The Diary of Andrew Lane
June 15, 2003
The day began with the usual 9:30 wake-up call and 10:00 breakfast. We had chapel here in the hotel lobby at 11:00 am. Today, we will be leaving for a rotary club function held at one of the local golf courses. From what I’ve been told, this rotary club has been hosting Miami for a barbeque the last three times that we’ve been here.
There was a contest for the longest drive, and another for putting. Marcelo Albir won the contest for the longest drives among players. Josh Maxson, our SID, actually had a bit of a longer drive than Marcelo. Catcher Greg Dini had a classic moment. As he was driving the ball, the club slipped out of his hand and actually went a little farther than the ball.
During dinner, Coach Morris got up and said a few words to all of the players, family and friends in attendance. Then, someone decided to hand a microphone to Shawn Valdes-Fauli. For those of you who don’t know Shawn, it’s a dangerous thing. Not only did he have the microphone but he also had the camera that ESPN had lent to us to record behind the scene images of our time here in Omaha. So, in pure UM tradition, it was only appropriate to make a UM rookie get up and sing for the crowd. Catcher T.J. Hacker was the chosen one and he got up before the crowd and sang Happy Birthday to Matt Barket’s brother. Then it was time for Shawn to be Shawn. He picked up the microphone, and with the encouragement of the crowd, once again sang You Are So Beautiful to Coach Morris. If that doesn’t make ESPN, I don’t know what will.
From there, we went back to the hotel to change and get ready for practice. Practice was at 5:00 pm. The pitchers worked a bit on the side and our infielders took ground balls. The fun part of practice was watching our pitching coach J.D. Arteaga throw batting practice to some of the Miami support staff. One of our trainers Chad Hennessy actually hit quite well, with SID Josh Maxson showing us a bit of his athletic prowess. (Is that what we can call it Josh?)
We got back around 7:30 pm, after an entertaining ride back to the hotel. From there, some of us went for a quick bite to eat and called it an early night. With tomorrow’s game being at 1 pm, we’ll be getting up at 8:45 with breakfast at 9:15 am.
We’ll pick this up tomorrow.
June 14
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.
