Good afternoon Mustang fans, back here in Grand Junction. We headed over to practice around 12:30 p.m. at the Mesa State College campus. Man they have a ton of construction going on. New have just built a new softball field, a football practice field with Field Turf and their baseball practice field has a brand new clubhouse. Mesa State is also building new athletic offices and a new swimming complex on campus. Mesa State should be very proud, excellent facilities.
The team took batting practice with coach Petersen tossing BP. Coach Nikkel hit ground balls to the infielders, as did director of athletics Chris Hmielewski. I know you’re curious on what I was doing during batting practice. I grabbed a glove and shagged fly balls. I need to get my game going as I ready for softball this summer. FYI, I’m the starting third baseman on the 2008 Marshall men’s Class B tournament championship team. Also two-time member of the fall league champions. As long as the field is smooth and the sun is not in my eyes, I’m like a vacuum at the hot corner. Ok, enough about me.
We then all headed over to Sam Suplizio Field for infield practice and fly balls. The stadium is just great! The stadium has 10,000 seats, a nice surface and great site lines for fans. It’s a short porch down the left field line, only 302 feet, but it has a high wall and then gets fairly deep, including 400-plus feet towards center field.
The facility hosts the Division I Junior College World Series starting next week. Something it has done for over 50 years. The amazing thing is there is no JUCO team in the city. Mesa State used to be a junior college, but the city has continued to host since the school went four-year years ago.
It should be a great stadium for our guys and the other five teams to play in. The press box, the important feature for me, is big and located along the first base line high atop the field.
The team wrapped up practice while Chris and I picked up a light lunch at McDonald’s.
Supper tonight will take place around 5 pm MDT for the team. I’ll be attending a pre-tournament meeting tonight along with Chris and our coaching staff at the MSC campus.
Reminder, 2:30 p.m. CDT tomorrow is first pitch. Live stats will be available to following. I would’ve loved to broadcast the game on KARL radio and the internet, but just not enough time. I also can’t blog live from the game per NCAA rules.
Until tonight my friends…go Mustangs!
1) I bet Chris had to talk over for Nikk-town cuz he was struggling making solid contact
ReplyDelete2) With the big righy throwing BP, our guys will be more than prepared
3) What I wouldn't give to be sitting in that beautiful stadium under the sun watching our Mustangs tomorrow
4) THE MUSTANGS ARE GOING TO SHUT DOWN THE MAVERICKS!!!!
GO MUSTANGS!!!