The Diary of Andrew Lane

June 14, 2003

Ok, so the day didn’t go quite as I had hoped for and expected.

The morning started with a 9:30 am wakeup call with breakfast happening at 10:00 am. We ate for about 45 minutes and went back upstairs. Coach told us that the bus would be leaving at 2:00 pm for batting practice at Bellevue East High School and then for the game against Texas.

As we stepped out onto Rosenblatt field for the first game, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed. This is exactly how I thought it was supposed to be. I was told that our game had sold out by 2 pm. (They later announced that it was a College World Series record breaking crowd.)

The game didn’t go as expected. But, during the 8th inning, Coach Morris told me to go warm up in the bullpen. My adrenaline was pumping. This was the moment that I had been waiting for my entire life.

When I got the call to pitch in the 9th, I was a bit nervous but excited at the same time. As I was taking my warm-up pitches, I felt numb to everything around me. It’s a hard feeling to describe, but I could barely feel the ball leaving my hand. After I threw that first strike, the feeling came back to me in a rush and I settled down. When I got that last out, I walked off that mound feeling like I had met one of the largest goals I had ever placed upon myself…to pitch in the College World Series.

Although we didn’t win the game, we’re not done yet. We will face SMS on Monday at 1 pm. The winner advances to the Tuesday game, the loser goes home. There’s a lot on the line right now. The only thing we can control is how hard we will work in practice tomorrow. We’ve got to focus and get it done.