The Highest of Highs...and the Lowest of Lows

(Written by Tyler Lobe, Sports Information Something at Sonoma State University)

Well, I didn't expect to be the only one contributing to this blog, so I apologize for the lack of posts during this trip to North Carolina.

Don't worry, I'll make up for it.

Well, where do I start? Between my last post (Friday) and now (1 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday)... Wow, okay, that's quite a while. This post goes out to you, Brad Byrne.

Again, I apologize. Being that it IS in the wee hours here in North Carolina, please forgive my scattered mind, especially after that heartbreak of a game a couple of hours earlier.

I'll start off with Saturday's uplifting clinic that the team ran for the Boys Club of Wake County here in Raleigh. About 30 boys, anywhere from age 5 to age 13, came running from all directions as soon as our team bus arrived in the parking lot. The Boys Club had been ravaged by a tornado just a few weeks prior and the roof was clearly under reconstruction. It seemed that having the Sonoma State baseball team there to lead the boys in a quick, two-hour clinic, it was a breath of fresh air for the Boys Club. As the morning went on, you could tell that everyone involved started enjoying themselves as everyone began feeling comfortable. Coach Goelz was handing out packs of baseball cards to the kids as they worked through different stations and he also handed out SSU t-shirts and free tickets to Sunday's game to the parents in attendance. By the end of the clinic, everyone had a smile on their faces and the kids' new favorite baseball team was the Sonoma State Seawolves.

It was then off to practice at the field, something the team hadn't done the day before because of the inclement weather (inclement is a nice way of putting it, you know if you read my previous blog). As a former baseball player, turned manager by my senior year of high school, to a Sports Information...Specialist, I wanted to put on the glove and roam the outfield during BP. Now, nothing against my fellow sports information colleagues, but most of them aren't the most athletic people around. Therefore, you could imagine the surprise on half of the players and coaches faces that I could actually catch a fly ball and look athletic doing so. Myself included since I hadn't taken fly balls in...who knows. What a blast, though, to just hang out amongst the guys that I hadn't really gotten to know until this week, even though I have covered them all season long.

Yada yada yada, practice finished, we did dinner, bed time, WAH-LAH (or how ever it's technically spelled), it's Sunday and we're about to snap Grand Valley State's 32-game win streak...but not before eight or nine heart attacks. I'm not sure how you all (or ya'll) felt at home watching it on the broadcast, but in person, it was 10x or 12x worse. Don't ask how I came up with the logic on that math (we're pushing 2 a.m. Eastern time right now).

O'Koyea's home run to tie the game up in the bottom of the ninth inning was a "no doubt about it" ball. The Grand Valley State SID (which is short for sports information director), immediately dropped his head and, of course, I had to bottle my emotions as there is a strict "no cheering" policy in the press box. Any press box for that matter. I knew from that point on, we were going to win this game. The Lakers wanted to take a lead in the 11th inning, putting runners in scoring position, but Bordagaray did his job to get out of the inning, allowing Alex Todd to hit his line drive single to right field in the bottom of the 11th, scoring "Flip" from second base. The SSU dugout erupted into a frenzy, along with the group of Seawolf fans in the stands, celebrating the fall of the No. 1 team in the nation. What an unbelievable feeling it was to be a part of something that great. The adrenaline was pumping, the team was in high spirits, and it was only one win.

(I might add that everyone working this tournament is surprised at the following by Sonoma State fans, making the cross country trip for this event. I'm not surprised one bit, however, we've had a great following all season long. Thanks to everyone who has, and is, supporting the guys.)

By the way, I extend a sincere apology to Alex Todd for initially writing that he won the game on a bloop single, when in fact it was a line drive to right field that got underneath the glove of the sliding right fielder. I'm not going to make excuses for myself, but I was worried about photographing the dugout's celebration and did not see the actual hit. My bad.

"Can I get a bloop single?!" as heard by Alex has he passed by me on the bus later that night.

Got it.

Anyway, we all got to sleep in on Monday and then was treated to a Durham Bulls game later in the evening.

(Side note: thanks to our Associate Athletic Director, Yvonne Burbank, for helping to set the food and entertainment up for the week. Huge kudos, especially when you gotta walk into a sandwich place and make 40 different sandwich orders, all with specific requests. The place eventually ran out of bread, but Subway saved the day.)

It was a great opportunity for the guys to go watch the Triple-A Bulls team (an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays) face the AAA affiliate for the Cleveland Indians. However, the temperature was in the 90's still and the humidity made it worse, forcing half of the team to leave early. The rest of us left in the eighth inning after the hometown team took a lead on a three-run home run that was hit at least 450 feet. Come to find out, the home run was hit off a guy that I faced in little league back in Washington State...small world.

So, after the win over the top team in the nation just a couple of days prior, coupled with an off day on Monday, the Seawolves were ready to face West Florida. BUT, before we could take it seriously, we had to celebrate the birthday of head coach John Goelz (and who would want to lose on the head coach's birthday?)...Yeah, the title of this post is now becoming clearer, right?

We had so many chances to keep West Florida from scoring and we had so many chances to take the lead. You could look at the double play that occurred just before O'Koyea hit the double, which was six inches from the top of the wall. In my opinion, it should have left the yard, but the humidity in the air on Tuesday night was so thick, I'm pretty sure that's what prevented the ball from going over the wall.

You could look at the six runners left on base in the final three innings, including the bases loaded situation with just one out in the top of the ninth and the No. 4 and 5 hitters at the plate.

You could look at other things too, but quite frankly, it's now 2:30 a.m. Eastern Time and this guy is exhausted. To make a long story short, as a spectator, the game of baseball -- and sports in general -- is so frustrating.

Coach Goelz was quoted in the post-game press conference as saying "If I could have that situation again, bases loaded with those two particular players up to bat, nine times out of ten, we would win that game. Those guys are hard working guys, reliable guys, I know they are disappointed. They are good situational hitters, but (West Florida's) pitchers did a great job."

Thomas Lee said it best in that same post-game press conference: "It was a tough loss, but we've bounced back before. We bounced back in the regional tournament after our loss (to Cal Poly Pomona) and we have to play one inning, one pitch at a time like we have all season."

HIGH: We snapped No. 1 Grand Valley State's 32-game win streak on Sunday,
LOW: Down 5-4 with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth and one out, we couldn't score anyone on Tuesday.

All within two days.

The beauty of sports.

Goelz finished Tuesday night's interviews by saying: "We are just excited to be here (at the CWS). We expect to play our best. Our players are going to play with a lot of enthusiasm and, win or lose, we are going to give it our best shot and I think our best shot is pretty good, so someone is going to have to beat us."

I would have to say that by watching this team, who was humiliated at the CCAA tournament a couple of a weeks ago, has a lot to prove...and they aren't done yet.

The best is yet to come.

Mother Nature in North Carolina is "No Joke"

(Written by Tyler Lobe, Sports Information Coordinator at Sonoma State University)

As I sit here in my hotel room in Cary, North Carolina, I stare out my window in awe of the heavy rains and numerous amount of lightning bolts in the area. And the weather changed with the blink of an eye... More on that later.

I have traveled a couple of times with a couple of different sports teams and this trip to the NCAA Division II World Series started out like any other. We arrived on campus early Thursday morning to load our bags and get on the bus to the airport. All seemed normal except that we knew that we would be chartering a plane from Oakland. No one really knew the extent of what that meant, myself included.

As we drove up to the KaiserAir Jet Center, adjacent to Oakland International Airport, the bus pulled right onto the tarmac and parked right next to the plane. The guys were excited and felt as if they were actually part of a Major League team. Once we parked next to the plane, the Sun Country Airline employees took our bags from underneath the bus and loaded them onto the plane. As we waited to board the plane, which was delayed because of weather problems in other parts of the country, the guys took the time to pose for pictures in front of the plane.

We boarded the Boeing 737, a plane with 150+seats, and it comfortably fit our travel party of 37. The coaching staff, our administrators and I sat in the first class seats while the team spread out in the back. Most played cards for the first half of the flight before everyone grabbed a row of seats to themselves to get some sleep. The flight was so laid back that the flight attendants actually sat down in the front of the plane and played cards with Coach Goelz and the rest of the staff. I think I'll stick to chartered flights for the rest of my life. Once spoiled, always spoiled, right?

After a quick 4-1/2 hour flight to Raleigh, we got off the plane and once again, our bus picked us up on the tarmac. The airline employees transferred all of our bags from underneath the plane and right onto our bus. We didn't have to touch our bags from the time we put them on the bus at Sonoma State until we pulled up to our hotel in Cary. After dinner, the team settled into the hotel to get some rest.

I was dreading Friday morning as the NCAA scheduled a mandatory coaches and administrators meeting at 8 a.m. Eastern time. Mind you, our bodies were still on west coast time, meaning we were technically up at 4 a.m. to get ready to go to this meeting. Once the meeting was completed, Coach Goelz, Yvonne Burbank and I returned to the hotel to hang out for another hour. We returned to the field with the team for practice where some of the seniors were handed a Sonoma State flag and was asked to raise it at the entrance to the USA Baseball National Training Complex. Each one of the eight teams participating in the tournament will have a flag flying at the entrance for the duration of the event.

However, just as we got to the field, we were informed that the practice schedule had been halted due to thunderstorms in the area. It would have been an hour or two at the earliest before we would be able to practice, but the weather got worse and we took off for lunch. While at lunch, the sky got very dark, the rain started to fall and the thunder and lightning began to strike. It seemed that the weather turned from nice to nasty in less than an hour.

I returned to my hotel and turned on the television. I stopped on one of the local channels and the local news has interrupted regular programming to breaking news updates on the weather. It was worse than we all thought. Thunderstorm warnings, hail warnings, flash flood warnings all went into effect and the weather system seemed to just stop right above the "Triangle", as the locals like to call the Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham area. (I know...I've learned this as I've been glued to the TV ever since I returned to my room.) Flights in and out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport have been suspended and all of the above warnings remain in effect until tomorrow morning.

Will we play baseball any time soon? Yeah, probably. The field that we are playing on this weekend is built for storms. The USA Baseball National Training Complex is a beautiful complex and the Town of Cary will do everything in their power to get these games in and on time. The forecast for the upcoming week is looking up, and by up, I mean the temperatures. It should get into the 90's and with the humidity, it will be something that the guys will have to get used to.

Nonetheless, the team is ready to play and expect to be flying home next Sunday with a national championship trophy in tow.