It’s time for things to turn around

Hey Rebel Fans,

This season it feels like we have been snakebitten a little bit. We have battled in all of our games, but there have been a few we just haven’t closed out. We have lost 10 games by one run and we’ve been walked off five times. It’s tough because we aren’t showing up and getting our butts handed to us. We are competing, but we just haven’t been lucky this year.

I think there are two ways we could look at it. One is to be negative and say, “Nothing goes our way.” Or we can say, “Look we have been close in all of these games and as we come to the later stages of the season, maybe things turn around for us.” We need to look for the silver lining in our losses and battle as a team this last month of the year.

Being a senior, I’ve gone through the highs and lows and we just need to stay together, especially for the younger guys on our team. We can’t let finger pointing or name calling come into equation. That stuff just doesn’t fly on our team. When that starts happening and people call each other out in a negative way, that’s when teams start to fall apart.

I’m still convinced that we are a much better team than our record shows and I believe we have a chance to get some wins down the stretch. As long as we stay together as a team, I think the younger guys will stay on board and we will be OK.

This weekend we host Air Force and it is a huge a series for us because they are directly ahead of us in the conference standings. Right now we are in sixth place and the sixth and seventh place teams have to play in the play-in game to get into the Mountain West Championship, which is a double elimination tournament.

We really don’t want to be in that game. If we are able to take three from Air Force, it would be a huge step forward in trying to avoid that extra game, which would burn up a few more of our arms. It’s a huge series in that aspect. We are trying to make a run and we are going to need to use all of our arms in order to do that.

One thing I have really enjoyed this season is seeing some of the Little League teams show up to our games. I remember when I was their age and I looked up to the older guys. My cousin went to Stanford and I remember being in awe of how strong and big these guys were that were playing with my cousin. I can only imagine how these kids feel when they come out to our games.

We love playing in front of you guys and we would love to see you out at Earl E. Wilson Stadium this weekend! We open our series with the Falcons on Friday at 6:05 p.m. First pitch is set for 2:05 p.m. on Saturday and it is Military Appreciation Day. Anyone with a military ID gets in for free. We wrap up our series with Air Force on Sunday at 1:05 p.m.

Thanks for reading I look forward to talking with you next week!

-Erik VanMeetren