Rutgers Fans,
I write to you guys this week on Monday, April 14th. Each week we are required by NCAA rules to have one day off and Monday is usually the day that we get to have off. On our off days, many of the kids use the day to catch up on schoolwork. This is also a day where many of the players have a bunch of classes too, so many of us are in the classroom the majority of the day. Mondays also are a day where we can get some extra work in on our own down on the field and in the batting cages to keep ourselves sharp. On Mondays, we usually take some time to get into the weight room and get in a lift to keep ourselves in shape and work on some conditioning. Afterwards, many of the players will head down to the field and take groundballs and fly balls as well as hit in the cages. We use this time to get in a lot of tee work and a lot of mechanic type hitting to just work on our swings and to keep ourselves sharp. This year, with the new uniform start date in college baseball, it has condensed the work on the field each school is allowed to put in. With Monday being our off day, it doesn’t give the team a chance to practice heading into games on Tuesday and Wednesday, so the time spent on our own working to get better helps greatly.
 Having won our first series of the season against a good West Virginia team gave the team new life and a little bit of confidence as we headed into a very important BIG EAST series out in South Bend against Notre Dame. However, there was the business of a midweek game against Monmouth before we could fly out to the Midwest. We arrived in Monmouth to a cold afternoon with the wind gusting in hard from centerfield. Early on, the Hawks took advantage of a bunch of walks and jumped out to a 4-0 lead. As we have all year, we battled back and tied the game at four after Jarred Jimenez hit a bases-loaded triple in the fifth inning. A run each in the sixth and seventh inning for Monmouth gave them a 6-4 lead heading into the ninth. We continued to play hard and put the tying run at third base with two outs in the ninth, but a strikeout ended the game and our hopes of a comeback victory. We had little time to dwell on this defeat looking at a huge BIG EAST series with Notre Dame.
We had very high hopes of going out to Notre Dame and winning the series. However, that is not what happened as we ended up getting swept and putting our record in the BIG EAST Conference at 2-7. We were right there however in game one as we used a Donny Callahan single to tie the game at five in the eighth inning of one of the best closers in the nation, Kyle Weiland. With the game knotted at five, the Irish pushed across two runs thanks to a run scoring single and an RBI groundout. Matt Giannini gave us a second consecutive great effort going six innings and giving up only four runs. There were not many highlights for us in games two or three, as Notre Dame took advantage of some mistakes and jumped all over us for two victories, each coming by a score of 11-2. In game two however, Dan Betteridge drove a line drive off of the head of Notre Dame pitcher Wade Korpi, knocking him to the ground where he laid motionless for about 10 minutes. This was one of the scariest moments that I have ever been a part of in sports, where a line drive moving at 100 mph hit a pitcher in the head. We were all very happy and relieved to hear that Wade was going to be ok and that all of the tests came back negative. It made me think back to practice early in the spring when Dennis Hill on our own team was hit with a line drive pitching to us in the batting cage and was not as lucky. Dennis suffered a fractured skull and is no doubt missed, as he would have definitely been a huge part of our team this season. Dennis has already started to resume some physical activity and will make a full recovery. We look forward to his return to the rotation next season.
We headed back to New Jersey hoping that midweek games against Columbia and Delaware would help right our ship and put us back on the winning side. Over in New York against Columbia, Dale Hering got his first collegiate start, and he made the most of it. Dale gave up one earned run over six innings and did more than enough to put us in a position to win the game. In a closely contested game all day, the score was tied at three heading into the 11th inning. Down to our last strike and the winning run 90 feet away at third base, Joey Ianiero put the ball in play and beat out an infield single to put us up 4-3. Donny Callahan would then drive the next pitch down the right field line for a triple and give us the cushion we would need as Jay Downey closed the door and gave us a 5-4 win. It was not a pretty game on our end, but it was a win and we will take it. Facing Delaware gave us a chance to get back home and play at Bainton Field. We know that, as a team, we have to play better at home, as our record there stood at 4-6 heading into our game with the Blue Hens. We feel as though we should not lose a game on our field, but so far that has not been the case with our team. Tony Wargo got the start, and after a rocky first inning, settled down and gave us seven strong innings to give us a chance to win. The pitching for the most part the entire season has been there, but as an offense, we have been very disappointed in ourselves. We have been very inconsistent in our approach and let too many games get away because we could not come away with that one timely hit we needed. This continued last Wednesday against Delaware, as we dropped a 5-3 decision. As has been the case each week though, we quickly turned our attention to a huge series down at Georgetown, one where we had the chance to put ourselves right back in the thick of things in the BIG EAST standings.
Game one saw us jump out to an early 3-0 lead thanks to home runs by Luis Feliz (his first of two on the day), Pat Biserta (the first of his career), and a grand slam by Jon Gossard. Luis has been a huge bright spot for us this season, having a career year with a .340 batting average. With Georgetown battling back and making the game 8-7 heading into the seventh inning, we erupted for 11 runs to put the game out of reach. Every player in the lineup got at least one hit and scored a run, and seven of our nine spots drove in at least one run, “Goose” drove in seven and Luis drove in six, as we ended up winning the game 22-10. We had to put this one behind us and get ready to try and win the series on Saturday. The game Saturday marked the day Steve Holt would get the start for the first time in two weeks. Steve had left early from the West Virginia game with a sore arm, but was able to come back and pitch on a 60-pitch limit. “Holty” did a great job with those 60 pitches giving us four strong innings giving up only one hit and one earned run. Kyle Bradley took over on the mound from there and Jarred and Jaren Matthews (hit his fifth home run of the season) each gave us three hits a piece as we took a 5-3 decision to win the series. With the series finale ahead of us, we really wanted to make a push to put ourselves back into the BIG EAST playoff picture and get the sweep. Jay was making his first career start, and he kept us in the ball game, going five innings and giving up four runs. Mike Lang got the first start in the outfield of his career and did a great job, getting two hits and scoring two runs out of the leadoff spot. “Goose” continued to swing the hot bat, driving in three more runs, putting his weekend total up to 10, as we gained a 9-8 win to sweep the Hoyas. With the sweep, we moved from last place in the league up to seventh and into the thick of the playoff picture.
This week we begin a seven-game home-stand with games against Fordham and Iona before a very important series with the Bulls of South Florida. I hope that you can come out to one of the games this weekend, as the weather is getting better, and cheer us on in this pivotal series. That’s all I have for this week, thanks for your continued support and Go Scarlet Knights!
Tom Edwards
Entry 3
Hello Scarlet Knight Fans,
A week after seeing our team drop all three games to St. John's in a weekend series, the morale of the team was one of frustration. We felt as though we had played well enough to win a game or two in the series and that we made critical mistakes in big spots of the game. This is something that so far has been the story for this team. We play well enough to win, but for stretches in games, but we commit some uncharacteristic mistakes that cost us games. This past week was a much better one for us as we cleaned up some of those miscues and took advantage of some good pitching and timely hitting to go 3-2 this week.
We started the week out with midweek games against Rider and Princeton. The Rider game featured a game in which Kyle Bradley got his first career start. "KB" is a big kid who throws the ball very well. He has become very confident in himself, and it showed in his start. He went six innings only giving up one earned run, and did a great job of giving the team a chance to win. Jaren Matthews continued to swing a hot bat as he went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs, and Jarred Jimenez delivered an RBI single in the eigth inning to give Jay Downey and our team a 4-3 victory. The Princeton game saw us lose a 1-0 game, where Tony Wargo gave us a great effort in his first career start as well. Tony went seven innings, striking out 11 and only giving up two runs. The only downfall in his start was the fact that he walked seven Tiger hitters. This is something he surely will clean up and I'm sure he will continue to give us great outings. Offensively, we had plenty of opportunities to tie and win the ball game, but just couldn't get that big hit we needed.
With a day to practice before our BIG EAST series with West Virginia, we used the time to sharpen up on our defense and work on our fundementals. Practices in season are a lot different than the ones in the fall and even in the preseason. "Moose" makes our practices very difficult and very fast, so that when the games come, we are very prepared because they are usually a lot easier than the practices. During practice, we spend a ton of time on our defense and on any situation that might come up in a game. Each day we work on our PFP's (Pitchers Fielding Practice), we take countless groundballs and fly balls in our "multiple" period, and then we get into all the situations of a game during our team defense period. After all of our defense is done, we get into our batting practice and our baserunning. However, we continue to work on defense as we turn double plays on every ground ball and the outfielders work very hard on getting good jumps and catching fly balls in a game-like situation. In season, we continue to do a lot of the same things, but the pace of practice is slowed down a bit to basically keep ourselves sharp during the season.
Coming into the series, we knew it was going to be a challenge. West Virginia was coming off a sweep of Pittsburgh and came in with a record of 19-4 and were in the midst of an 11-game winning streak. On top of that, they had not won at Rutgers since 1997, so we knew they would be coming in looking to beat us and end that losing streak. Game one started out very well for us, as we scored five runs in the first two innings (Jarens' bases clearing double was the big blow) and Casey Gaynor seemed to be on top of his game yet again. However, Casey felt some shoulder stiffness and had to come out of the game. Matt Patterson came in and battled his way through the tough West Virginia lineup and Kevin Lillis and Jason Downey followed with three scoreless innings to lead us to an 8-4 victory. In game two, we got an effort from Matt Giannini that we had all been waiting for. "G" is an extremely talented pitcher who can dominate the opposition at any given time. He came out Saturday and gave us seven plus strong innings, not giving up an earned run and striking out six. We hope that he can continue this in his next outing against Notre Dame. In a tough contested 2-0 game, the offense erupted in the seventh inning with six runs, with Jaren hitting his second bases clearing double in as many days. He also hit his fourth home run of the season earlier in the game. It was nice to get this game and win our first series of the season. It seems as though we are beginning to play some pretty good baseball and beginning to gain some confidence as this season continues. Game three was a back-and-forth affair which culminated in West Virginia avoiding a sweep, by taking a 8-7 decision in 10 innings. We wish that we could have hung on to get the sweep and get ourselves back to a .500 record in conference, but we will definitely take winning our first series of the season. Donny Callahan and Jaren each had big weekends. Donny was moved into the leadoff spot and did a tremendous job setting the table and giving our offense an opportunity to score runs. Jaren was rewarded as the BIG EAST Player of the Week for his effort, as he hit .412 with three doubles, a triple, and a home run while also driving in 10 runs. Jaren seems to be "locked-in" right now at the plate and is showing why he was taken by the Boston Red Sox in the 17th round of last June’s Major League Baseball Draft.
As a team, we are going to continue to play hard, and hopefully be able to gain some more momentum this week with a game down in West Long Branch against Monmouth. We are going to need to continue to do the little things needed to win games and hopefully go out to South Bend to face Notre Dame and win our second straight series. Notre Dame is a very big series for us each and every year. I don't know what it is with the Fighting Irish, but it seems that each year we really battle with them with some memorable games. They are always one of the top teams in the BIG EAST and we have had a long history with them. It is one of those series where the records can be thrown out the window because both teams are going to play their butts off trying to win the series. This year is no different, as we will be looking to go out there and win three ball games. We will go out and play hard and hopefully take care of business this weekend. That's all that I have for you guys this week. Continue to support us and continue to follow us as we hit the road this week for a big series. Until next time, Go Scarlet Knights!
Tom Edwards
Entry 2
Scarlet Knights Fans,
After dropping another series to a top-25 team in Texas A&M, the team was still very high and enthused after realizing that when we play well, we can play with any of the top teams in the country. However, we need to also put up some wins and continue to have confidence that we can not only play with the top teams, but that we can also beat these teams. We returned back to New Jersey and were looking forward to not only another home game to put the loss to Temple behind us, but also to gain some momentum heading into our spring break trip to Florida.
With the opportunity of coming back home and getting in a mid-week home game before our spring break trip, the team was looking to bounce back from losing our second straight series with a win against NJIT. After a slow start to the game, Dan Betteridge tied the game at two with his first career home run, propelling us to a 16-3 victory. It is always a nice to get games where everyone gets a chance to play, even if that includes putting our closer, Jay Downey in at first base to end the game. With us having a big lead, many players got to play, including Matt Meyerkopf who saw his first action in left-field and Mike Lang who got his first career at-bat. This game was definitely something that this team needed heading into our trip to Florida.
We boarded a plane and flew down into Orlando, Florida where we would have to bus into DeLand to Stetson University. Down in Stetson, we had a three game series with the Iowa Hawkeyes. As has been the trend with our team the entire season, we opened up the series with a win the first time all season that our team has won back-to-back games. In game one, Joey Ianiero came off the bench and delivered a hit, a walk, and the play of the day. With the bases loaded and two outs, and us holding an 8-6 lead, Joey dove up the middle to preserve the victory and give Jason Downey his second save of the season. Game two was a totally different scenario however, as we came out flat and put together a very lackadaisical performance and got beat 9-2. Looking to win our first series of our season, we came to the ballpark with a sense of urgency on Sunday. After a back and forth game the entire time, we surrendered eight runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and fell behind 16-8. With Coach Hill starting to bring in pinch hitters and give everyone a chance to play, we mounted a comeback. Meyerkopf would deliver two hits in his first two career at bats along with two RBIs, DJ Anderson would deliver a two run single, as would Jaren Matthews. With the score 16-14 and the bases still loaded, Joey Ianiero looked to be the hero again. This time however, he popped up to shallow right field and we dropped the game and the series 16-14. We drove on Monday to Boca Raton to continue our spring break trip with a game against Florida Atlantic. Jon McCue got the ball on the mound looking to win the game vs. the Owls for the first time in the past nine years. A very good offensive team in Florida Atlantic took advantage of some mistakes and pounded the ball en route to a 10-1 victory. This game brought about another first, however it is not a first that we hope continues, as Jon McCue received his first career loss after beginning his career with a record of 8-0. We hope that Jon bounces back in his next outing and begins a new winning streak.
Coach Hill has been talking to us all week about how some of the most successful teams in his tenure here at Rutgers have gotten off to some very slow starts and that he feels this year could be very similar to years past if we stay together and continue to play hard. Even last season when we won the league, we arrived back home from Florida with a record of 7-10. With BIG EAST play arriving with a three-game series with St. Johns (Preseason #1 in the BIG EAST), all of us have been getting very excited to come back home to Bainton Field and begin conference play. We know that all of our out of conference games against some of the best teams in the country were all to prepare ourselves for games in the BIG EAST. We didn’t, however, begin conference play in a way that we would want to, as we were swept at home by the Red Storm. We, as a team, feel as if we gave away the final two games of the series as we couldn’t get anything going offensively in game two and a few costly mistakes defensively gave St. Johns all it would need to take game three from us. One of the big positives is that as a team we still continue to play all nine innings and do not give up until that last out is recorded. There have been times where we could have packed it in and rolled over, but we continue to battle and try to win each and every game. “Moose” preaches that we need to play the entire game and we have learned that part and continue to do it every game.
This is a very frustrating time for our team to go through. After winning the first game of each series (excluding St. Johns), we have been unable to win a series. Winning series’ is what this is all about, and we are still awaiting our first series victory. We need to keep plugging and realize that we have faced very good teams all season and that there are still a ton of ballgames left on the schedule. To get back to the BIG EAST Tournament and give ourselves a chance of repeating as champions, we need to put these past two weeks behind us and focus on our upcoming games. After we all got the chance to head home for Easter and enjoy a day with our families relaxing, we continue our season and our nine-game home stand with games on Tuesday and Wednesday, along with a three game weekend series in the BIG EAST against West Virginia. I hope I get to see all of you fans out at one of the games this week, either in the stands or beyond the left-field fence barbequing. I look forward to hearing you all cheer for us at Bainton Field. Until next time, Go Scarlet Knights!
Tom Edwards
Entry 1
Rutgers Fans,
I write to you as I am on a plane returning to New Jersey from our trip to College Station, Texas where we played the Texas A&M Aggies, our third weekend series of the season so far. As is the case each year, Coach Hill creates one of the most challenging schedules in the country to prepare his teams for BIG EAST play, and this year is no exception, with the past three weekends sending us to #25 Old Dominion, #22 Georgia Tech, and #21 Texas A&M.
After a year in which we won the BIG EAST Regular-Season and Tournament Championships and also tied the school record for wins (42-21), we return a very young and inexperienced team. We lost six regular position players and our top pitcher last year to graduation and the Major League draft. However, we return the majority of our pitching staff and will benefit greatly from the return of 2006 ace, Steve Holt to the rotation. “Holty” missed all of the 2007 season as he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. Having a team with limited experience can be viewed as a negative but it has been nothing but positive for this team. We have a talented group of players who play with a great deal of toughness and enthusiasm.
It has seemed like an eternity since we were last on a field, dropping a 5-2 game to the eventual national champion Oregon State Beavers in the Charlottesville, Va. Regional a year ago. We had worked hard in the offseason, and all of us were ready to get back out there and begin playing again. Our first weekend series took us to Norfolk, Va. where we were set to open the season against the preseason #25 ranked Old Dominion Monarchs. We arrived in Norfolk to rain, which would continue for two days and postpone our opening day until Sunday, where we would play a double-header to open the season. Being stuck inside of a hotel and seeing all of the other teams around the country begin play was tough, but we kept our minds on playing baseball and stayed focused for the challenge that lied ahead for us. We split the double-header, winning 7-1 in game one and dropping game two, 8-5. Casey Gaynor threw a gem in game one as he gave up only three hits and one run in eight innings of work. For his effort, he was named the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week for the first time in his career, and it was a well deserved award.
After a brief week off, we got back on the road, this time we traveled down to Atlanta, Ga. to play the 22nd ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Not only do we get a chance to play a great team when we head down there each year, but it also gives us a chance to play in a state-of-the-art stadium in front of a big crowd and in a hostile environment. This trip was especially great for me, as my brother was able to make the trip and see me play college baseball for the first time in my career. He had seen me once before, but it was during my freshman year when I was in a limited pinch hitting role. To be able to hang out with him and go to dinner and catch up on some things over the course of the weekend was great. It is always good to see family on the road. In game one, freshman Jaren Matthews hit his first career home run, which propelled us to a 3-0 lead. After leading the entire game, we headed into the ninth inning up 6-2. A few miscues defensively and a couple of base hits allowed Georgia Tech to tie the game and send it into extra innings. This is a situation where a team can fold, but we battled until the very end and scored four runs in the top of the 11th inning to win 10-6. Sophomore outfielder Brett Garlick gave us the big hit by driving in two runs with a single to center, his first hit of the season. Casey, whose sister drove up all the way from Tampa to see him, gave us another strong outing in game two and Jaren hit his second home run in as many days, but it wasn’t enough as a late-inning rally gave Georgia Tech a 4-3 win. We dropped game three and lost the series, by losing 6-0 on Sunday in the series finale.
Being able to return home with a record of 2-3 and facing a mid-week game against Temple gave the team great confidence. On a cold and windy day, Jon McCue made his first start of the season after going 7-0 a year ago. As he always does, he threw strikes and gave us a chance to win the game. Up 5-2 and seemingly cruising heading in to the seventh inning, the wheels fell off. Temple scored seven runs in that inning, and despite loading the bases in the seventh and eighth innings, we could get no closer and dropped a 9-5 decision to the Owls. It was very disappointing to lose after being so excited to come home and play in front of family and friends. However we had little time to dwell on the loss as we had to turn around quickly and go to Texas and play the 21st ranked Aggies.
The facilities down in Texas were unbelievable. A two-tiered baseball stadium came along with big crowds and a great atmosphere to play in. We had a special fan greet us in College Station as Ron Bainton, for whom Bainton Field is named after thanks to his generous donation, made the 13-hour drive from his home in Nebraska to cheer on his beloved Scarlet Knights. We gave him something to cheer for on Friday, as we played very well in the opening game. Joey Ianiero recorded his first career hit, a double to right-center field, which would spark a rally and put us up 10-8 heading in to the eighth inning. That cushion was all reliever, and my roommate, Jay Downey would need, as he got the final five outs of the game, all strikeouts, to give us our third win of the season against a top 25 team. The offense didn’t show up in game two, as Casey got his second consecutive tough loss in a 2-1 game, in which we tallied only four hits over nine innings. Texas A&M came out and beat us up pretty good in game three, 12-3, to take the series from us. Jarred Jimenez hit his first career home run in the game, which easily cleared the fence in left field. Ryan Beard made his first career appearance for us, as he gave us a 1-2-3 eighth inning.
We are about to land back in New Jersey where it will be nice to get another home game and be able to bounce back on Wednesday against NJIT. Don’t forget to follow us down in Florida as we head to Deland this weekend to play Iowa (@ Stetson’s Field) and Boca Raton next Tuesday to play FAU. I look forward to seeing all of you out at Bainton Field Wednesday to cheer us on. Go Scarlet Knights!
Tom Edwards
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