the confidence that we are prepared to execute when it counts.

North Florida comes to town this weekend also hoping to bounce back from a rough start. You can bet they will bring their "A" game with them, so we need to be prepared for another hard fought series.

I hope to see everyone out their in the stands this weekend - and to everyone who came out to the games last weekend, thanks so much! We were all very impressed and honored with the turnout. Let's keep packing those seats and bring home a series win against the Ospreys!

Roll Wave,
Matt