Last week sophomore Greg Hopkins was selected as the BIG EAST Conference Player of the Week for the second time already this year and he is putting up all-conference numbers.  Greg is hitting .449 with six home runs, eight doubles, 30 RBI, and a .808 slugging percentage. 

Greg is also playing an outstanding third base, diving for balls and always getting dirty.  There isn't a time when I don't see Greg's jersey or uniform dirty at some point during the game.  The attitude that Greg plays began when he was a freshman and he stepped up for our team to play third base and was phenomenal. 

There is one point that stands out to me when looking back on Greg's freshman season.  We were playing Texas in the regional at Rice when G-Hop dove for a ball twice down the third base line and also made a tremendous play leaping up to snag a ball out of the air.  Scott Barnes, a prospect in the San Francisco Giants organization, pitched a tremendous game that day against the Longhorns and was absolutely dominant, but everyone's defense helped us secure the 2-1 win. 

            Greg has started the season out playing hard and swinging the bat well, but the best thing about Greg is that he's one of the guys you can look at and just say he's going to be a major leaguer one day.  He's got all the talent and he's a great teammate.  As Greg keeps up the hard work and hard play, hopefully people start recognizing him as one of the elite third baseman in the country. 

This is my first blog entry for the year and I apologize for the lateness of this entry but things have been intense since the start of practice and now the start of games.  I went away for Christmas break and realized that the start date was approaching fast.  Soon Christmas break was over and all the hard work I had been enduring since the start of the fall and into the beginning of the spring season was here.  My entire team had been working hard and putting in our time on the field when we could (because of the cold weather and elements and snow).  The guys and I started practice inside when we returned from break and moved to the lacrosse field to take part in inter-squad games which we later moved to Jack Kaiser Stadium where we play all our home games.   As the spring season moved closer and closer we became more anxious and everyone was talking about the tournament we were to start in just a couple of days.  Before you knew it, we were off to Clearwater, Florida, to take part in the BIG EAST-Big Ten Challenge formed by the coaches of the BIG EAST and Big Ten schools.  Everyone has been talking about the youth on our pitching staff, but we were prepared to play some rough and tough hard-nosed Red Storm baseball.

We began our season with a plane flight to Clearwater, Florida, that included some fun times and some serious times as well.  To get ready for the games we opened with a morning practice at the old Tampa Bay Rays facility.  We had 7 a.m. wake up to get breakfast and I noticed that the team seemed ready to go; I could see it on everybody's faces that this was what we had been waiting for since the team started practice back in the fall.  After practice, our coach had a meeting with us to go over the scouting report on Penn State and tell us what we were wearing for opening day.  We then headed to Dunedin Field the home of Toronto Blue Jays to take on the Nittany Lions in the opener.  We took batting practice in the indoor cages, as did Penn State and then it was time for pregame and before you could say play ball the game was started.  Our team started the game with 3 runs in the first inning, but the Nittany Lions followed with 2 runs in the bottom of the first.  We added 3 more runs in the third inning to make the score 6 to 2.  The Nittany Lions then scored 2 runs in the bottom of the fourth and our starter Nick Cenatiempo was relieved by junior college transfer Bruce Kern, who was lights out for 4 innings.  We turned up the heat with 9 more runs to finish the game with a 15-6 win.  We had many contributors in the opener, including junior Brian Kemp, who was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two walks, and sophomore Greg Hopkins who went 3-for-6 with an RBI.  Jimmy Parque, a junior college transfer from Skyline Community College in my native California, was 1-for-3 with four RBI and a three-run home run.  I opened the season going 1-for-3 with a sacrifice fly, a sacrifice bunt and an RBI.  Senior second baseman Gino Matias was 3-for-4 with an RBI and a walk.  Our team was off to a great start. We weren't done yet though, as we had to play Iowa the following day and had another early wake up call at 8 a.m.  After going over the scouting report for Iowa, we called it a night.

We started the day off by heading to Jack Russell Stadium, the old Phillies field, as we were to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes.  We came out smashing the ball and put up 12 runs in the first inning. We finished the game with a final score of 18-3 in 7 innings due to the 10-run rule in the tournament.  We had 5 walks and 18 hits on the day. It was a great day for the entire lineup.  Our confidence level was high, but we had one more game to worry about against the Michigan Wolverines. 

The following day, we got on the bus thinking we were playing at South Florida's field, but we were told that our plans were changed and we would be playing at the Tampa Bay Rays' complex.  Senior Nick Luisi started for us and I thought that he was pitching beautifully and mastering the zone, but the calls just weren't going his way.  He went four innings before two freshmen took the mound for their debuts. Eddie Medina made his debut and gave up a run, but pitched great, topping out at 91mph.  Then freshman Kevin Kilpatrick entered the game and surprised a lot of onlookers with a gem of an appearance, striking out three and allowing just one hit in two innings. We walked a lot of batters though and ended up losing the game 4-2.  But I have to give it up to Michigan, they're a talented team that is tough and scrappy and plays great small ball.  But don't get me wrong they can hit, too.  We headed back to the freezing cold of Queens, New York and have been practicing hard for this weekend.

We have a 10-hour bus trip to East Carolina on Thursday morning to face East Carolina, College of Charleston and Oklahoma State in a tournament.  Keep an eye on some hot sticks this weekend with Brian Kemp, Tim Morris, Jimmy Parque and a red hot Greg Hopkins, who's hitting .538 with three doubles and was named the BIG EAST Player of the Week.