Great first road trip for Diablos

As we head into the last day of our 7-day roadtrip, we have accumulated a 4-1 record and catapulated ourselves into second place in the division. We left Thursday night from El Paso and arrived in Shreveport, Louisiana a sluggish 13 hours later. The hotel was a good distance from anything worthwhile, which kept many of us away from the casinos. We picked up the victory in the series opener as Dane De La Rosa threw six strong and was virtually unhittable while topping out at 93 mph.

Shreveport's field is much improved since last year. The playing surface was outstanding as was the atmosphere. Fair Grounds Field provided a radar gun in left field, interesting fan promotions, and a huge beer garden in left field. It was a world better from last year.

We went to the outlets in Shreveport on Saturday afternoon and ate lunch at this bomb sushi parlor. The sushi was great as was the japansese food that I ordered. My roomate (Thompson) ordered this sushi roll that was on fire (literally). The weather was pretty bad for the majority of the day but cleared up before the start of the game. Mark Michael got the start for us and followed the suit of the outstanding string of outings by the starting pitching as he went 6 innings and gave up one run. From what I have seen, the Shreveport bats are the weakest of any team we have faced so far. The Shreveport bullpen had a guy closing that sat at 95 mph.

A bunch of the guys went to the casino on Saturday night but I shyed away from this idea as I was the scheduled starter for Sunday's 6:05 game. I felt good going into the game and with the humidity in Shreveport, my offspeed was on. I started the game by putting up blanks in the first two innings but ran into trouble in the third. I gave up two runs in the third but proved to be the only runs that I would give up in the six innings that I threw. It was my first win of the season and I tied my career-high of seven strikeouts. After the game, the team was presented with a full course dinner made by the Captains Booster Club. It had all the southern food you could imagine and capped off our series sweep quite nicely.

The bus trip from Shreveport to Pensacola was close to eight hours and we arrived in Pensacola at around 8 a.m. I do not sleep very well on the bus (never have really!) so I immediately layed down and slept until we had to get on the bus at 3:30. The win streak would continue on this night as Eddy Rodriguez paced a strong offensive attack with five RBIs and two homeruns. The victory was our fifth consecutive win.

In Pensacola, we were fortunate to have some things to do nearby the hotel such as a Cracker Barrell and a Ruby Tuesday. There is also a gas station nearby so if we need anything, we dont have to go far. In last nigh'ts game, we fell 5-4 on a homerun by the Pelicans in the bottom of the eighth. We scored early and jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead but a mixture of strong bullpen pitching and an agressive lineup lead to the score being tied 4-4 by the seventh inning.

We look to close out the road trip with a 5-1 record and two series victories today. It has been pouring rain here the entire day but it looks like we are going to be able to get this game in. Dane De La Rosa is scheduled to start for us tonight and will be making his second start of the road trip. Upon the completetion of the game, we will have probably an hour to get a shower, get our stuff together, eat dinner, and get on the bus before bussing back to El Paso for an approximate 21 hour drive.

And the season is underway...

The first series of the season is now in the past and although we lost three of four games to Sioux City, the team is excited about how everything has been going. The pitching has held its own and the defense has looked spectacular at times. The bats have been slow but its nothing out of the norm because we didn't face situational pitching until the opening day.

In the opener, we fell 4-1 in 10 innings. Josh Neitz cruised through six innings and limited the Explorers to just five hits and one earned run to pick up his first quality start of the year. Joe Klein relieved Neitz in the seventh and made the most of this professional debut as he held the Sioux City bats at bay for three innings. He was touched up in the ninth and gave way to Baron Short, who closed out the game. The highlight of the extra-inning game saw T.J. Johnson catch a deep fly ball in left field and missile home a throw Eddy Rodriguez just in time to tag out the Sioux City runner. The fans came flocking to Cohen just as expected as almost 8,000 came through the gates on Thursday night.

We then dropped the second game, 12-7. The game saw both teams combine to rack up 34 hits with 11 players notching two hit games. This was the hottest day I've seen since I have been out here and it was evident through the health issues in the stadium that night. One person had a stroke, another fainted, while one member of the team had to go to the hospital. I didn't realize how important it is to make sure you are hydrated and have plenty of food in you until this day. The air is so dry and the sun is so strong that when you actually realize you are dehydrated, it is often to late. It's funny because I don't really sweat all that much out here and its been atleast 90 degrees everyday so far. It's because the sweat beads actually evaporate before they come off your skin.

It was nice to pick up our first victory on Saturday night in front of a good sized crowd at Cohen. Kennard Bibbs and Jorge Alvarez each clubbed out three hits to lead us to a 6-5 victory. We jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, which would hold up for the first six innings. Sioux City plated two runs in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead but we would respond with two runs in the eighth to put the game away. Chris Thompson struck out the side in the ninth to pick us his first save of the year.

Going into tonight's game, our goal was to walk away with a split series. The pitching was good again but the bats were silent. I have to give credit where credit is due and Sioux City's pitching was impressive the entire series. The Explorer starters all made it deep into the game and put Sioux City in good position every game. The Explorer bats were surely lucky this series as hit after hit squeaked through the infield. As a pitcher, there is nothing more upsetting than making a quality pitch and having someone roll over on it and squib a ball through a gap. This happened quite often this series and although our pitching staff is not happy with it, the law of averages tell us that the luck will soon swing our way.

Butch gave us the day off tommorow. This is the first day off I've had since I flew in, a span of 16 days. We are going to have a bunch of people over to the pool tommorow for a cookout. After tommorow, we host Pensacola for a three-game series and then hit the road for seven days with three-game sets at both Shreeveport and Pensacola.

I've got the ball for Tuesday's series opener against Pensacola. It is going to be Military Night at Cohen and the crowd should good. These are nights where all military members at Ft. Bliss get in for free. We will be suiting up in our traditional Military Night camoflauge uniforms. Last season, Dad was here for the last Military Night game and ended up buying the jersey off my back. They plan on doing the same thing this season with Tuesday being the first of four Military Nights. The rotation will then start up again with Josh Neitz throwing on Wednesday morning for Kid's Day.

10 days :)

1400 miles from Mom

Well its Mother's Day and I made sure to give a call to my mother today to let her know how much she means to me. It's tough being 1400 miles away from her but as they often say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

It is nine days into spring training and I still have yet to see a drop of rain here. The weather is almost the exact same everyday with mid-90 temperatures, low humidity, and sunny skies. This was kind of the same way it was last May but I think I jinxed that last year because we had a slew of rain come down last June. Let's hope it doesnt happen like that this time!

The team is shaping out pretty well. The starting pitchers have all been extended so far with pitch counts being held somewhere around 75-80 pitches. The majority of the new guys had a chance to get an appearance in our lone scrimmage against EPCC with a few really throwing well. It looks like I am going to be taking an extended live BP outing against the hitters on Wednesday to gear up for my Sunday night start against Sioux City.

The community appearances have been very exciting so far. The other night the team had an appearance at The Ultimate Pizza Factory (much like a Chuckie Cheese). It was a fun night and we had a chance to be around many of the kids that will be out watching us this summer.

My roomate and I had also had an appearance the other day at Ft. Bliss to talk and play with a bunch of kids whos fathers had just been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. We played baseball with them and signed autograph after autograph. The kids could not have been more appreciative and it is times like these that let me realize how lucky I am to be playing ball and holding a positive influence in the lives of others.

Opening night is just three days away. The town is gearing up for another exciting season of Diablos baseball. Baseball fever is in the air!

Spring Training: Day 3

Well, it is three days into spring training and already many things have fallen into place. The infield looks pretty set with a quadruplet of players rich in talent. Roberto Mejia, who played five seasons in the show, will be at third base while Arnoldo Ponce, an LS-5 with experience, will lock down the left side of the infield at shortstop. El Paso's own, Hector Bernal, will anchor second base and Juan Camacho is the apparent heir to first base left by Wally Olmstead. The outfield looks to see my roomate, TJ Johnson, in left, Kennard Bibbs in center, and Adam Hale in right.

I would have to say the strongest part of this team is the infield. The group is made up of all Latins and really work well together. It's quite an amazing experience to watch these guys take infield. It takes some guys years to master working together with the same type of fluidity that these guys have. It is really satisfying as a pitcher to look behind you and see four guys you know you can trust.

The front four of the rotation appears to be set with Josh Neitz at No. 1, Nick Martin at No. 2, Mark Michael at No. 3, and me at No. 4. The fifth starter has not been named yet as there has been a bunch of guys throwing well so far. The staff has mixture of guys who throw hard (Robert Wooley, Chris Thompson, Joe Klein) and some finesse guys (Zach Piccola, Derrick Bennett, Alex Gett). This could be very beneficial to the team this year.

Tommorow, May 5, is our first exhibition game against El Paso Community College. May 5th is a big deal down here as it represents Cinco De Mayo. The turnout should be good for the game but may be hampered by this whole swine flu ordeal. Nick Martin will start on the bump but is only scheduled to throw a limited amount of innings.

Maryland to Texas

After a long day of traveling, I'm finnally back in El Paso.

All in all, I spent over 14 hours in the air and in four different airports yesterday. The turbulent day began with a 9:30 am flight from Salisbury to Philadelphia, which was delayed twice before the plane got off the ground at noon. Upon my arrival in Philly, I was welcomed with a cancellation of the next connector flight to Dayton, Ohio. The Philadelphia International Airport is a mess and I always have had one problem or another when I've been there. I was directed to the US Airways customer service desk and had my flight intinerary changed to Phoenix and then onto El Paso. The good news was that I only had to wait another hour before the plane took off. The bad news though was I had to wait standby because the flight was overbooked and that arrival was set for close to 6 p.m. PST, which meant that I was not going to be able to attend the Diablos annual meeting before spring training.

The five hour flight to Phoenix was extremely bumpy as many severe storm systems were in the midwest. Thankfully, it went by quickly because I sparked up conversation with a pair of Philadelphia sports fans in my section. When we landed in Phoenix, I was happy to see that the terminal to my final destination was only a short distance away. The flight to El Paso was pretty smooth and on arrival, it was definately a breath fresh air.

Spring training starts today. I'm really looking forward to getting back on the bump and playing at Cohen again. It looks like we are going to be moving around for the next two weeks as the playing surface at the stadium is undergoing some repairs. It was good to get some sleep last night but it may take a little time to adjust to the two hour change in MST.

Four weeks :)