The Left Lane with Andrew Lane Entry #1
April 12, 2006
The 2006 season is winding down and for some Hurricanes, especially senior pitcher Andrew Lane, his career at UM will be coming to a close soon, but hopefully not until late June. Lane will be chronicling Miami’s stretch run at the ACC Championship Tournament and the NCAA Tournament each week in “The Left Lane” as a special contribution to hurricanesports.com. This week he offers his thoughts on where this Hurricane team is and some of his memories of the Miami-Florida State rivalry.
It does not get bigger than this weekend for us. Not only is it Miami vs. FSU, it is a battle for a top spot in the ACC and the nation. FSU is ranked No. 2 in the coaches’ poll we are fighting to get back to near the top of the top 25. We have been working very hard this week in practice after two tough weeks against ACC foes North Carolina and Clemson, where we took one game out of six. We still find ourselves on top of the Coastal Division of the ACC, tied with North Carolina. Last week against North Carolina we took a big step forward offensively, scoring seven runs Friday against possible #1 pick Andrew Miller, as well as nine runs Saturday and seven runs Sunday. As part of the pitching staff, I can tell you we are excited to get back on the mound and show the skeptics that we are the great pitching staff we know we can be.
This is a huge week for our season and for our team. We are ready for the challenge against another great ACC team. However, one thing is for sure: When the ‘Noles meet the ‘Canes this weekend in Tallahassee it’s going to be some hard-nosed baseball. Do not feel bad if you cannot make it to Tallahassee this weekend, all the games will be on WVUM and Saturday and Sunday’s games will be on the FSN Florida and Sun Sports.
I grew up watching UM and FSU week was always big. I have a couple of memorable moments of Miami-FSU growing up. Neither were really marquis moments for UM, but they’re still memorable. The first is when I was 13 and I went to the game and one of my buddies put a banner up on the parking garage that said “J.D., put it here” for J.D. Drew. Pritch, the head of security at UM (and my pal now), chased down my buddy and made him take it down.
The other was when I was in high school. My friends were really getting on Seminole Chris Smith all weekend. In his last at bat of the series, in a Sunday game, he looked at my friend before he got to the plate and said, “This one is for you, kid.” Then he jacked one into the parking garage and tipped his cap and pointed at my friend on his way to home.
As I said, not the best moments in UM-FSU history, but they illustrate a main point about the series and the factor the crowd plays in it. When you hear people screaming at you, it gets you more pumped up. That’s the biggest thing about playing at FSU, the fans. I have a lot of friends from Killian HS who go up there and they get on me more than most of the other fans do.
Going from cheering as a fan to playing is something you have to experience to truly understand. Until you’re out there, or for me, on the mound, I didn’t get what it was all about. The energy from their fans and the energy from our fans is something you feed off of. When I pitched last year I felt like wherever I threw the ball it was going to be a strike and that I could do no wrong. You always get up for teams you play against, but this is different. The only comparably experience I had was striking out Carlos Delgado in an exhibition game.
Happy Easter and Happy Passover to everyone out there. We look forward to seeing you at the ‘Light when we return next week against Virginia.
