Eric Snowden's Blog

During the 2008 season senior catcher Eric Snowden will provide insight into the life of a Kansas baseball player. Snowden’s blogs will cover the team’s adventures on the field as well as off it.

Feb. 27-March 5, 2008<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>

After being home from Hawaii for less than 24 hours we loaded our equipment and headed to Arkansas.

High School Hero, aka Rico, aka Brett Bollman was especially excited to face his previous school. Rico kept the whole team amused with stories the full four-hour trip.

Wally Marciel had one of his best starts since he has been at KU. It was hard fought game, but we came up a little short.

Less than 24 hours after that we reloaded and hopped on a flight to the Music City. Brian Heere was especially excited to be in the birthplace of country music. However he was heartbroken when Coach Price told him that we could not visit Opry Land or the Country Music Hall of Fame.

On Friday night we played Vanderbilt University and lost to a very talented team.

The Greenwood Giant, Preston Land, bashed two home runs against Xavier and Shaefer Hall pitched a gem Saturday.

Sunday witnessed a veteran fifth year senior move by Matt Lane. John Allman could not catch a break at the plate and so Matt Lane having tremendous savvy gave John his Chinese chewing gum from his own mouth before he went up for his next at-bat. And wouldn’t you know it John Allman belted a double to right center.

Overall it was a successful weekend as we got the bats rolling and also witnessed the So Cal screamer, Buck Afenir leg out a triple.

The good luck samurai warrior that (former pitcher) Ryotaro Hayakawa gave the team for fighting spirits oversaw the first home game. The samurai brought on an offensive onslaught as we scored 13 runs against Le Moyne College on Wednesday. KU’s White Owl was in attendance despite the cold weather encouraging us to “Make it Rain”.

Overall it was a successful week and we are looking forward to playing our first home weekend series against the Bison of North Dakota State.

Hawaii-Hilo weekend (Feb. 21-24)

The beginning of the season started off with one of the longest days of traveling I have ever experienced. Senior catcher Joe Southers getting stripped searched at the LAX Airport highlighted the travel day. However when we arrived to the beautiful state of Hawaii we were greeted with weather 70 degrees warmer than Lawrence, Kan.

When we awoke the next morning, to the sweet symphony of doves and ocean waves, we knew we were in paradise. After a quick breakfast at Pancho Lefty’s (A Mexican restaurant on the same block as our hotel) we made the short journey along the beach to the ballpark with anticipation.

The first game we played was a hard fought battle winning 2-1. After the victory in game one many of us made our way to the ocean for snorkeling and to show off our un-tanned bodies. However, Preston Land made several trips to the tanning salon before the Hawaii trip to bronze his muscles.

After the beach we headed to Bubba Gump’s for “traditions night” where all the new players on the squad have to stand on a chair and sing the Rock Chalk chant.

Red-shirt freshman Brain Heere was the best of all performing the chant in his signature Johnny Cash voice. The worst performance went to freshman Jimmy Waters who was tongue-tied with the complex words of the chant. The next three games we played were hard fought loses but we finally found our stride in the fifth game erupting like an unstoppable force of lava flowing down Mona Kea (local volcano).

In the hours we had before we caught the flight back home we soaked up the last of the golden rays of the dying sunset. After a losing weekend we are looking to make progress in Arkansas and the Music City Classic in Nashville.

Snowden will provide a blog each week on kuathletics.com.