Thursday, May 15, 2008

TUSCULUM BASEBALL NOTEBOOK: AARON HUDGINS PLAYER BLOG NO. 1

TAMPA --- The following is the initial blog by Tusculum College junior shortstop Aaron Hudgins at the 2008 NCAA Division II South Regional in Tampa, Fla. Hudgins, a native of Kingsport, Tenn., went 3-for-4 in Thursday’s 8-7 win over Carson-Newman in TC’s NCAA opener.

Aaron Hudgins Blog No. 1 – May 15, 2008

9:30 a.m. --- Today I woke up around 9:30 and ate a late breakfast.

10:00 a.m. --- Came back to the (hotel) room to relax for a couple of hours before we left to take batting practice at “Yankee Town” the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

12:45 p.m. ---- We had to rush through batting practice today because we had a late departure from the hotel, but ended up watching a few pitches of a minor league summer camp game between the Yankees and Blue Jays.  It's weird to think some of those guys are the same age or younger than most us on our team. 

2:45 p.m. --- After arriving back to the tournament site, we went straight to stretching and throwing because we only had thirty minutes to get loose before infield and outfield box. 

4:00 p.m. (the game vs. Carson-Newman) --- What a great game today against Carson Newman. They got on us early with a 2-0 lead, but we never gave in to them. We battled back to tie the score at 3-3 in the fourth. I led off the inning with a single and advanced when Christian (Rosa) was hit by a pitch. I moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Carlos (Rivera).  With the bases loaded Maikol (Gonzalez) hit a line drive double to the right center field gap scoring myself and Christian, and Carlos advanced to third on the play.  Two batters later (Sean) Cotten drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to center field scoring Carlos.  I thought this was the turning point in the game, because it seemed like our bats were coming to life, and we also had our biggest lead of the day. 

Leading 7-4 going into the eighth I felt good about our chances but Carson Newman has never been a team to lie down and they didn't.  They took advantage of our mistakes to push three runs across in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game.  But one of our biggest leaders, Mat Galens came in and showed what he is made of shutting down the rally in the eighth, then came back in the ninth to stop another. 

In the bottom half of the ninth, Christian was hit yet again by a pitch and advanced to third on Carlos' single up the middle, and advanced to second on the throw.  With runners on second and third with one out the obvious decision was to walk Maikol to load the bases setting the stage for (Matt) Webb.  Webb then stepped up to the plate with a one and one count and ripped a fastball down the third baseline for the victory. 

7:00 p.m. --- After the game, we came back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.  We decided to go to a place called Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

8:30 p.m. --- After eating, we went back to the tournament site to see Catawba would fair against Florida Tech.  Trailing until the eighth inning, reigning SAC Player of the Year David Thomas stepped to the plate and hit a two run double to put the Indians ahead 5-4, and they hung on to that lead to advance and play us tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Although this will be the seventh time we have played Catawba this year, we don't plan on taking them lightly and I’m sure they will do the same.  It's going to be a battle.

10:30 p.m. --- We headed back to the hotel and it was time to finish the blog for Dom (Donnelly). Time to get some sleep.

- TC -