This season has been one of my most memorable seasons competing at Kean University.  Maybe it was because I was a senior, or maybe it was because of all the injuries that went on this year that we had to battle through.  It has been a great run, but like they say all good things come to an end.  I couldn't tell you how proud of a senior I was looking around seeing all these young faces stepping up and filling big roles.  It was a great reflection of the coaches and the upperclassmen.  We battled through so much this year, and fought all the way till the very last out.  It was remarkable making our third consecutive appearance back to the College World Series, in Appleton, Wisconsin.  Although, no one had visions of losing in the tournament we gave it our very best and left it all out on the field. 

This has been a great four years of baseball at Kean.  Looking back I'll cherish all the memories and accomplishments I have been a part of in my career here.  I'll never forget the great players who I've made such great bonds with and the coaches who were there for me through thick and thin.  I have the utmost respect for each and every one of the coaches and wish them future success.  On and off the field the coaches here have been a class act.  I've never met a group of men willing to spend so much time and effort just to help one succeed.  They have taught me many life values in which I will never forget.  These seven coaches have been the best coaches I have ever come across in my career and no words can thank them enough for all they have done. 
     

  Looking back since I was a freshman to now, we have won everything there was to win.  I couldn't have asked for a better four years than my time here at Kean.  I'll never forget all the big games, our competitive trips to Cali, having a chance to compete week in and week out, and just hanging out with all my teammates on and off the field, I couldn't thank you guys enough. It takes a certain kind of baseball player to play at Kean.  You have to come ready to play everyday because you always have a target on your back, everyone always wants to knock off the top gun.  You have to put all you have into the whole season and do whatever it takes for your teammates and most importantly your coaches.  Kean baseball is just one big family. A family which never dies, it only gets stronger as the years go on.  As I close the door on the 2009 Season, I just want to thank you all of you who have read my blogs, it has been a great season.  Watch out for Kean in the future, with many faces coming back and some talented newcomers they will be a force to be recon with.

I just wanted to give a special thanks to all those who drove or flew out to support us in Wisconsin.  It was great having your support all season long.

Special shout out to all the seniors on a great year:

Brandon Aich, Mike Manganiello, Colin Feneis, Pedro Rivera, Joe Rizzo, Drew Campbell, and myself Kyle Murphy.   

Lastly, a special thanks to all the coaches for a great 4 years, best of luck for future success:

Neil Ioviero, Jamie Ioviero, Lewis France, Jack Nagy, Francisco Romero, Frank Beckhorn, and Matt Scano. 

With less than 24 hours left till we take off for the College World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin no words can describe how each and every one of us feel.  This has been a hard fought, battle tested season and we pushed and pushed our way through the Mid- Atlantic Regional Tournament and punched another ticket to the College World Series.  It truly is remarkable when you sit back and take a look at our accomplishment.  Some of us have been around since our first trip back in 2007, when we took the trophy home.  This is our third consecutive trip back to the Fox Cities area, and we couldn't be anymore excited to get started out there.  This season has had so many ups and downs, with the plague of injuries on our team, to the many new faces that have stepped up and filled roles.  Our Coach always says, somehow, someway we'll find a way to get it done.  This year epitomized that saying.  We might not look like the biggest or most powerful team you're going to face, but we have that never die attitude, whether we're up ten or down ten we just don't quit. That has made us extremely competitive.

With the bitter taste in our mouth after the Conference Tournament, we were extremely excited for Regionals to get underway.  We busted our butts for ten or some odd days of practice and went over all the basics and did everything possible we could have done to prepare us for our next goal, to win the Mid-Atlantic Region.  The Mid-Atlantic Region was filled with many good teams and we ended up getting the one seed, but we knew that didn't mean anything.  All it takes in tournaments is to just get hot at the right time. We knew we had to go into regionals with good pitching, solid defense and just get those timely hits.  Everything came together at the right time and we took home the Mid-Atlantic Regional trophy.  It was a great accomplishment to get a chance to play in the College World Series for the third consecutive year but we're going in there trying to win the whole thing.  We had two solid, well focused practices which hopefully will prepare us for our trip back.

We have the returning National Champs, Trinity College in game one.  We're all real excited for the match up and are eager to get out there and get it on.  The 2007 National Champs vs. the 2008 National Champs.  All the teams in the tournament are very good, you don't make this tournament with out being talented.  It should be a great tournament and we can't wait for it to get underway.  I know we are young, but we have a solid core of guys that will keep the young guys from site seeing and keep there eyes on the prize.  We're going out there very loose, focused and just going to take it one game at a time. If we do that, and do all the little things and have that never die attitude hopefully it will end up with another pile on, and Kean holding the trophy high up in the air.

Weekly Round Up...

A few of the seniors after the Regional Championship game were talking, and someone mentioned, well I'm glad we weren't the senior class that tripped up the consecutive trips to Wisconsin.  Right on, good luck next year seniors.

In the Regional Championship game another player and I took a walk up to the Lakewood BlueClaws locker room.  It was pretty crazy, he bought a Powerade and I went to the bathroom.  On our way back to the dugout, we ended up getting lost for 5 minutes.  Apparently we made a wrong turn and ended up in the front of the stadium.  Good thing Neil wasn't paying attention.

We do a thing before the game starts up.  It's called a "Here We Go".  I'm sure it's known across the country in the D3 baseball land.  We're not unveiling any secrets but it will be in full effect for the College World Series. 

What a crazy pile on last week, when we won the Region.  I don't know who was on the bottom but sorry fellas it definitely had to hurt.  Hopefully, we have one more pile on left in us.

We're meeting at Kean at 4 am to head to the airport for a 6 o'clock flight.  Are we serious 4 am, I didn't even know that you were allowed to fly at that time.  It's in like 5 hours. I heard some of us will be sleep walking to Kean, to get on the bus. 

Today at practice we had News 12 come and interview us on our trip to the World Series.  It's always comical because they always stay for at least an hour but our coverage on TV is about 2 minutes.  We were all joking about that today.

Today at practice I was umpiring our inner squad.  I give umpires a lot of credit, because of all the complaining I had to hear about for one inning.  I couldn't imagine doing a nine inning game. People would be tossed left and right.

I'll be in touch in Wisconsin.

This always seems to be the best and most exciting time of the year.  Classes finishing up, nothing else to do but concentrate and play the sport you love.  It has been a while since my last blog, but with finals and such I wasn't able to keep up.  Looking back we lost the conference championship tournament, and are fortunate enough to have a good enough record overall this season to receive an at large bid to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament.  Ever since our loss in the Conference Tournament, things around here have been more intense and practices have been more grueling.  We all know that it's going to take a lot of hard work, determination and our max effort day in and day out to head back to Wisconsin.  That in fact is our goal; we don't just want to go to Regionals to say we made it there and won a game here and there.  Our goal is to walk away May 17^th with the trophy and a plane ticket heading to Wisconsin for a crack at another National Championship.  A bus ticket wouldn't be bad either, since I'm not a fan of flying.

We actually just found out the good news this morning that we are heading to Regionals with the number one seed. A bunch of us were pulling all nighters to see what seed we got, and who we open up against. We're all pumped but at the same time very focused that we don't have a tournament slip up like last week. Another tournament like our last week and the season is over. The past few games or so we've needed a spark or something to get us going and back on track.  The atmosphere around here hasn't been the same.  Hopefully though, this regional tournament and a chance to get back to the College World Series alone will bring out the best in all our guys.  In these tournaments, it doesn't matter if you're the number one seed or the number eight seed.  It's just all about who's getting hot at the right time, and hopefully our bats come alive and our pitching and defense are the best it's been all year.

We have two more solid days of practice and than we head to the hotel for regionals.  We need to get after it today and tomorrow and really bust our butts if we want to win this Region.  It takes four games to win the tournament, if we take one game at a time and play the way were capable of playing hopefully in a week from now I'll be writing my next blog from Wisconsin. We have made two trips to the College World Series in the past two seasons, and I know no one on this team wants to snap the streak at two. We want to keep the consecutive trips to the World Series rolling for as many years as we can and vie for as many National Championships as possible.  One is not enough.  Good Luck to all the teams playing in the Regional Tournament. 

My Weekly Round Up.....

During BP, pitchers get a spot on the field to track down foul balls or in between gaps to help out the position players.  One position no one likes is back up, meaning everyone throws you the balls and you collect them and put them in a ball bucket and wait until they run out of balls for BP.  Than you have to wheel the kart to the mound, it's the worst.  Well leave it up to Nick Cesare to tip over the kart on his way in to give the balls.  The balls went everywhere, funny enough for everyone to start laughing.  That a boy Nick, you have homeruns from now on. 

For my four years at Kean University, I have never hit fungos and never got to step up on to the big stage and hit a multiple.  Let's just say my fungo skills are sub par, so all season long I have been working on it and just wanted to step up just one time for a multiple. Neil sticks me as far away from fungos as possible, and I don't blame him.  I usually just catch Drew as he hits to third during multiple, but one day he wasn't there.  It was my moment to shine, a little nervous at first and a few line drives over their heads, but later I settled down.  I have now been hitting multiple on a daily basis, some say I have a career in it and could get a call up to the bigs.

Nick Nolan and Mike Moceri are going to Hawaii to play baseball this summer.  You should have seen Moceri walking around campus the other day in his Hawaiian bathing suit.  I think he thought he was at the beach when realistically he was walking down Cougar Walk.  I hope you and Nolan have matching ones, you'll look like locals down there.