“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.” -Bob Feller
With the end of the first semester fast approaching, baseball has recently tied up their fall season of games. After a total of seven games, ending in a game between our own Blue and Gold varsity teams, I got to sit down with Coach Jones to hear his thoughts on the 2018 fall baseball season.
After a brief break from summer ball, the teams get back together for fall ball, returning stronger and healthier. As Coach Jones said “It gives the guys a great opportunity to play with one another, and put our game back together, it gives us an opportunity for guys to see what they can do. Each of the teams will play six weeks–roughly six doubleheaders.”
When asked how they set up teams for the fall games, Coach Jones notes that they set it up so everybody gets optimum playing time. “We take guys who we know are gonna be varsity guys, we keep the teams at a minimum of roster spots, and let everybody get as many innings and at-bats as they need, and that lets us decide potential fence guys against varsity potential. And helps us make decisions for our coming season.”
Despite setbacks this year due to the weather, resulting in one of the varsity teams having two rainouts, the teams pressed on, finishing up with the Blue-Gold series, in which the two varsity teams play each other in a seven-inning scrimmage game–winner take all. “This year in particular, maybe on account of the rain, it was highly competitive” said Coach Jones.
He also stressed that the main purpose of fall ball is to get into the swing of the games and join as a team. According to Coach Jones, “Overall it was successful because we got to play the games; in fact, we don’t take stats during fall ball”
Following the conclusion of fall ball, the varsity baseball teams enter their “true” off-season during November and December. “Now we are in a true off-season” said Coach Jones, “No catch, no balls, just a bootcamp to get ready, as the baseball team heads into offseason, to get physically and mentally stronger.”
