Wednesday, May 14, 2008

TUSCULUM BASEBALL NOTEBOOK: PLAYER BLOG-DAY ONE

TAMPA --- While the Tusculum College baseball team is in Florida for this week’s NCAA Division II South Regional, selected players will be documenting their experiences for the Pioneer Baseball Notebook. The following is Tuesday’s Day One blog by senior first baseman Dustin Morrow. Morrow, a native of Lexington, Ky. is making his third trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Morrow and junior shortstop Aaron Hudgins (Kingsport, Tenn.) will be providing reports throughout this week’s tournament. Hudgins’ reports begin on Wednesday.

Dustin Morrow’s Day One Blog: Tuesday, Mary

4:15 A.M. - This morning we met at the stadium to board the bus and head to the airport in Knoxville.

6:00 A.M. - Arrived at the airport. Much to our surprise Delta changed their policies and we were only allowed one free piece of checked luggage. It took them almost an hour just to check us in. Of course my ticket was messed up because I was a last minute switch so I was the last one done.

7:00 A.M.- The line to get through security was extremely long and there were a couple of us who weren’t sure if we would make the flight or not. At approximately 7:20 Coach (Todd) Ireland, Coach (Doug) Jones, and I finally made it through security and had to book it to the plane. We were the last ones on board and no sooner then we set down we were in the air and headed to Atlanta.

8:00 A.M. – After about a 30 minute flight we touched down in Atlanta. Our connecting flight didn’t leave until 10 so I had a chance to get a much needed coffee.

10:00 A.M. - We boarded our flight with little problems this time and headed for our final destination, Tampa. The funny thing about this flight was that we taxied on the runway in Atlanta longer than it took us to fly from Knoxville to Atlanta. Most of us passed out before we even got in the air.

11:30 A.M. – Touch-down in sunny Tampa. We took the tram from the gate to get our baggage then waited for our rides to arrive. We piled our luggage and 30 people into two 15-passenger vans, one 12-passenger van, and a mini-van. After driving around for half an hour to go about three miles because the GPS froze up, we arrived at the restaurant for lunch. Luckily for us Coach (Mike) Corn was able to find us a Golden Corral to eat at so it felt like home.

2:00 P.M. - After a filling lunch we drove back to the hotel to catch-up on some much needed sleep. The beds in the rooms are extremely soft and the TV’s are HD flat screens. I slept for a good two hours before getting up to get ready for the

5:30 P.M. – We left to go to Tropicana Field to see the Tampa Bay Devil Rays take on the hated New York Yankees. The Rays are doing well this year and if they win tonight they’ll be in first place in the AL East. We ran into a lot of traffic going to the game but finally arrived at around 6:30.

7:00 P.M. – The tickets were in the upper level on the third baseline, but they were good seats. Some of the guys walked around and weaseled their way down towards the bullpens. I stayed in our section because I didn’t feel like walking around anymore.

We saw a great game as the Rays scored a run in the 5^th and held that lead until we left.

9:30 P.M. – We left the game after the 7^th inning and of course the Yankees would hit a home run to tie it up in the 9^th.

10:15 P.M. – We got back to the hotel in time to catch the end of the game and see the Rays win and take over first place. We got our pizzas and headed to the rooms.

12:00 A.M. – I had a lot on my mind so I was having trouble getting to sleep. I got a call from a high school offering me a head coaching position and teaching job. I have a tough decision to make but I decided to enjoy my time here and wait until I return to Greeneville to make a decision.

- TC -