Sorry it's been a while since my last blog but with classes and our busy schedule I had no time to keep up.  We have a huge week ahead of us, as we approach the last week of conference games.  This past week we took over first place in the standings by one game.  Our overall record is 28-7 and 12-3 in conference.  We took a tough loss a week back that was just not acceptable, and ever since the bar has been raised a tad bit more to come out everyday ready to play.  Last season, around this time we brought a gas tank to every game to ask ourselves "how much more do you have left in the tank".  This season, our Coach brought Hulk Gloves to practice and asked us "how much fight we have left in us", so ever since the Hulk Gloves have been in the dugout with us at each game as a symbol to play a little harder. 

Our team just came off a huge week.  We had six games this past week and we needed to come away with all six victories to make a run for first place in the conference.  We took it one game at a time and came to play everyday.  We all knew what we had to do and everyone contributed one way or another.  I'd say our bats were red hot as we produced 71 runs in six games. It was nice today to have an off day so we could give them a day to rest up for this upcoming week.  This past week really showed us what kind of team we are this season.  It was one of our first big tests, playing with a lot of pressure, no room for error and with no rest, we pulled it together and walked away with some key victories that pushed us into the lead in the NJAC. 

Looking at the week ahead of us, it doesn't get much easier.  We have four games this week, one out of conference region game and three huge conference games that determine if we win the conference or not.  Again, we must come to play each and every game.  Everyone knows what's at stake here this week and we want to walk away 4-0 and finish as Regular Season NJAC Champions.  So the intensity has been raised a bit more and everyone seems to be more focused as we approach the final week of regular season. The Hulk Gloves will be with us all week as they pump us up even more to play harder.   Hopefully the next time I'll be on here, we will have won the NJAC Regular Season and will be the number one seed in the NJAC Tournament. 

Round up of the Previous Weeks:

At Jersey City, down in the bullpen one of the guys was sitting on the edge of the bench and we all shifted and knocked him off.  Everyone in the stands got a kick out of it.  That's like a NJCU ritual down in the bullpen, it happens every year.

Whenever a pitcher throws a shut out, we get to play a game were the pitchers get to hit.  It's called "One Eyed Cat".  So last week we all got to play and relive our hitting days back in high school. 

The MVP Award definitely went to our Assistant AD, as we needed one more person to play, he came off the golf cart with such short notice and didn't even have time to stretch or throw and just hoped right into the game.

The day after One Eyed Cat all the pitchers were sore from the game. We definitely got a little too carried away with the game and next time have to take it down a notch.

Last week our coach brought us up after practice and had us get in a circle, then he went behind the dugout with an assistant coach.  When Neil and Jaime came back, they were wearing Hulk Gloves and started fighting Frank with the gloves.  Every since the gloves have been a symbol in the dugout of "how much more fight do we have left in us". 

This past week we added two more players to the DL, weird right? At the rate it's going this year with our guys dropping like flies, we won't have a roster in a few weeks.

Second Baseman Mike Moceri, no words can describe what kind of season he is having right now, but you think he could clean up a little bit more at the house. 

We have two streaks on the team this year.  Second baseman Mike Moceri has a 16 game hit streak going on right now. The cards are falling for him this year. But, more impressively is first baseman Lee Cavico's one month streak of sleeping on our couch. We all decided to officially name him a roommate to the house now, Welcome Lee.

Saving the best for last ladies and gentlemen Nick Nolan just received good news from the athletic trainers.  He will be able to starting swinging a bat soon, tickets are already sold out at Jim Hynes Stadium but you might be able to watch it live from Cougar TV.  You should have seen him swinging the bat around the house last night, it wouldn't surprise me if he slept with his DeMarini.  

Conference action got underway last week as we got off to a good start going 3-1 in the first week. That improves our season record to 17-5. Now that conference play is here everyone is real excited.  This is the best part of the season, the games get a lot more intense and we have to grind out every game.  Our conference is always competitive and you have to come to play every game.  This year some other teams are stepping it up to make the conference even tougher. Every college baseball player has to love when conference starts up, this sparks up a whole new season with a lot of ups and downs.  Hopefully, we rise more times this year than fall. 

It's nice having the turf field.  It was raining throughout our whole first conference game against MSU as we just barely got it in. I'm not sure how he does it but our closer came in and recorded three strike outs in style.  It was a good thing he did that because there were runners on second and third and if he allowed up a hit we would have tied or possibly got the loss.  It was a huge first win, and against one of our biggest rivals is always a nice way to start up conference play.  Next up we had Rutgers-Newark.  This was a battle as we fell short in extra innings.  We were down 6-2 at one point and fought our way back, but came up short losing 7-6 in the tenth.  This past weekend we had a huge double header against a very good Rowan team.  It was imperative to walk away with at least a split, but we grinded out two big conference victories down there and finished the week 3-1 in conference play.  Rowan's doubleheader epitomized

NJAC play. It was intense all day, good pitching duel, and a lot of fans.  Those are the games you want to play in, you have to love that atmosphere.  It's those games that help you prepare for the big games down the road. 

Round up of Last Week:

Playing our first conference game in a monsoon ... Those are the days you wish to play in, to open up conference action ... Nothing beats a gray day, with wind and rain.

One of the craziest plays I have ever seen happened against Rutgers-Newark ...  Foul pop-up to the catcher that scored two runs?????? Had to be there ... it was wild.

During our doubleheader this past weekend, it was fun sharing all of our sandwiches and snacks; it's way better eating after winning the first game ... We all see who brings the best sandwiches, but there's no contest, the Staten Island native holds the title. 

How about two of the smallest guys on the team hitting home runs for us last weekend...baseball is a wacky sport ...  I didn't forget about you Mags, he also added a 3 run shot this past weekend.

Our second baseman, Moceri, got some help from above this weekend ... Whatever he ate the night before, jeez he should do it all year ... It was like angels in the infield.  

Lastly, an "Unknown" person, I'll leave it at that, dancing on the bus ride home from Rowan ... After watching some of those moves, I could definitely picture him on "Dancing With the Stars" ... he has my vote.