Road trip - baseball spring training
Anthony Brown
Guest Writer
Day 1 March 3rd
Today is the day that it all starts. We leave for our spring trip today due south. Our first stop will be in Goodman, Mississippi where we will take on Holmes Community College. Everyone is looking forward to the trip, but not so much the fifteen hour bus ride we will endure for the next day and a half.
The first half of the bus trip went rather smooth, with no problems at all. We stopped just south of Memphis where we will stay for the night. While we are stopped, most of the guys are getting a early jump on their homework since we will be missing a week of class while we are down here.
Day 2 March 4th
Today is the day of our first game. Everyone is real excited for it, and can't wait to finish out this last four hours of the trip and get off the bus and play. This is much anticipated for the team, and everyone is ready.
The first game went great. We won 6-4, and defeated Holmes Community College. It was a exciting game with the game going back and forth, with several score changes. We pulled ahead when catcher Brad Hayden hit a two-run homerun to tie the game 4-4, then following put together a string of hits to go up 6-4 in the top of the 7th. This ended up being the final score of the first game. Our second game that night ended up being canceled due to heavy rain storms.
Day 3 March 5th
Today we were supposed to play Holmes again, and finish our second game from the night before, but due to continuous heavy rain storms, both games got canceled. We were able to have the day off from baseball, but we still had work to do. Our coach, Eric Laskovy, has scheduled numerous study tables for us throughout the trip so we can keep up on our homework that we are missing out on. Since today our games got rained out, it is a perfect time to work on some homework to keep on track for classes.
After study table we traveled to our next location, Wesson, Mississippi, to take on Copiah-Lincoln Community College. We traveled for about another four hours until we reached our next hotel, which isn't a Radisson let me tell ya, where we will stay for the next two days. Once we had a little time to unpack, coach assigned us another study table to make sure we were on track with our classes. After study table everyone called it a early night to make sure we were ready for tomorrows game.
Day 4 March 6th
Today we play Copiah-Lincoln Community college, and the weather is taking a turn for the better. We got up early this morning, around 7:30 a.m. to get breakfast and head down to the field. Everyone's real excited to get some games under our belt. Today was a good day. We ended up splitting with Copiah-Lincoln, losing the first game 6-2, and winning the second 8-0. The score of the first game doesn't justify how close the game really was, just a few late inning errors that broke the game open for them. We will stay in Wesson for one more night, then head down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to take on Baton Rouge Community College. We will hold another study table tonight as well.
Day 5 March 7th
Today we will travel about a hour and a half down the road to Baton Rouge Community College, to play their team. They are a Division 1 Junior College, so they are a little bit bigger school than us, but that only excites us. Everyone is up to the challenge to take on a good team.
We lost both games today, although it doesn't justify the effort we put forward. We lost the first game 4-3, and the second 5-0. They both were exciting games, and fun to be a part of. After the game we traveled down another two hours to Eunice, Louisiana to take on LSU-Eunice, a national powerhouse. Although they are one, we are too, so we don't expect to lay down for them. Everyone is real excited to play one of the best teams in the country, and to show that we belong in the same category as them.
We arrived in Eunice at about 9:00 p.m. and everyone was pretty tired from the game and the travel. Everyone went and got some food, then went to their rooms. We have a early morning tomorrow, with wake up calls being set at 7:45 a.m. to get ready to head to the field to get ready for the game.
Day 6 March 8th
Today is the day to take on Eunice. Its 7:45 a.m. and everyone it ready to get to the field and play. Everyone went down and got a good breakfast before we go down to the field.
Today really didn't go our way. The first game we lost 8-1, and it was cut short by another thunder storm. Although we lost, we got a lot out of it and it showed us the level we need to play at, and the intensity we need to bring to compete. Our second game of the day was moved to tomorrow, where we will play one nine-inning game at 6 p.m. under the lights.
After we got back from the game it was still early, and our coach wanted to show us what Louisiana culture was all about. We took the bus downtown for the Mardi Gras parade were we got to experience a whole new culture. We were able to experience new foods, and a new way of life, even if it was only for a short period of time. It was a good time, and a experience I'm sure none of us will forget.
Day 7 March 9th
Today we will take on Eunice again. Everyone is feeling up beat about the game, and is ready for another challenge. The game isn't until 6 p.m. so we will hold another study table again to make sure that everyone is on top of their homework, and keeping up with classes.
We lost the game, but took a lot of great knowledge from it. We learned a lot from our mistakes, and are continuing to get better and better. Were continuing to grow as a team and grow closer, which is allowing us to play better as a team.
Day 8 March 10th
A lot of kids are worked on homework before the games. Our first game was at 4 p.m., and we played Eunice again. They jumped on us early, but in the late innings we started to come back and cut it down to a one run game. Although we cut it to only one run, they ended up beating us 16-10. We showed a lot of fight the first game and never gave up.
The second game was much like the first. We battled back and forth, but ended up losing 5-1. We now are playing much more like a team, and at the level we should be playing at. Its only a matter of time until everything all starts clicking together. After the game, Eunice's food club made us a great dinner.
Day 9 March 11th
Today was our last day down here. We played Texarkana Community College. We played hard, but ended up losing. We worked really hard down here, and we now know the level that we need to play at to compete to our full potential. Not everything went our way down here, but we have a lot of things going in the right direction, and its only a matter of time until we reach our full potential.
After the game we got on the bus and started our road home. We stopped in Jackson, Mississippi for the night, and we will continue the long road home tomorrow.
Day 10 March 12th
We got up early this morning and started again on the road. Everyone is pretty tired, and ready to get home! A lot of the guys are working on homework on the bus since a lot of them have midterms right when we get back. After a long day of driving we stopped just a few hours short of home to rest for the night, and then finish up the rest of the trip in the morning.
Day 11 March 13th
We finally made it home. We arrived in the afternoon, and everyone was pretty excited to be back, yet exhausted at the same time. We have more games this week, and leave for a trip down to Dayton, Ohio this Thursday. Now its time to prepare for this week's classes, and get well rested for midterms!
Anthony Brown
Photo courtesy of KCC Athletic Department |
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Ron Bracey named MCCAA Men's Basketball All-Star Game MVP
Press Release
Kellogg Community College sophomore basketball player, Ron Bracey, was named, for the second consecutive year, as the West MVP in the All-Star game held on March 13, 2011 in Lansing, Michigan. Bracey is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, where he attended Withrow High School.
The six foot five, 220 lb forward led the Bruins this year in scoring, with an average just below 24 points per game. In his two years on the team, Bracey has scored over 1,000 points, one of a few Bruins to have scored more than 1,000 points in their JUCO career. This year he was named first team Michigan Community College Athletic Association (MCCAA) All-Region and All-MCCAA and last year he was second team All-Conference.
For more information about KCC athletics, visit www.kellogg.edu/athletics or call (269) 965-4151.
Ron Bracey
Photo courtasy of KCC Athletic Department
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Softball - daily journal
Ashley Nearpass
Guest Writer
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Ashley Nearpass
Photo courtesy of KCC Athletic Department |
Saturday:
Our trip started off leaving the school at 12:45 ready to get to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We were off to Louisville, Kentucky to switch buses with the baseball boys. Five hours later, we arrived in Louisville, switched buses, and continued to South Carolina. It was about 3 am when Liz Damron woke up from what she thought was an awful dream. Little did she know it wasn't a dream. She thought she was dreaming about a garbage dump and a sewer, but in reality it was someone in difficulty a few seats over. The drive seemed to be endless but we got through it.
Sunday:
We arrived in Myrtle Beach at 10 am. While we were waiting for our rooms, we kept ourselves occupied. We found all sorts of thing to do. We went into shops, walked around, and best of all Kristin had her own dance party on the side of the street. As the cars drove by honking and the guys were hooting and hollering, it was the perfect way to start off the trip. While Kristin was dancing, an Asian woman came up to her and wanted Kristin to teach her how to dance. So Kristin proceeded to teach her how to dance. In the words of that lady "she loves Kristin's butt!" Later in the day we got settled, got something to eat and had curfew at 11.
Monday:
Breakfast with the team at 8:20 and then off to the fields for our games. We played Cumberland University, a four year college from Kentucky. We played them twice, beating them the first game 10-6, and losing the second game 2-3 in 8 innings. We played well, but we can play way better then what we did. Back to the hotel to get around for the night, we were on our own to do what we wanted, but we had to be back for 11 o'clock curfew.
Tuesday:
Breakfast again together, and again off to the fields for our two games. We played today at 11:30 and 1:30. Our first game we played Henry Ford, they were from Dearborn, Michigan. We lost 1-7, but our second game we won, 10-8 again in extra innings against Pikeville, another team from Kentucky. We were 2-2 feeling like we had way more potential then how we were playing. Later that night we had a team dinner at Hard Rock Café and shopped at Broadway at the Beach. Back to the hotel to go in the hot tub, and a few of us even went into the ocean! Curfew at 11 again.
Wednesday:
Same thing as Monday and Tuesday, breakfast and off to the fields for the games. We played Henry Ford again beating them 10-3, and Pen Mustangs beating them 21-3. We played as a team today and played with an approach. Tonight we had study table in our rooms along with our curfew. Curfew checks were done and we were in our rooms for the night. Although we were in our rooms, we kept getting noise complaints from the old lady whose room was right in the middle of our row of rooms. She was not happy with us but what can we say, we girls, we like to have a good time!
Thursday:
Up bright and early today, 7 a.m. breakfast for an early game at 9:30. We got to see the sunrise today which was nice. We won both games today, 11-3 against the Mustangs again and 11-0 against Henry Ford. We were on our own again for the night, so a group of us decided to get around and go to Hooters for dinner. Later we went back to the hotel and had a Jersey Shore night with the team.
Friday:
Time to pack up the bus and head home. We went to the Cal Ripken Baseball Facility, back to Broadway at the Beach for some more shopping, and our last stop was the Nike Outlet. We got on the road around 3 and drove through the night.
Saturday:
We arrived at KCC around 8 a.m. unloaded the bus, and went home. It was a successful trip; we got a lot accomplished and saw our potential. After a long bus ride we were all ready to go home and sleep the day away.
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