The Left Lane with Andrew Lane Entry #2
April 21, 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 last week’s series win at FSU, a preview of this weekend’s Virginia series and the general thoughts of a soon-to-be graduate.
Welcome back to the second week of “The Left Lane.” If Dan Touchet is out there reading this I must thank him for the name “Left Lane.” I thought since some people may be wondering where that name came from I would share the story. “Left Lane” started last year when we were ordering our gloves; I was getting bored of the typical “A. Lane #17” on my glove so I asked Dan to come up with a nickname. He thought about it that day and at the end of practice came up and said “Left Lane.” It fit perfect due to the fact that my last name is Lane and I am left-handed (sorry for stating the obvious); but there is more he said. He explained that when you’re driving the left lane is the fast lane, and as most of you know I do not throw in the mid 90s as my roommate on the road, Chris Perez does; so it kind of worked out as a joke as well as a good nickname. So since that day that is what is embroidered on my glove. Enough with that. How about last weekend?
For those of you who were living under a rock this past week, we took two huge games from second-ranked FSU in Tallahassee. There are not words to explain how much those games mean to us as a team. Anytime you can go on the road and win two out of three is great, but to do it to a top five team who is one of our biggest rivals is great. We played great as a team this weekend with young guys like Blake Tekotte and Scott Maine stepping up on Sunday and veterans like Jon Jay, Chris Perez, and Danny Valencia coming through on Friday. Although we fell asleep on Saturday we showed great poise and composure by coming back and winning the series on Sunday against a good FSU team that we may see later in the ACC Tournament or NCAA Tournament. Not only did we play well up in Tallahassee but we had a good time off the field. It was a good chance for local guys like me to hang out with friends who attend FSU; it was also a good chance to hang out with our brave fans that are forced to live in `Nole country. After Friday’s game it is a tradition that Lois Keer and the Diamond Darlings and Diamond Studs throw us a pizza party. It is a great way for us to meet some of our fans up there and hang out with the ones from Miami who made the trip. We had a good time and even got to sing my fellow senior Marcelo Albir “Happy Birthday.” However, as good as this past weekend was it means nothing if we do not continue on our path through another ACC foe, Virginia.
Virginia comes in here looking to avenge losing two out of three to us last year at their home field. They also come in tied for second place with us in the Coastal Division behind North Carolina. We have had a good week of practice and have been working hard getting ready to face one of the best pitching staffs and lineups in the ACC and the nation. We could, however, use some help from you, the fans. During my long time of being a UM fan and player the greatest thing was watching a team come in and know they could not beat us; although a lot of that is our reputation and players, a good percentage of it is our great fans who enjoy being loud and letting the other team know they are at “The Light.” So I invite all the fans to come out and join us this weekend in a tough series against the Cavaliers of UVA, and make sure you bring your loud voices.
So someone had asked me to talk a little bit about what the team and I are doing off the field as well, so I am going to give a little glimpse into our lives. Although the season is just getting to the good part, another semester is almost over, which most of us are happy about. So as we make sure we are working hard on the field all of us are working hard in the classroom to get our final papers and projects done, as well as prepare for our finals, which happen in two weeks. For me it means getting ready for graduation. On May 12, 2006 I will be graduating with Bachelors of Business Administration in Accounting with a minor in Sports Administration. I am really excited to have finally made it to this point; it is an exciting day for my family and me. To top it all off I was recently nominated to be both recognized at the business school’s graduation as well as be this year’s graduation speaker. I was nominated by the staff of Academic Services and I am truly honored to just be nominated. It feels like yesterday I was stepping foot on the field for the first time for the first meeting between Coach Morris and the new rookies.
I hope to see everyone out at “The Light” this weekend and for those of you who cannot make it, you can catch the games on 90.5 WVUM or on Game tracker at hurricanesports.com. Also Sunday’s game will be televised so be on the lookout for that. I appreciate any comments, suggestions, and/or questions you would like me to ask me for me to answer for next week. Go Canes!
Andrew Lane #17
