Scenes From Columbia, SC: The Diary Of Paco Figueroa
June 8, 2002
There’s no tomorrow. That was the first thing that came into my mind this morning. If we lose today, there is no tomorrow. Somehow, I have a feeling that the team will rise to the occasion. Since the postseason began, I have sensed what many have talked about. UM somehow flips the postseason switch, and takes it to a whole new level. I look at our juniors and seniors, and I see them joking around. I look at our coaches, and they’re smiling. If any of them are nervous, they’re doing a great job of hiding it.
We’re starting our hitters meeting a little early today. We’ll meet at 10:30 am, immediately after breakfast. We’ll be reviewing last night’s game, as well as the report on the pitcher we’re facing tonight.
From there, we’ll be heading back to the room for a little while and we’ll be free to grab a bite to eat. I’ll probably go grab a sandwich with my sister. It’s great to have my family here on the trip. I mean, I’ve always had my brother travel with me. It helps when he’s your teammate. But it’s great to look into the stands and know that your family is there, watching you. You almost feel like your playing at home.
I’m heading out to breakfast now, and things will be a bit busy this afternoon. We’ll be leaving to the park at 4 pm. I’ll pick this up after the game.
It’s a whole new ballgame now, ladies and gentlemen. Once again, catcher Danny Matienzo came through with the big hit…a three run homerun. Dan Touchet pitched an incredible game. Knowing that we’ll need as many arms tomorrow as possible, Dan greatly impacted tomorrow’s game by pitching the majority of the innings tonight. If we had needed to go to our bullpen early today, and still won the game, we wouldn’t have as many fresh arms for tomorrow.
We’re one game away from shocking the baseball world. No one outside this team thought we would be in this situation. Some people might even say that we’ve just been lucky.
My thought on that is this. Someone once said that luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation. Judging from our postseason, a little luck tomorrow is probable.
Have a good evening.
