May 21, 2010
Palo Alto, Calif.

Today reminded me a lot of the first game of the WAC tournament.

We all woke up at our leisure and had some time to get breakfast and prepare for the game. We headed for Stanford at 12:45 to start our preset warm up.

Everything is very regimented during NCAA tournaments. We have 30 minutes in the batting cages, 20 minutes on the warm-up field and another 20 minutes on the game field. All the NCAA representatives are watching and letting us know how much time we have at each place.

When we got to the field everyone on the team was talking about how cold and windy it was. Everyone was wearing their Under Armor long sleeves and trying to move around to stay warm. It's hard to believe it is May out here!

Once the game started the wind picked up even more. Some of the balls that were hit while we were on defense were affected by the wind. The balls were hit high in the air and then pushed back toward the infield, causing a lot of routine fly balls to hit the ground before our outfielders could catch them.

Luckily, it ended up working in our favor when Alex Aguirre hit a high fly ball in the infield and the wind pushed it around so much that the first baseman missed it and we were able to score two runs in the bottom of the fifth, causing the game to end instantly by the eight-run rule.

Today's game reminded me of the first game of the WAC tournament because you could tell our team was a little rusty, and it took us a few innings get back in our groove. We scored five runs by the second inning and then the team became a little complacent, which allowed UC Davis to gain some momentum and score a few runs.

During a mid-inning team huddle I reminded the team that from here on out, no team is going to surrender to us during any point in the game ... everyone is playing like there is no tomorrow simply because there is no tomorrow. After that, the team picked up again and we finally finished the game with the W. It was a good first game, and tomorrow is going to be even harder.

Tomorrow we play Stanford, which is going to be a tough game. We have played Stanford twice previously this season so we have an idea of what we are getting into. Most of the team stayed to watch the Stanford vs. Texas Tech game, which is good for everyone to see and pick up on tendencies.

I explained to the team that when we played Stanford earlier this season, we were not the same team that we are today, and most likely they are not the same team either. I told the team once again, that we are not just happy to be here, we want to win. I know everyone will come out ready to play tomorrow, and hopefully we will come out on top.