From the Dugout With Cole Catalano - Journal #4

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 #4 for the 2010 season.

Hey Lion Fans....I’m back for another edition of Inside the Dugout!! Being that I haven’t blogged in a couple of weeks I sure do have a bunch to talk about.

I want to start off by saying that I have been sneezing about twenty times a day which can only mean one thing….ITS SPRING TIME BABY. The pollen is flying high and your Southeastern Lions are still playing great baseball. We just finished off our Easter weekend, and boy was it good to take a small break from baseball and spend some quality time with the family. This is where it becomes tough to be a collegiate athlete. It is officially spring break for Southeastern, and there is no school for the entire week. While our team is still working hard on the practice field, in the weight room, and playing ball games our friends are at the beach without a care in the world. To be honest with you, I technically never had a spring break since high school. As a college baseball player you have to make a commitment to your team and sacrifice that spring break week to play baseball. Which I wouldn’t want it any other way! I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend with their families.

Let’s talk some baseball now……….

Going back a few weeks, we traveled to Jackson MS to face the Jackson State Tigers. After a good outing by both Jordan Hymel and Taylor Wax on the mound, your Lions walked away with a 13-1 victory, which gave us the season sweep over Jackson State. We then welcomed the University of South Alabama to “The Pat” the following day. This was a game that was on our mind all season. Last year we traveled to Mobile to face USA and lost a game we felt we should have won by a score of 12-11. It was eating us up inside because we felt that was the game that hurt our chances of receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. Our game last Wednesday against South Alabama came down to the wire. Our hitters did a great job of applying pressure to their defense and our pitchers kept a good hitting USA team off balance all night. Once again the Lions came away with a 6-5 victory and still remained hard to beat at “The Pat”. For the weekend….the Central Arkansas Bears came to town. The Lions ended up taking two of three from Central Arkansas which improved our overall record to an impressive 22-3. Although most teams would be satisfied with a series win over a pretty good Central Arkansas team and a record of 22-3, we were a little disappointed. This was now the second weekend in a row that we lost to a conference team on a Sunday when we should have swept. As coach always tells us, “Sundays are the toughest days to play on. Teams just go through the motions and do not know how to finish off the weekend”.

This past week we finished off a five game home stand by beating a quality Tulane ballclub 3-2. I have to tip my hat to Ryan Boudreaux. That was one of the best pitching performances I have seen in awhile. Tulane was considered one of the hottest teams in the country at the time, and Ryan made them look like it was their first game of the year. Congrats Ryan on a great outing!! I also want to give credit to our fans again, who never seem to disappoint me when it comes to making their presence known. Tulane has been known to bring a good fan base with them when they travel and with a couple of hundred in attendance last Tuesday our die hard Lion Fans managed to keep them quiet the entire game.

Next we traveled to Beaumont, TX to face, who we consider our rivals in the Southland Conference, the Lamar Cardinals. Tempers certainly fly high when Southeastern and Lamar face off against each other. I believe benches have cleared the past three years we have played against each other. As much as I hate to say this, Lamar came out with a chip on their shoulder and took the first two games from us with scores of 7-4 and 8-1. I can honestly say weren’t playing our usual Lion Baseball. It was upsetting because we had a real chance to separate ourselves from the rest of the conference. Saturday was a “Challenge Day” coach said. He wanted to see how we responded after losing two games in a row to a cocky Lamar team. When I woke up Saturday morning I knew there was no way we would lose. We are too good of team to lose three in a row and we have too much heart and determination. The Lions left Beaumont with a 5-1 victory Saturday afternoon. I have to give my teammates credit. Although we lost the series, we managed to come out and win game three. It also took almost thirty games for your roaring Lions to lose two games in a row. That is quite an accomplishment.

Looking ahead….I am currently on the bus typing this blog as we are traveling to Mobile to play our second game against South Alabama at Stanky Field. This is a must win game for the Lions as is every game, but we need to gain some momentum before facing off against a quality Texas Arlington team this weekend at “The Pat”. I have a feeling our hitters are going to rip the cover off the ball this week and our pitchers are going to continue throwing strikes and shut down the opposing teams. Hopefully doing so, we will have a great week for our die hard Lion fans, who continue to show nothing but support for our team.

On a side note I want to thank a few of our baseball Alumni such as: Ty Summerlin, Andrew Hickman, Nick Backes, Chris Cappo, Robert Waltman, Brent Varnado, Randy Roth and as well as my brother Chad Catalano, who have sort of renamed our outfield parking garage “The Point”. The past three weekends you may have seen ten to fifteen former Lion players sitting on top the parking garage cheering on their former team and teammates. They have gone as far as barbequing and loading up couches in the back of their trucks to sit in style as they watch their old team beat up on opponents. Thanks guys for your support and let’s keep this thing going.

Well we are just about to enter the Mobile area so until next time……….

GO GREEN
GO GOLD
GO LIONS

Cole Catalano #31