A week in the books

I'm always amazed at how fast the season goes once it starts.  We're a week into the year today and we've got 4 games in the books already.  Our opening series with East Georgia was solid.  We took our time in the season opener offensively, but we were able to really pour it on late to turn a good ballgame into a lopsided 12-6 win.  Dustin Averett made alot of noise in his first collegiate game, hitting the ball all over - and out of - the ballpark.  Mike O'Neal also started with a bang, tossing 6 2/3 innings and dominating despite a few defensive mistakes behind him. 

Game two, the diet Pirates showed up...  At least in the batter's box.  Taking a look at the game film it was easy to see that a wide strikezone was problematic for us and contributed to our futility on offense, but our inability to adjust was really our downfall.  We took quite a few strikeouts looking, and though you could argue that many were not really in the zone, the umpire was consistent in calling them in the spot we were getting rung up in.  Zach Helewski made his debut, and he was adequate in his first outing.  I say adequate because he pitched well enough to win the game if we'd have given him some runs, but he really didn't throw as well as he is capable of.  He walked quite a few and never really got his stuff working the way he wanted.  Fortunately, you know you're going to have a winner when a guy keeps you in the ballgame even when he doesn't have his stuff working that day.  Everyone wins when they are sharp...  The best win when they have nothing to attack you with.

We woke up coming into the 3rd game of the weekend and blasted out 15 runs against only 5.  Trace McDaniel threw a good game in his debut, and just about every hitter we sent up there collected a couple of hits.  It was a good demonstration of what we're capable of when we get things going.  As a young team, we know there are going to be some hiccups along the way, but you really want to see your club show signs of their potential early, and that's what we did in the final game of the opening series.