The Diary of Andrew Lane
June 16, 2003
Today is the big day. I woke up a little anxious this morning, knowing that we were facing elimination. The players are aware that the Hurricanes haven’t been eliminated 0-2 in the last 16 College World Series tournaments. We didn’t plan on breaking that streak.
The morning woke up with an early breakfast (9:30) and us departing from the hotel at 10:15. Things didn’t start too well for George Huguet (my roommate) and myself. Our clock was 10 minutes behind and we weren’t aware of it. As we were getting ready to leave the hotel, we noticed the bus leaving. We tried catching up to it, but didn’t quite make it. We had to catch a ride to the ballpark, and ended up arriving just as the bus did. Needless to say, I was a bit embarrassed and disappointed in myself. But, we had to shake it off. There was a game to be played.
The game got close to the end, but it was a great feeling to have that win under our belts. It did quite a bit to help our confidence. We can win in Omaha Nebraska. It was also good to see that Jim Burt got out of his slump in a big way. His homerun was a bomb, and we were all pumped for him. He’s one of our team leaders and it’s good to see him batting again. It can only help us.
Shawn came in and closed the door on SMS. After the game, Coach told us that he was proud of us, but that our journey was only beginning. We would have to take on the winner of the Texas/Rice game, and then beat that other team twice. It’s a tough road, but it can be done.
We got back to the hotel at 5:15 PM and I went for a run and a workout with pitcher Andrew Cohn. At about 6:00, we came back to the hotel and watched the Rice vs. Texas game on tv. The Rice pitcher looked very good, and we’re looking forward to facing Texas again. We made some mistakes the first time around and our guys are looking forward to showing them that we’ve come along way since that first meeting on Saturday.
At 9:15 pm, I went to dinner with Jim Burt, Gaby Sanchez, Alex Blanco, Erick San Pedro, Andrew Cohn, Richard Giannotti, Shawn Valdes-Fauli and Brandon Camerdese. Brandon will be getting the start tomorrow and we were all talking on how important it is to get out on top early.
Our curfew was set for midnight, so after sitting at the dinner table exchanging stories and having a good time, we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a night.
Before I end this evening’s diary entry, congratulations are in order for our shortstop Ryan Braun. Ryan was named the Baseball America Freshman of the Year. Congrats, Ryan…now let’s go get them Longhorns.
