Yellowjackets Baseball

This past week has been tough on our team. Scott Hoium begain the week on a high note as he received the Lunch Pail for the first time. Scott has been working extremely hard this year and definitely deserved the honor of carrying the Lunch Pail with him. He has been taking extra cuts, pushing around some extra weight in the weight room (and consequently losing some from his own frameJ) and doing above and beyond what has been expected of him. Well deserved Shades, well deserved.

One a more somber note, the Twin Ports lost a prominent baseball figure this past week. St. Scholastica’s head baseball coach John Baggs lost his battle with cancer on Tuesday morning. Though many on our team have never met him, his impact on our team can be seen every day. It’s common knowledge that Coach Morgan played for him and coached with Mr. Baggs, and alot that Coach teaches is from Baggs’ tutelage. His legacy will live on through Coach Morgan in our program as we build our own baseball identity and culture here at UWS. May God bless Collen, Maddux, and Josie. We are so sorry about your loss!

On a lighter note, we look forward to seeing some fresh faces at the Metrodome next Wednesday when we play Hamline at 11:45am. Take care and God Bless.

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Well, after two and a half weeks of practice, our legs are tired and our bodies are aching, but we're still enthusiastically working towards our goals. We've been taking our pre-game infields with a little added twist. For every error we make, we have to run an inning. An inning is a sprint the width of a tennis court. For instance, for eight innings, we will run 8 sprints back and forth and then take a break. Then we run seven, then six, then five, etc. The innings are meant to add game-like pressure to our infields so that when a pressure situation comes around in a game we'll be ready for it. We just recieved our new workout plans for weeks 18 and 19 of our lifting program. This phase of the progrum focuses on strength to help us get as strong as possible before the season starts. After this phase, we'll enter a maintenance phase to help us keep our strength throughout the season. It's getting tough to fit practice, our lifts, and homework into our already busy schedules, but that's the life of a collegiate athlete.

This spring, coach is also teaching us a different style of hitting than he has the past two years. This form of hitting is what every single MLB player uses and is what enables Vlad or Sorianoto drop bombs on pitches 6 inches BELOW the plate. Yeah, he's good. Already there has been considerable improvement in the quality of our swings. Hopefully this new approach leads to better AB's and more run production than last year. We have the next two days off so this should help us recover and bring better focus to practice on Friday.

We hope to see a lot of you at the metrodome on March 4th. We play Hamline University at 11:15 am. Talk to blog world soon!

It's that time again. The smell of fresh cut grass and the sound of cleats in the dugout is just around the corner. By just around the corner I mean just after a month in our luxurious field house. Guys are getting excited about hittin' the field and the prospect of finishing in the top four is planting itself in our minds. Practice officially starts on Super Bowl Sunday (GO CARDINALS!). Not being able to watch the game is the first of some needed sacrifices that will prepare us to finish where we want to. Practices unofficially started on the 22nd of January; we started captain's practices at 6am. Away from the field house, classes are well under way and everyone is getting back into the swing of things. Outside of school guys are hittin' the ice and reeling in monster eel pouts. Sean Cummings is doing the eel pout catching (coach Olin also claims to have caught one), while Justin Saufley, Casey Morsette, Joe Stark and Brendan Willis are merely practicing staying warm. To be honest, those guys are catching some things. Mostly colds, though. Catcher Brett Olson reports some good fishing back towards Eau Claire. He caught a few 30-inch Northern Pike and a 38-inch Muskie. Other than those fish tales, not much else has been announced.

We're looking forward to our first game but from now until then it will be one foot in front of the other and one day at a time. Big things don't happen like that. It takes hard work and doing a lot of little things right to make some magic happen. So as we embark upon another leg of of the joyous journey that is NCAA Baseball, we intend to pull a Houdini "switcheroo", if you will, and finish in the running for the playoffs.

Our Player Profile for this edition of the Jacket blog is on Junior outfield transfer Jimi "Cheeeese" Zawacki. (Pronounced Zah-whack-ee)
Jimi is from Osseo, Wisconsin and first learned to ride a bike when he was three.
Birthday: November, 13 1987 (born on Friday!) Has a twin brother named Joe
Favorite Gatorade Flavor: Grape
Favorite Sport to watch other than baseball: Football
Biggest Baseball moment: Senior year of high school, helping Osseo-Fairchild to its first state tournament appearance
Favorite MLB team: Milwaukee Brewers
Favorite Player: Chipper Jones
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Cotton Candy
Favorite Food: Pizza "for shizzle"
Favorite position to play other than outfield: Shortstop
Favorite Movie: Summer Catch
If I wasn't playing college baseball I'd... “be going to school at UW-Madison to get season tickets to cheer on the Badgers. (Jump around!)”
Anything you'd like to add about this upcoming season or anything baseball related?
“I really look forward to a great year an reaching our goal of finishing in the top four. Coming as a transfer, everyone has been really accepting. I have already built a lot of friendships and I look forward to helping the team out. We're lucky to have such a great facility to spend our off time in; hitting in the cages and so forth.”

See you with the next post next week!
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As Christmas nears, our semester is drawing to a close. We've spent countless hours lifting and conditioning for the spring. I'm excited for the season to start. It's not even January and I can already smell the Metrodome. First, however, we'll have to jump the last hurdles of the semester. Final papers, research projects, presentations, and final exams take place next week. Once they are over, we'll be able to take our foot off of cruise control and really put the pedal to the metal. After break is over, it's only one month from the start of practice (Feb 1st) until our first games in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. A few of us will be working with the coaches at our annual winter baseball camps for players in grades 3-12. It is always a blast to teach the young players our techniques. I hope some of you reading this blog may be able to attend our camp. Our next posting will be after the 27th and 28th camp. We'll let you know how it went! Have a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year!
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Mike Labelle is a sophomore outfielder from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. He is one of four players from Thunder Bay on the team. Watch for him in the upcoming season(s) to play a part in our push for the top four in the conference.

What do you like best about being a Yellowjacket baseball player?

“The thing I like most about being a yellowjacket baseball player is being able to compete. Competition has always been something I have always liked and competing whether it is on the practice field or in a game is what I like the best.”

Your favorite ice cream?

“Probably Oreo ice cream from DQ”

What is your favorite/ least favorite hitting drill?

“My favorite would have to say BP, and my least favorite hitting drill is probably something to do with the XLR8 balls.”

Conditioning drill?

“I would have to say probably medicine ball drills, they involve the least amount of running!”

What do you like to do when you have a break from class or studying?

“Either watching TV or sleeping!”

What's it like to be an international student?

“It honestly feels the same, the odd joke gets thrown around but I don't mind them, I just throw a few back. But really being from Canada feels a lot similar to being here, it's not far from home so I feel pretty comfortable being here.”

Do you like the way the program is heading? Explain.

“This is only my second year here and I have already seen so much more improvement from last year. The work ethic and the attitude that we can win from both the returning players and even the newcomers makes it feel like this is only a start to something good. I think this program is heading in the right direction and from here on out its only going to get better. “

Au revoir!