Louisville Slugger Museum & Driving home

After sleeping in a bit after a long drive the day before we packed up and drove an hour an a half from Georgetown to the Louisville Slugger factory and museum. I think we could have spent the whole afternoon there looking at memorabilia, holding bats of former players, and watching the bat-making process. We saw the Silver Slugger awards, given annually to the best offensive player at each position in baseball, George Brett's infamous pine tar bat, experienced a 90+ mph Cole Hamels fastball, held the largest legal bat that MLB allows, and saw Joey Votto's bats being made. At the end, we were all given mini bats as souvenirs (and it's a good thing we're only hours from home, or they may turn into weapons on these buses that seem to be getting smaller and smaller as the trip progresses).

We thank you all for your prayers and support which made this whole trip possible. After logging 30 hours of driving time in the vans and driving over 2000 miles, your support was very much felt and seen by all of us.

Tonight's phrase: Praise God and to Him be the glory! (I'm sure Coach Wooden would echo that statement!)

Go Trojans!

Leaving Myrtle Beach

After dropping our last game in Myrtle Beach, there were mixed feelings as we loaded up the gear and boarded the buses. Some were still feeling the frustration of dropping the last game, others were trying to soak in every last moment of the sunny, seventy degree weather by lingering in the dugout, and others couldn't wait to hit the road, no doubt missing the parents they had left six days earlier. We drove the nine hours to Georgetown, KY with only two stops, despite constant begging for more bathroom breaks due to the empty pop, Gatorade, and energy drink bottles scattered on the floor of the bus. We pulled in just in time to grab some dinner (Fazoli's and KFC were the options tonight) before heading to devotions with Coach Snoeyink.

We're planning on sleeping in for a bit in the morning before making the (relatively) short trip over to Louisville to tour the Louisville Slugger bat factory/museum. We're planning on being there for a couple hours and should arrive back at Timothy between 6:00-7:00 Friday night.

Tonight's Wooden phrase: Give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day.

In-game updates vs Chagrin Falls

Meyer pitching for TC

1st inning: TC 0, CF 0

2nd inning: TC 0, CF 0

3rd inning: TC 0, CF 3 (bases loaded 2B)

VanderNaald in at pitcher.

4th inning: TC 0, CF 4

5th inning: TC 0, CF 4

Wieringa in at pitcher, records all three outs by strikeout looking.

6th inning: TC 0, CF 4

Final: TC 0, CF 4 (Robinson 2B in 7th breaks up no-hitter, TC loads bases but can't push a run across)

Game vs. Big Walnut

After a dominating performance in defeating Sewickley Academy, the Trojans turned right around to face off against Big Walnut in the second of two games on the slate for the day. The Trojans led off the game with a bang with singles by Ethan Bardolph and Ben Zastrow, who both scored on a triple from Alex Johnson that two-hopped the fence. Johnson later scored on a single by Phil Stanton and the Trojans led 3-0 after the top of the 1st. The Eagles managed to push across a pair of runs of their own off starter Luke Davidson in the bottom of the 1st and added a single run in the 2nd to knot the score at 3-3 after two innings of play. Timothy jumped back into the lead in the 3rd thanks in large part to a two out double by Stanton. Alex Zarek replaced Davidson on the mound to start the 4th and shut down the Eagles offense while the Trojans continued to pile up runs. RBI's by Luke Hooker, Ben Zastrow, Mike Wieringa, and Aaron Snoeyink pushed the Trojan lead to 11-4. Big Walnut showed signs of life in the bottom of the 6th by adding a pair of runs to cut into the Trojan lead, but the Trojans first five men were able to reach base to start the 7th to all but end the game. The final was 14-7 in favor of the Trojans.

Leading the offensive charge for Timothy was Stanton (4-5, 2B, 2 RBI), Zastrow (3-4, BB, 2 R, RBI), Bardolph (2-3, 2 BB, 2 R), Wieringa (2-5, 2 R, 3 RBI), and VanderNaald (2-2, BB, R, 2 RBI).

Davidson and Zarek combined to keep the Eagle hitters off balance by striking out four and walking three over the 7 innings.

Thursday morning we play our last game of Spring Break against Chagrin Falls at 9:00. I hope to be able to give in-game updates again, so check back to follow along!

Tonight's Wooden phrase: Build a shelter against a rainy day by the life you live.

In-Game updates vs. Sewickley Academy

1st inning: TC 3, SA 0 (Meyer RBI single, Scott sac fly)

2nd inning: TC 3, SA 0

3rd inning: TC 5, SA 0 (Meyer RBI 2B, Johnson RBI single)

4th inning: TC 7, SA 0 (Ridolphi RBI groundout, Meyer RBI single)

5th inning: TC 10, SA 0-Final (Robinson RBI groundout, Ridolphi RBI single)

Snoeyink: 5 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 1 K (W)

Day 5-Game Day (finally!)

Tuesday morning started out much like Monday morning, although we rolled out of bed a bit earlier and hit the Grand Park practice fields at 9:00 for some infield/outfield drills, pitchers fielding drills, and pop fly communication drills. After about an hour, we drove over to the Ripken facility for pitcher/catcher work, more hitting in the cages, and some lighthearted whiffleball competition.

After a solid three hours of practice, we grabbed some lunch at Sonic/Chick-fil-A, spent some time walking around the outlet mall, and sat around chilling by the pool at the motel.

Our first game was against Riverdale Baptist. We had done a little research on them and knew they were a very good team with a long history of winning and they showed us just that in the bottom of the first inning as they jumped off to a 4-0 lead off Trojan starter Chris Ridolphi. They extended their lead by adding a single run in the 2nd and three more in the 3rd when the Trojans just missed executing an inning-ending double play.

In the top of the 4th inning, the Trojans finally broke through on the hit column with Luke Davidson and Ridolphi both notching singles, but were unable to push across a run.

After the Crusaders picked up another run in the bottom of the 4th to make it 9-0, the Trojans got down to business. Justin VanderNaald and Alex Johnson picked up back to back singles and Philip Stanton walked to load the bases with one out. Alex Zarek grounded out for the 2nd out, but by putting the ball in play he allowed VanderNaald to score from 3rd for the 1st Trojan run of the game.  After a Davidson walk, Matt Robinson ripped a single that scored Johnson to bring the score to 9-2.

Riverdale Baptist was able to pick up single runs in the 5th and 6th to extend their lead to 11-2 going into the 7th, but the Trojans weren't done yet.  Ben Zastrow ripped a double down the left-field line and Davidson followed with a single to move him to 3rd.  Robinson came through with another big hit, roping a double to plate two runs.  A few batters later, Ethan Bardolph came up to plate Robinson that brought the scoring to an end.  The scoreboard stood at 11-5 in favor of the Crusaders.

On the mound, Ridolphi picked up four strikeouts while Johnson sat down a pair as each hurler tossed three innings.  Offensively, the Trojans were led by Davidson (2-3, BB, R), Robinson (2-4, 2B, 3 RBI), Meyer (2-4), VanderNaald (2-3, R), Johnson (2-4, R), and Zastrow (1-1, 2B, R).

Tomorrow, we play games at noon and 3 p.m. There is a slight chance that there will be live updates during the game, so check back for potential in-game updates!

Tonight's Wooden phrase: Make friendship a fine art.

Pictures from the day:

Day 4-practice, practice, practice

We left the motel around 11:00 to make our way over to Grand Park field for our first practice of the trip. As we pulled into the lot, we noticed that the word "field" should have had an "s" on the end because there were NINE fields at the complex. All of them had synthetic turf, green for grass and brown for dirt (yes the brown you see by the bases is synthetic turf!), great dugouts, great fences, and all had lights. The guys were so excited there was even very little complaining when we ran a lap to warm up before our practice! We spent our two hours at the complex taking ground and fly balls to our hearts desire, working on leads, steals, pickoff moves, bunt coverage, and 1st/3rd situations.

After a quick lunch, we moved on to the Ripken complex, which is where we will be playing all of our games. We were VERY excited to see the fields and practice facilities. We spent the whole two-hour practice time in the cages, getting more swings in a day than we knew was possible. There were enough cages in our "pod" of cages for each player to be throwing or hitting at one time (see the picture below). We're planning on going back tomorrow to work on pitching on the twelve mounds they have available for our use as well as more hitting and some bunting work.

As much as we were excited to arrive at the Ripken complex, many guys were almost as excited to head to the beach for an afternoon in the sun. We spent a couple hours at the beach, taking in the sun and 80 degree weather. The water was a bit chilly, so running in and out of the water became a common theme. We also spent time messing with jellyfish that washed up on shore, making sand castles (sand lumps, since we didn't have buckets or scoops), and searching the ocean for glimpses of a dolphin.

Stat number of the day: 3 (the number of boys who saw the ocean for the first time and the number of jellyfish laid to rest by the boys)

Tonight's Wooden phrase: Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.

Good Morning from Myrtle Beach!

We woke up to a beautiful, clear, sunny morning on our first official "baseball" day of our trip. We have two separate two-hour practices scheduled for today, with a little beach time scheduled in-between. Check back tonight for the first practice and beach pictures!

Day 3-Waking up in Myrtle Beach

We slept in a bit Sunday morning and made our way to Surfside Presbyterian Church after breakfast. We were introduced to the congregation and Pastor Riddle gave a great sermon about not being lukewarm Christians. We were treated with wonderful southern hospitality as many people were so excited to welcome us both to the church and the Myrtle Beach area for the week.

After church we drove the short distance to the Holiday Inn Express, which would be our "home" for the next four days. We couldn't check in yet, so we parked the vans and walked across the street to "Broadway at the Beach". The best way to describe it would be an amusement park/outdoor mall with restaurants, a movie theater, and aquarium. We were on our own there to find a place to have lunch before checking into the motel around 3:00. A few guys decided to check out the pool/hot tub but didn't last long when the clouds started rolling in. The Kentucky-Baylor game ended up being the more popular option for all in the end.

Coach Snoeyink and Coach Boven went to check out the Ripken facility and reported back to the guys that it was "really cool!" We were all INSTANTLY excited to play ball.

We ordered pizza for dinner at night and watched the end of the Kansas-UNC game together in the motel lobby before going back to our rooms to chill (and send more texts).

Tonight's Wooden phrase: Make each day your masterpiece.

A few pictures from the day:

Breakfast at the Motel

Hanging out before church

Palm trees!

Surfside Presbyterian Church

Broadway at the Beach

Watching the NCAA games (before we found it on TV)

Hot tubbing

Pizza and Basketball!

Day 2

After waking up to a delicious breakfast of waffles, biscuits & gravy, and eggs & sausage (for those of us out of bed on time), we found day two to be about as exciting as day one on the road. We passed the time by sleeping, singing, playing trivia, driving ourselves insane, and avoiding motion sickness on the roads of western North Carolina. We took off from Florence, KY and drove non-stop for almost four hours to Knoxville, TN for lunch. Today's view was incredible, much better than the cloudy and rainy drive through Indiana on the first day of the trip. Many guys had't been through KY, TN, or the Carolinas before and many kept their cameras busy! Below are a couple snapshots of the beauty of God's creation we drove through today in North Carolina.

We arrived at our motel around 8:15 and grabbed a quick bite to eat before calling it a night. Since we are all baseball nuts and love stats, here are a few from the day:

Miles: 642
Time: 9 hours, 47 min, 17 sec
Pit stops: 3

and most importantly...

SENT text messages: 2245

Each night Coach Snoeyink is leading devotions from the life and memories of Coach John Wooden. He leaves us with a quote every night to live by.

Tonight's phrase: Help others...WITHOUT expecting anything in return.

Day 1

We left school around 3:30 to make the 5 hour trip to Florence, KY where we would be spending the night. We ran into some rain and wind an hour from Indianapolis. We passed the time by listening to music (surprisingly), playing cards, asking trivia questions, and annoying Coach V. We're looking forward to another 10+ hours of team bonding in the vans tomorrow!

Tonight's phrase: Show integrity. Who are you when no one's looking?

Myrtle Beach fields

While in Myrtle Beach, we will be playing our games on replicas of stadiums no longer in existence.  Here are the fields we will be playing on, as well as a few statistics on each park.

Polo Grounds-Upper Manhattan, New York

Date opened: April 19, 1890
Demolished: April 10, 1964
Capacity: 55,000
MLB team: New York Giants (now San Francisco Giants)
Right field: 258 ft
Center field: 483 ft
Left field: 279 ft

Griffith Stadium-Washington D.C.

Date opened: July 24, 1911
Demolished: January 26, 1965
Capacity: 27, 550
MLB team: Washington Senators (now Minnesota Twins)
Right field: 320 ft
Center field: 421 ft
Left field: 388 ft

Ebbets Field-Brooklyn, New York

Date opened: April 9, 1913
Demolished: February 23, 1960
Capacity: 31,902
MLB team: Brooklyn Dodgers (now Los Angeles Dodgers)
Right field: 297 ft
Center field: 395 ft
Left field: 348 ft