Passion for Baseball

Blake has one true love (other than me of course) and that is Virginia Baseball. He moved to Charlottesville in February 2007 and spent the last four years writing marketing plans, creating on-field promotions, and playing music during games. He spent the majority of his time writing down lyrics to songs to play in baseball situations, talking about Coach O’Conner and the players, and hoping  for a return trip to the College World Series. His 2009 adventure with Evan to the CWS was truly a highlight of his life (I’m still wondering if it was the baseball or the steak at Drover’s in Omaha that has given him the itch to return….)

Blake left the Athletics Department for a wonderful opportunity in University Development in March and has severely missed spending time with Andy and Chuck in the press box and rooting for his beloved team through music. Luckily, this has given him time to tailgate with Evan and be a cheering fan. We have spent the last two weekends engulfed in baseball as our team hosted Regionals and Super Regionals. We have very specific tailgating traditions…chairs set-up in the correct order, Bratwursts/Coors/Corona for the boys and veggies/hummus/cheese/crackers for me, and lucky outfits (we aren’t superstitious at all). Throughout the two weekends, we beat Navy, St. John’s, and ECU handily before meeting the Anteaters of UC-Irvine in the Super Regional. We beat the Eaters 6-0 on Saturday, lost a heartbreaker on Sunday, and nervously awaited Monday’s tie-breaker to go to Omaha.

Blake and I barely slept on Sunday night and spent all day at work with a nervous feeling in our stomachs. We met Evan at 3:30 PM for the game and all sat quietly in the stands anticipating the first pitch. UCI scored first before UVa's Kenny Swab launched a homerun over the left field wall to tie the game at 1-1.  In the top of the 8^th, our biggest nightmare began to unfold. A UCI double followed by some useful outs, forced another run across…2-1 Irvine…our dreams of another CWS run were almost over. In the bottom of the 9^th inning with two outs and two strikes on him, David Coleman lines up the middle, followed by Jared King's liner off the pitchers ankle, followed by a four pitch walk. With the bases loaded we ask, "can we do it?" Could we honestly score and win this game? No, it’s too crazy…




We're Going to Omaha!

 

Chris Taylor up to bat…a fastball for strike one…here comes another fastball…base hit up the middle (crowd is going crazy) as we tie with one run and then clinch the series with the other! The Hoos are going to Omaha!!!!!

As I hugged Blake and many strangers around me, I was reminded why I love sports…anything can happen…even with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the bottom of the 9^th inning.

Next stop? Tailgating on Sunday at 2:00 PM as Virginia takes on Cal! Let’s go ‘Hoos, I want to use my newly purchased Southwest Airlines ticket to see you in the Championship!!!!