May 10, 2010
On to the post season! We won the three games against Davenport needed to advance to the post season. The first game of Thursday’s doubleheader was a nail biter - all the way to the bottom of the seventh when Paul Hembekides hit a walk off single that scored two runs.
These wins will give us the opportunity to keep the 2010 season going. The team now heads to the NCCAA Midwest Regional at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana. Besides the Yellow Jackets and Grace, Indiana Wesleyan and Spring Arbor will also be participating.
Cedarville won this event last season, so we will be looking forward to defending our title!
One final cash out!
May 3, 2010
Everyone is off campus and it is only the baseball and track left. It is very interesting and fun to have no class and so much free time to mess around and play campus golf, go fishing, or watch a movie in our rooms. Although most of us just spend our time in our beds sleeping.
This week is very important for us because we need these three wins to advance to the post season. Davenport is a tough University and they will test our desire to win, and our focus on our pre-season goal.
April 26, 2010
The season is coming to an end, and the team is feeling the pressure. The past couple weeks have been very challenging for the team and we have had to try to "pick ourselves up by our bootstraps" and continue to work.
We have made some changes and as a team are trying to help each other figure out what is best for us to win. This past week was a forgettable one. We dropped four games to Point Park who had the worst record in the AMC. It is nothing to be proud of, but it became a turning point for our team.
We had a team meeting and we got to discuss what we needed to do to win and it really helped our team. Going forward, we have a new set of goals and are motivated to finish strong as we hit the stretch run.
On the positive side, this past weekend was the first games that we had our leader Dave "The Destroyer" Convertini back and he was pumped to be back. He had two home runs, two doubles and a couple RBI's. That’s a decent day at the park I would say.
After our first day there coach took us out to CiCi's pizza and some of the team watched Jordan "Kobiyashi" Chapman devour an entire pizza. The kid is a machine! He doesn't stop eating!
After that, everyone went back to the hotel to watch the Browns pick the players needed to win this years’ Super Bowl. We were arguing over the best quarterbacks in the draft and who would play well at the next level. Of course no one could out argue Paul "The Schwab" Hembekides because he is always right when it comes to sports.
On the way home we stopped at Moe's and picked up some large burritos. That of course was not the best idea considering the four and half hour bus ride we had home.
We will finish the season strong and we want to thank all the fans again for all your support.
Cashed out
April 19, 2010
Well we are in our home stretch! The season is coming to a close, but we are trying to maintain our focus and finish this year on a high note. Baseball is tough right now and it makes school even tougher. Your prayers are greatly appreciated.
I know all that our seniors are talking about is one week of classes then they graduate! It is weird to think about, but all they keep telling me is "It will be here sooner than you think." I don't want to grow up!
What a week we had. This past week we got to play on the Dayton Dragons Fifth Third Single A field. It was beautiful! Unfortunately we lost but the experience of playing on that field was great. Thanks to all that came out to the game and supported.
There is something true about the saying, "look good, feel good, play good," because being on that field makes you feel like you are the best player in the world, I don't know what it is but it is crazy!
At the beginning of the game the umpires where 30 minutes late, so the Jackets decided to put on a little entertainment for the fans. There was Paul and Dave and Nate doing their bat twirling routine, there was Wasem juggling, and then the rest of the team playing two-ball. The team really is a tight knit group and they are so much fun to be around.
P.S. Dave’s surgery went great and he should be on the field this weekend. Thanks for your prayers.
Cashed out.
April 12, 2010
This past week was an interesting one. We were faced with some adversity and some tough competition. On Tuesday we battled Ohio Northern and ended up on the losing end. We practiced hard and tried to bounce back to take a swing at our big rivals Malone.
Another road trip for the Jackets, this time to my home town, Canton, Ohio. I was pumped to go back to my home turf and whoop up on the Pioneers. Unfortunately, we lost 3 out of our 4 games. They were tough but we will see them again.
The road trip itself though was a blast. I was familiar with the roads and where we were supposed to be going, but our driver had no clue. Even with a GPS he was making wrong turns and going the wrong way all the time. He eventually had to stop and ask a SARTA driver for directions. It was bad!
O, yea, I forgot to mention that it was freezing on Friday at Thurman Munson Stadium. The weather was horrible and at some points during warm ups and the actual games it began to snow! Our sunshine state boy, Jordan Chapman, was scared of baseball in the snow I think.
My little sisters Kaleigh and McKala were at the game and they were cheering like crazy. My littlest sister thinks that every time to the plate Davenport is going to hit a home run, so she yells to everyone, "HIT A HOME RUN NATE!" Its adorable, she gets it from me!
At one point in the game I remember hearing a ton of laughter from behind the dug out and when I looked back I saw my dad and Mr. Price dancing together to the song "Down", my family is so weird! Thanks for all the support fans, it is greatly appreciated.
After the games we were treated to the delicious experience known as the Barn. It is a delicious place to eat out in Amish country. Mr. Stoltzfus was kind enough to take the team out for that wonderful meal. Thank you again, Mr. Stoltzfus.
Thanks again all of our fans, you guys are so supportive and fun. We will bring home that trophy for everyone.
Cashed Out!
P.S.- During our Saturday games Dave Convertini kept complaining about his stomach hurting, and having cramps! Turns out he had appendicitis and had to have his appendix removed. He is doing fine now but he will be out of commission for a couple weeks. Please keep him in your prayers. Thank you.
April 5, 2010
Happy Easter everyone! Hope everyone had a great holiday break.
Baseball is back underway and the Jackets have some tough match ups coming up. Tuesday Ohio Northern at home and then on the weekend, at Malone. We are ready and plan on coming away this week undefeated.
This past week was a very interesting one. With great pitching from Logan Kasabian aka (Tarzan) on Tuesday and a record-breaking performance from senior captain Clint Price, breaking our pitching coaches record of most appearances. We also had a home run derby against Urbana on Thursday. There was a total of 10 home runs hit in one day.
It was fun to watch Coach Shu back in action and getting his blood pressure rising while arguing some calls in this last week. He was filling in for Coach Rill. Thanks Coach Shu.
Practice last week was very interesting as well. We had to take off the tarp in the freezing cold weather and get our work in the sloppy muddy conditions. Some of us also had to pick up worms for Coach Manes’ fishing passion. Our field was littered with big night crawlers everywhere and we got to pick them up.
This past week was also April Fools. With as many clowns that our team has you would expect some kind of a prank on someone, but actually nothing happened. I was the only one that tried to pull one but it was on my father. I called him after the Thursday Urbana game and I told him that I hit my first career home run ever. He immediately called my bluff, but I persisted to make him believe but no luck. It was funny and good fun.
Beautiful weather and great fan support, what more could we ask for? Nothing! Hope to see everyone on Tuesday.
God Bless.....Cashed Out!!
March 29, 2010
Good week of baseball! And some fantastic stories from the long bus rides for our first big road games. Last Tuesday the Jackets took down Ohio Christian easily in two games, followed up by a great win over University of Indianapolis on Wednesday.
That game (at Indy) was the first big road trip that we have taken as a team. It was so much fun. The bus was beautiful with wireless internet, tv's and reclining seats. It was fun - Andrew York got some good footage of Dave Convertini tossing little paper balls into Dan Petke's open (fast asleep) mouth. Petke woke up with a paper mouth and very confused.
Two days later, we left for South Euclid, Ohio to face off against conference opponent Notre Dame. The bus ride was 3 ½ hours long and we were riding in a "seasoned" piece of tin if you will? We had to watch an instructional video much similar to what happens prior to the take off of a flight. We cracked jokes about the video for a while.
Arriving at Notre Dame was comical in itself, when our bus driver turned down a dead end road and drove all the way to the end and had to do a 16 point turn! We had to take batting practice in their very tiny gym, that literally had blood stains in the wood!
The field was 15 minutes away from the school right next to a public park. I quote from Dave Convertini, "The field has lights - it must be legit!" No, not really.....We arrived in 30 degree temperatures to a field that made us certainly appreciate our Yellow Jacket Field.
Unfortunately, we lost our first two games on Friday, but the positive was that the hotel that we stayed at was beautiful! Suite-style with a kitchenette and living room, fantastic! We got some pizza and watched some March Madness then went to bed.
The next day we were scheduled to have batting practice at 11:40 a.m., but when we got there the frost under the ground had defrosted and the field was a mess! Water was everywhere and the games were delayed almost two hours.
Some of us on our time off sat on the bus and watched movies, some played games, and others went down the street to visit the Softball and Polka music exhibit. We managed to come away with one victory from the weekend trip. We had a blast and we are looking forward to more trips and more wins.
Cashed Out
March 22, 2010
Well our first week of American Mideast Conference play is over. We won three out of four games and got to enjoy the beautiful weather. We had some exciting games including both of our team's Nates doing something fantastic.
Nate Wilson hit his first home run ever against Walsh and he made sure everybody knew about it. And Nate Davenport hit the walk-off single to beat Walsh in game four.
This week we have Ohio Christian, University of Indianapolis, and Notre Dame of Cleveland. It will be a busy week but we are looking forward to it.
Thank you fans for all your support, we saw a very large crowd in the stands this weekend and that is very nice and we appreciate that.
March 15, 2010
Well, the week back from Florida was a good one. We have worked very hard in preparing for our first league series against Walsh. The weather was very nice back here in Ohio, we got to get outside three days last week.
I can’t think of anything to say because all we did this past week is practice and get better. Please come out and support the baseball team this year. We will be fun to watch, and fun to be around.
P.S. Shot out to the men’s and women’s basketball teams for making their run in the NAIA national tournament. All the way to the Sweet 16!
Alright, we play Tuesday the 16th at the Athletes in Action Complex against Miami-Hamilton, hope to see ya'll there!
Por que se liena!!!!
March 8, 2010
Wow! What a Florida trip! I am writing to you today from my dorm room, thousands of miles away from the Sunshine State. We are coming back from the trip at a solid 7 wins and 3 losses. That is a great way to start our 2010 season.
The trip itself was a blast and we were all very sad to see it end so soon. We had a pretty good routine, breakfast and devotions in the morning, baseball all day ( with chewy bars and a Gatorade for lunch ), and eating like Kings for dinner! No pun intended! Coach served us well and we ate very well.
In the late evenings the team would relax in the hot tub and tell stories over and over, or talk about rotational hitting. One night when I was in charge of doing the laundry, I took some of the detergent out to the hot tub and dumped it in. It was awesome, we had 3 feet of bubbles and you would never guess that a bunch of 18-23 year old guys would have a blast playing with bubbles.
The van rides were so much fun. All three of our coaches were in charge of a van. Coach Manes led the way in the "Silver Bullet" and he got us everywhere faster than what the Garmin GPS said!
I was in Coach K’s van, and we had a blast talking about Graham and how he will be a cop one day in one of those little smart cars. He was radaring people with our baseball radar gun and having way too much fun. One day we did get to go to the beach and it was freezing but we still had fun. We played two ball, Freshwater found some washed-up jelly fish, and he almost got mauled by a bobcat! So much fun!
After a walk-off home run against John Carroll by Nate Davenport, we got a chance to hear Ben Zobrist, from the Tampa Bay Rays, tell us about his faith in Jesus Christ and how it has helped him in baseball. He is a fantastic baseball player but an even greater person. Meeting him was so inspirational and motivating.
Overall the trip was great, we had fantastic weather, great food, great bonding, and we played well! Also to note Derek Graham "G-Baby" became part Spanish and could yell " Por que se liena" 40 million times from the dugout! haha that kept us all laughing. In summary, our trip was......Dec! (Short for decent!)
March 1, 2010
Today is March 1st, and the Florida trip is going great. We are bonding as a team and having so much fun.
We have had many laughs already from York filming the guy on the plane, to fighting over team vans and watching Nate Wilson run for his bag when he found out he was in the wrong van. To fitting 17 guys in an eight-person hot tub, and leaving for dinner without four members of the team. Oh yeah, and shirtless warm ups.
Bryan Earwood and Ben Basford seem to be bonding after taking a nap on each others shoulders, how cute? This is so much fun and we all hope it helps us build up our team chemistry and we can take it forward throughout the season.
The Jackets came buzzing into March with two wins. After dropping two to Clearwater Christian we are back on track and moving forward. Cedarville had fantastic team effort in its two wins over Capital, led by the outstanding pitching from Clint Price and Colby Stoltzfus. Thank you Coach K.
We are looking forward to this week, and this beautiful weather. Last night we watched the orange moon rise and it was beautiful. God is great! Tomorrow's forecast: Sunny with a chance of home runs!!
P.S. We might get to go to the beach on Tuesday.....Please pray!
Feb. 26, 2010
Hello, my name is Kyler King and I'm a freshman at Cedarville. I play second base for the Yellow Jackets. Our 2010 season is finally under way.
Although it was my first time with morning practices, it will definitely be a memorable one. We have been pressing through these last four weeks of 5:00 a.m. practices and are ready to hit the ball diamond and get outdoors.
The whole team from top-to-bottom worked very hard all winter, lifting, hitting, throwing, and yes, running. We know this hard work will pay off and we hope to find out in the Snowbird Classic in Florida.
After setting the bar high with the winningest season in Yellow Jacket history last year, we are excited for the challenge of breaking that record this year, winning the league, and then winning nationals. High expectations, but hey shoot for the moon, fall short and your still amongst the stars!
Fire up the plane, Sunshine State, here come the Jackets!!
Kyler King is a freshman pre-law major from Uniontown, Ohio. He came to the Yellow Jackets after having been a three-year starter at Ohio Division I Lake High School.
