Usually When the Sun Shines it is a Good Thing...

One could argue that senior Cardinal outfielder, Dan Scott, took the 8-7 loss to the Fighting Engineers of Rose-Hulman a bit harder than his teammates this afternoon. With two outs in the bottom of the 8th, Scott stood in left field and watched in disbelief as a ball off the bat of the Engineers' lead-off hitter cleared the right field fence, plating what became the game-winning run. Just seconds earlier Scott glided over into foul territory in effort to snatch what would have been the inning-ending fly ball. It simply was not meant to be. Scott, fighting a high sky and the glaring sun, pulled up short of where the ball eventually landed and put his hands up in a manner that suggested that the ball was swallowed by the sky...and the baseball gods reared their ugly heads. No amount of eye-black, not even the darkest of shades could have helped Danny.

Never in the four years that I have been a part of the Cardinal program have I, nor any player or coach to my knowledge, questioned the hustle, work ethic, or effort of Dan. Dan holds himself accountable for his performance on the field, in the classroom and on campus for that matter. Not once have I heard an excuse uttered from him...he is an upstanding young man. It just goes to show that the baseball gods do not discriminate...

And that is why the game of baseball is---as Coach Fitzgerald called it---"sadistic." You can do everything right...make all the plays, execute your plan, work your tail off, and yet sometimes you still find yourself on the losing end of the tilt. Sometimes the ball takes bounces your way and on other days...not so much. That is what makes baseball so great. That is what makes baseball so humbling.

Any way you look at it though this was a tough pill to swallow. After suffering the first loss of the season yesterday 9-1, the Cardinals didn't have to wait even 12 hours to find themselves back out on the field with a chance to redeem themselves. In game two, the Cards battled back from a 5-1 and 7-6 deficit at Art Nehf Field only to see their record fall to .500 on the young season to 2-2. Did we deserve to win either game? Probably not...we simply didn't play well enough (4 errors, 10 Ks at the plate, 8 left on, & 10 "freebies" in game 2 alone). We did, however, through all that, battle back and that is something to build on. Just maybe the sun will shine down on us tomorrow as we try to salvage one game of the three game set from Rose and head home with a better taste in our mouths.

***A Special Thank You***
Thank you to all of the parents and support that we have seen over the long weekend. It is truly appreciated by the players and coaching staff. A very special thank you to the Romanello, Crackel, Hecimovich, and McGrath families for supplying the sandwiches between the varsity and JV game today. Thank you.