Records are nice, but wins would be better

Hey Rebel Fans,

It’s never fun getting swept, but we did take some positives away from the San Diego State series.

Our bats are starting to come around, which is nice. Hopefully we can keep that going. We were able to outhit SDSU in two of the three games and then came out and out hit Long Beach State in our midweek game.

Now we need to focus on getting our pitching going as well. It’s tough when one gun is firing and the other one isn’t. Hopefully we can get them both going at the same time and get hot.

I was fortunate to have some good at-bats going into the SDSU series and in the first game against the Aztecs I tied an NCAA record for reaching base safely in 18 consecutive plate appearances. I also broke UNLV’s record for consecutive hits with 10. It is an honor to reach those milestones and it’s truly a privilege to be able to be in this situation. I definitely don’t take it for granted, but I would rather trade those individual accolades for a couple team wins. I want our whole team to get hot because winning is a lot more fun.

Coming into this season, this was the deepest team I’ve ever been a part of. Unfortunately we have suffered a ton of injuries, but sometimes that happens to baseball teams. It happens every year to different teams and we just happen to be that team this year. We are just going to have to overcome that by having some guys step up that weren’t expected to step up at the beginning of the year and our healthy guys need to play their role and make sure to get their jobs done.

We know we aren’t doing so hot in conference or on the road, but we still have a chance to turn this thing around. We are about half way through the season and this isn’t the end all be all. Someone said to me last weekend, ‘The only thing that matters is the last two weeks of the season.’

On one hand they have a point, but we want to get rolling a lot sooner than that. The last few weeks you really find out who you are as a team. If we can get hot at that time, there is no limit to where we can go. Obviously we want to be on a roll before then though.

This weekend we are at our rival Nevada, Reno and there is a bunch of passion between the two schools. We were at dinner last night and there was anti-UNLV stuff everywhere. Hopefully our guys thrive off that; I know I do. I love when there are a couple thousand people in the stands rooting against us. That makes it so much fun to succeed in spite of those fans.

The first time around against UNR this year they got two wins against us. They are a good offensive team, but I think we found some of their weaknesses. If we can exploit those weaknesses this weekend, there is no reason why we shouldn’t capture a couple victories.

Our next home game is next Tuesday against nationally ranked Arizona State, so hopefully we see you out at Earl E. Wilson Stadium! Thanks for all your support this season.

-Erik VanMeetren