Evan Crower

Congratulations to Evan Crower for being selected as Player of the Week (April 24, 2011). Seniors Evan Crower and Michael Coyne both go 5 for 10 at the plate on the week

Claremont McKenna College

My cousin Sean McKaveney received a football scholarship at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont CA, and is enrolled to begin in the fall. It's a really good academic school, and it also has a baseball team.

My dad had spoken to Coach Town of the baseball team, and he had encouraged us to attend a game. CMC was playing Occidental on Friday (4/29) during Spring Break so we drove up to meet Coach Town, watch the game and tour the school.

I didn't realize how small the enrollment was, about 1200, but the campus seemed nice and our tour guide did a good job of telling us how wonderful it was.

Looking toward the north dorms.

Our tour guide was really good at walking backwards.

CMC dugout.

CMC home field.

Sample video

I've wanted to take video of me pitching, but it's been hard to find the time in between practices and games. This week I was on spring break and was able to fit it in. My friend Jake Terzoli volunteered to catch and Coach da Luz let me use the Saints field. Here is the video:

Student-Athlete Showcase

I took a step this week and signed with Student-Athlete Showcase to help me with my college school search. There will be a profile website that will contain video of me pitching and other information, and SAS will use this website when contacting schools.

2011 Season - Week 7

No way to sugercoat it... we failed to advance in the Lion's Tournament (4/18-21). Saints was playing in Division 6A, losing our first game on Monday to Mission Hills (11-7) before rolling thru wins against Kennedy Sacramento (18-1) on Tuesday and Santana (2-1) on Wednesday. At least Mission Hills advanced to the finals, though they lost to San Pasqual 4-3.

There were two personal highlights in the tournament. The first was the game teammate Lorenzo Juarez had against Mission Hills. After starting pitcher Evan Crower struggled, Lorenzo pitched three strong innings and hit a three run homer. And when 'Zo' couldn't get the last out, I got the call and struck out the final batter.

Both Lorenzo and myself have been eager for more innings on the mound. The challenge has been to be patient and wait for the opportunity, and then be ready when the opportunity comes. I think both Lorenzo and myself did exactly that.

Enrique 'kiki" Medina

Congratulations to Enrique 'kiki" Medina for being selected as Player of the Week (April 17, 2011). Senior Kiki Medina had 6 hits over three games and pitched a complete Game 2-1 victory of Santana to round out a great week.

2011 Season - Week 6

This week we won both of our Eastern League games, versing Christian High School on Tuesday (9-4) and Thursday (8-7).

Next week begins the Lion's Tournament. Saints will be playing in Division 6A. We have games on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, with the top teams advancing to Thursday.

Michael Coyne

Congrats to senior Michael Coyne for being selected as Player of the Week (April 10, 2011). Catcher / First Baseman Coyne has gotten his swing back going 6 for 11 over the last 3 games. Michael has driven in 4 runs over that span and has contributed behind the plate with exceptional defense and holding runners at bay.

Here is Michael's video from NCSA:

Austin Shives

Congratulations to Austin Shives for being selected as Player of the Week (April 3, 2011). Junior Second Baseman Austin Shives was 4 for 7 on the week with 5 RBI. Austin has a perfect fielding percentage of 1.000 (No errors). Defensively, Austin has been a highlight machine all season to this point, making routine as well as spectacular plays. Austins aggressive baserunning and speed have helped the Saints get on a roll.

2011 Season - Week 5

The Eastern League season has begun. This week we won both of our games, versing Serra High School on Tuesday (8-5) and Thursday (6-0).

Leadership

While I've always been involved in my school events, I never had yet pursued a school leadership position. So I decided for my senior year that I would give it a try.

The Associated Student Body (ASB) held elections today for the Executive positions, and I'm pleased to report that I will be the Commissioner of Athletics for the 2011-12 school year.

So I'm now undefeated in my new career of student government. This position is in charge of intramural sports and pep rallies. I think I can handle that.

Go Saints!

Happy Birthday...

... to me.

So Cal Dirtbags

I will be playing for the Southern California Dirtbags this summer. I am excited to be reunited with Coach Williams, who I worked with when I was much younger playing out of the Tecolote Youth Baseball League.

The league had a close relationship with the Point Loma Nazarene University (San Diego, Ca) baseball team, and Coach Williams was playing for PLNU and had been a coach for my travel team. Over the years I have spent plenty of time at PLNU taking hitting lessons with Jay Johnson and pitching lessons with Justin James. Their field is on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and it's just above a softball field where I had my one year old birthday party. Pretty sweet!

The SoCal Dirtbags schedule will  begin in June. More details to come.

Opportunity

I'm not going to lie - I was pretty disappointed not to pitch this week. And to make matters worse, after the Point Loma game on Friday (4/1), the coach told me and only two other guys that we had to come out on Saturday to pitch to a team from Minnesota that was in town for some practice.

But after thinking it over, I realized that every opportunity to throw was just that - an opportunity. So I remained positive and proceeded to blast through the out of towner's line-up for two innings.

I had been working on my arm angle lately, looking for a slot that felt good both when throwing and afterwards. And today it all came together. I felt I had great control, pitch speed seemed faster, and my curve was nasty.

I'm glad I took advantage of today's opportunity. I know when it comes to getting playing time, it's out of my control. I can only control what I can control, and today I felt I did.

Perfect Game USA

I got an email this week from Pefect Game USA saying how they wanted a photo of me for my profile page on their website.

If you don't know about Pefect Game USA, here is some info from their website:

Perfect Game USA is devoted to furthering the development and career of the talented high school baseball player. To that end, Perfect Game USA produces the very highest national level individual player showcases and team tournaments all over the United States. These events have proved invaluable to the college coaching community and major league baseball as they can scout a large population of talented ball players all in one location.


So here it is...

2011 season - Week 4

After not pitching last week, I needed a turn to keep building momentum. But I sat on Tuesday (3/29) as we shellacked University City High School 12-1 and sat on Thursday (3/31) as we squeezed a 5-4 win over Mission Bay High School.

Once again, I figured my turn would come on Friday (4/1) for the re-scheduled game against Point Loma High School. But like a bad April Fools joke, I sat during our 6-0 win too. I did get up before the final inning to throw about 10 pitches in the bull pen, but still didn't get in.

But there is more... click here.