200th Win

Today was a big day for coach Doorey as he reached his 200th career win with Plattsburgh. His 199th and 200th win today come easy today as both games were nail bitters. In the first game the Cards were up 6-2 before giving up four runs in the in the 6th inning. The next 7 innings would be scoreless, yes that is correct it wasn’t until the 14th inning until the cards pulled off a walk off hit. In the second game the Cardinal bats were quite cold but thanks to a great pitching performance by Corey Grossman two runs were enough to win the game. This was the first career win for Corey and I’d like to tip my hat to him for stepping up and pitching a solid 6 innings today.

Not many knew that today was coach Doorey’s 200th career win and that’s why I’d like to dedicate this blog post him. He has been with this program since it restarted and has put Plattsburgh on the map. I’ve had the pleasure to play under coach for the past four years and I can personally say it has been the best years of my baseball career. We’ve had our ups and downs during that span but he has stuck by our side the whole time. His philosophy of getting the most out of his players has got him the success that he has had. When he is on the field he is one of the most competitive individuals that I’ve ever met, and when he’s off the field he is one of the kindest. People who don’t know coach off the field miss out on what he does for all of his players. At any point of the day coach is always one call away and will be there for all of his players. I truly believe that the relationships he has with all of us is one of the many reasons why he won his 200th game today. With that, I’d personally like that congratulate coach on his big day and wish him only the best in the future.

A full blog on the Florida trip will come soon after we get home on Saturday. Thanks for following and wish us luck on our last two games in Florida.

Week Four

Week Four is now complete and the weather has finally caught up to us. I must have jinxed it by talking about how weird the weather has been this winter. Last week we had our first snow storm dropping a lovely six inches of snow. Now we are looking at another five to six inches this week. On the bright side the forecast for Fort Myers today was 88 degrees and sunny so Florida can’t come any sooner. Not being able to go outside this past week allowed all position players to get plenty of hacks in. If you weren’t facing a pitcher you were lucky enough face coach Doorey in the cage. No he wasn’t pitching, he was behind the pitching machine feeding curve balls and making most hitters look a tad silly. I think he was having a little more fun watching us then we were trying to hit. Defense once again was a main focus of the week. We continued to work on run downs, 1st and 3rd defenses, as well as bunt defenses. All of these situational drills are extremely important for our first games because from my past experiences these are the first things we, as a team, slip up on. It’s the little things like bunt defenses and situations that we are going to have to excel in this season to succeed.

With Florida being only one week away you can see the excitement of the freshman’s faces. Then again you can probably see it on all of our faces because I know, myself included that all the older guys are excited that they will be stepping on a plane not a bus come Wednesday. Come Friday I hope the new guys can keep up the excitement and try to push aside the nerves. The first game of the season is always nerve racking but we are going to have to look past that and strive for a win that Friday. Wish us luck and I hope to see lots of cardinal fans down there. On a final note I believe coach Doorey is only 7 or 8 wins away from his career 200th win at Plattsburgh. So if it’s a successful Florida trip coach will be coming back with that accomplishment under his belt

Week Three

Week three is now in the books for the Cards and it’s certainly been an unusual spring training so far. I’ve never experienced a winter quite like the one we are having here in Plattsburgh. In the past, we were lucky if we went outside three times before heading to Florida. Two of those three times typically would have been Coach Doorey forcing us outside while the snow was still flying. Doing this would get us prepared to what the regular season really feels like in Plattsburgh. Nothing like that can be said this year that’s for sure; once again we had three practices outside this week. All week the coaching staff stressed on the importance of defense and the affects it can have on our season. Coach Doorey emphasized “that we are only going to be as good as our defense”, and that one of our goals should be to be the best defensive team in the country. With that you can only image what practice must have looked like. Infielders worked on ground balls to our left and right focusing on doing every little step correctly. The outfielders focused on the significance of hitting all their cuts and the proper techniques on fielding fly balls. The pitchers continued working hard on establishing their fastballs early in the count. When doing this it allows the pitchers to be more effective and it takes more pressure off of them. The overall goal is to have our pitchers working ahead and our fielders playing the best defense they can. When you put those two together, you can guarantee that you will always be in every game.

With only two weeks remaining until Florida a sense of seriousness can be felt in the gym. Everybody is working hard and to top it off Coach Bulter has recently pulled out his coffee lid hitting drill. When this happens we all know the regular season must be really close. 17 days remain until our first game and there are still many opportunities out there for starting positions. As I say each week the new comers continue to improve, and being a senior as I am it’s really nice to see these kids improve so much on a weekly basis. Don’t be shocked to see new faces on opening day because all of newcomers have worked hard to get ready for March 9th. With that I’d like to give a shout out to two of the new guys and that’s Brain Latulipe and Mike Vargues. Both men come to practice each day, work hard, listen, and improve day in and out. Plattsburgh State Baseball has a bright future ahead of them and it will take all nine of the freshman to continue the success of this program. Only 16 days now till departure, Hope to see you all in Florida!

Former Cards now coachinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

One of the joys of being a head coach for so long (13 seasons, 10 at Plattsburgh) is watching the players you coached become coaches themselves.

Here are the former modern-era Cardinals that are now coaching:

Mike Bergman, SUNY Plattsburgh, Assistant Coach
Billy Davis, SUNY Plattsburgh, Assistant Coach
Matt Kelley, Union College, Assistant Coach
Zack Welch, Sul Ross State University (Texas), Graduate Assistant Coach
Matt Burns, SUNY Oneonta, Assistant Coach

Week Two

Week two has now come and gone for the baseball team. This week we were introduced to “Timed Mile Tuesday’s” and “What the Heck Beep Test Wednesdays”. Wednesday turned into a competition beep test because you had to beat your unknown competitor. The victors would happily move onto hitting stations while the losers would stay and run another test. The unlucky ones were left running four beep tests. As the week progressed so did the drills, pitchers continued to work on their arm strength while the outfielder’s and infielders were once again lucky enough to go outside. It was surprisingly in the 40’s again in the tundra of Plattsburgh and the coaches took full advantage of it. We were able to go over game like situations outside which are usually very difficult to do inside. Having these outside practices are great because it gives us a chance to throw the ball across the diamond and let’s face it, there’s only so much you can do in the gym.

As the weekend came the pitchers were ready to throw live for the second time this year. Instead of the strict fastball only schedule like last week the pitchers could now throw their full arsenal. We were lucky enough to have an umpire join us on Saturday giving us all the most game like situation we could have at this time. Overall the week was very productive; it’s nice to see the freshman grow from week to week because we are really going to need them this spring. Florida is coming fast and hopefully in three weeks we will be in full stride and fully prepared for our first games.

Welch traded to Abline

Former SUNY Plattsburgh standout Zack Welch was recently traded by the Alpine Cowboys of the Pecos League to the Abilene Prairie Dogs of the North American League.

Welch batted .336 last season with five doubles, a triple, a home run, 26 runs batted in, and 17 stolen bases for Alpine.

Welch has played independent league baseball for the past three seasons with Texarkana (Continental League, 2009), Alpine (Continental League, 2010; Pecos League, 2011) and Shreveport-Bossier (American Association, 2010).

Welch is currently is his first season as an assistant coach at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, TX.

15 Baseball Cards That Could Get You Through College

Came across an article that some of you might enjoy!

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2012/02/07/15-baseball-cards-that-could-get-you-through-college/