From the Dugout with Cole Catalano - Journal #3

Cole Catalano

ILB has asked senior RHP Cole Catalano to write a weekly journal giving the Lion Nation a peak of what it is like to be a member of the Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team. Cole is a Senior RHP who hails from Covington, LA. To read all of Cole's weekly journals you can click on his picture on the left menu.

Here is journal #3 for the 2010 season.

Hey Lion fans, I’m back for the third edition of “From the Dugout”.

Once again your Lions had another successful week of baseball. I’ll tell ya, spirits still remain high on the team as we keep on rolling along. We finished off a 4 game week with a solid record of 3-1 which raises our overall record to 18-2!! I have played for a number of teams over the past 18 years of my life, but never have I ever seen such chemistry on a team like we have on our team this year. From the seniors to the underclassmen, and even the freshmen; everyone has really bought into coach’s system and I can honestly say I do not see anything stopping us or getting in our way.

Now let’s get into this past weeks action……

Wednesday evening we geared up and headed to cajun country for a mid week game against ULL. As seems to be the case the past 3 years, the Lions came home with a very convincing victory against the Cajuns with a score of 9-4. I have to give some credit to Jordan Hymel and Stefan Lopez who really stepped up and threw a great game for us Wed. night. I’m not gonna lie, ULL can be a tough atmosphere to play/pitch in. Between the fans down the fouls lines screaming at you every chance they get, and the 2,000 plus fans that always seem to be in attendance, I think Jordan and Stefan handled themselves like two veterans out there on the mound. They both had such great poise out on the mound. I don’t know if anyone in the past has silenced that ULL crowd like our two guys did. Great job fellas!!

Lets head to the weekend……

After a great win against ULL Wednesday night, the Lions were back on the road, this time heading to Lake Charles, LA to face the McNeese State Cowboys. Friday night was a typical Friday night game….coming down to the wire, but with the early hot bats of our offense and our reliable Tyler Watkins on the mound we walked away victorious with a score of 6-5. Now I don’t know who the weather man in Lake Charles is but I can tell you one thing, he needs to be FIRED!! Rain was scheduled to fall in the Lake Charles area around 1:30 Saturday afternoon, and believe it or not we didn’t get any rain until 6 in the evening. Our regularly scheduled game for Saturday was pushed to Sunday for a doubleheader starting at 11:00 am. The Lions ended up splitting the two games with McNeese with a winning score of 9-2 followed by a tough 4-3 loss in extras for the second game. I will say one thing though…..Justin Boudreaux must have eaten his breakfast in the morning plus his 2 roommates, because he came out swinging in the first game of the doubleheader. He finished off the game with a 3-5 effort with three homeruns!! His 12 game hitting streak came to an end Sunday when he ended up 0-4, but still want to congratulate him on that accomplishment. That’s a stat that not too many division 1 athletes can say they have posted. (WHOOOOPDY DOOOOOO)  inside joke between me and lil’ BOO!

Next I want to give my congrats to two former alumni who have recently got engaged. Chris Cappo and Josh Black!! Its weird because for the past three years Chris Cappo was my roommate and Chris and myself played ball with each other for the past 5 years including summer ball and to have one of your really close friends getting engaged makes you think…”Man are we really getting that old”? Where does all the time go? Once again congrats to both Chris and Josh and I wish them both the best of luck in their future endeavors.

I also want to personally thank one of my favorite alumni (Scott Viator) who was in attendance last Wed. night at the ULL game and this past Sunday for our doubleheader vs. McNeese. I had the privilege of playing with Scott for two years and I will tell you this…you won’t find an overall better guy then Scott Viator. It was funny because at ULL you see nothing but red shirts sitting down the right field foul line and there’s little ole Scott sitting proud in his Green Lions Shirt…now that’s a “Lion for Life”.

On a side note I am saddened to say we have lost a long distance Lion fan. Sunday morning around 10:30 our family received the devastating news that my Aunt Nel from California had lost her 2 year battle of Leukemia. She was what the ones closest to her would call a “jewel”. I am dedicating the remainder of my season to my Aunt Nel who I know will be there with me every step of the way for the remainder of this grueling season!! Love ya Aunt Nel

Well that’s all I got for ya this week folks. I hope I covered everything and look forward to bringing you Lion fans 5 wins this week!!

GO GREEN
GO GOLD
GO LIONS

Cole Catalano #31