Minnesota State University - Mankato Athletics

Welcome to your behind-the-scenes home to Minnesota State Baseball during the 2013 NCAA Division II College World Series in Cary, N.C.  Minnesota State Athletic Communications graduate assistant Luke Steckler will be traveling with the Mavericks to the national tournament with the team - providing updated information and insight along the way.

 
Travel Day (Tuesday, May 21) - Contributed by Paul Allan
After practicing in Mankato, the Mavericks jumped on a bus and headed for MSP where they eventually made their way to Cary, N.C., and their home for the next week or so (the national championship game is slated for June 1st) - the Hilton Garden Inn.

A couple of notes as Minnesota State prepares for its first game of the national tournament, which begins Saturday with the Mavericks taking on Grand Valley State at 5:00 p.m. EST.   If you do the Twitter thang, our regular twitter feed is @msumavericks, but please be sure to give @NCAAD2CWS a follow as that's where we'll be live tweeting during games. Also, the NCAA is providing live streaming of all the CWS games and the link for that is located at http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2013/05/25

Practice (Wednesday, May 22)

The Mavericks arived safe and sound in Cary, N.C., around 11 p.m. EST last night. After a solid nights sleep, we all got a great breakfast this morning at the hotel and made the 90 minute drive to the outskirts of Winstom-Salem, N.C., for a practice at the Forsyth Country Day School.

A big thanks to coach Adam Christ's buddy, Homer, for getting us out on the diamond this afternoon for a great practice session. It was in the mid-80's with a slight breeze that made for a great afternoon as everyone was enjoying the warmer weather compared to the spring we had back in Minnesota.

We ended practice with a little extra BP for the pitchers, coaches and support staff with a couple of them taking advantage of the short fences around the park (est. 300 -LF, 360-CF,300-RF). Hopefully all of those long balls carry into the games this weekend. After making it back into the Raleigh-Durham area, we made a pit stop at Sheetz gas station upon the recommendation of our bus driver, Steve, which many of the boys thought was an improvement over Kwik Trip due to the wide variety of hot food options made to order.

Should be a nice, relaxing night at the hotel before we have another practice session tomorrow at the USA Baseball National Training Complex and pre-tournament meeting tomorrow evening.




Practice #3 (Friday May 24)

Minnesota State got its first official practice of the weekend this morning beginning on one of the auxillary fields at the USA Baseball National Training Complex before transitioning to the stadium field for the final 45 minutes. After practice, the boys hoped to hit up the USA Baseball Team Store at the facility, but they were temporarily close due to computer issues, so we'll have to wait till tomorrow to spend whats left of our per diem.

Upon returning to the hotel, a couple of Mavericks continued to pile up the awards as Nolan Johnson was named to the Rawlings/ABCA Central Region Gold Glove at catcher for the second straight season, then to top it off Harvey Martin became the first Maverick to ever earn the Daktronics Ron Lenz National Pitcher of the Year award and the second ever Daktronics First Team All-American.

In the evening, we headed out the PNC Arena, the home of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, for the pre-tournament banquet. That also began with a bang as Ben Keller made history by becoming the first student-athlete in NCAA Baseball history to earn multiple NCAA Elite 89 awards with a 4.0 GPA in mechanical engineering. After a delicious meal, head coach Matt Magers, along with the rest of the tournament's head coaches, had a Q & A session where we got some great background information on all of the teams. We then made the short drive back to the hotel to get a little more R & R and can't wait to get the tournament started tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET against Grand Valley State. Should be a great week of baseball!



Game-Day #1 (Saturday May 25)

Before we get started on all of today's activities, I forgot to mention in yesterday's entry that the boys kicked off the day by raising the official Minnesota State NCAA DII Baseball Championship flag showing that we have officially arrived at the tournament. We began the day with another great breakfast and got some down time in the hotel before heading off to the ballpark to open the tournament. It hard to believe it's already Saturday as the days are starting to all kind of flow together, but we are one of the few teams in the country still playing baseball and wouldn't have it any other way.

The Mavericks started the tournament with a fantastic 2-0 victory over Grand Valley State, the first win in program history over the Lakers, behind a tremendous pitching performance by Jason Hoppe who extended his scoreless innings streak to 51.2 consecutive innings just 2.1 shy of the NCAA DII single-season record. It was another beautiful day in North Carolina and the Maverick fans were out in full effect as we had one of the strongest contingents at the first day of the event.

Additionally, it was the first time since 1987 in NCAA DII Baseball Championship history that a pair of shutouts was thrown in one day as Franklin Pierce, who MSU will play at 5 p.m. ET on Monday, defeated Shippensburg 1-0 in the early game today. After concluding all of the post-game activities, everyone got a good meal before heading back to the hotel and the guys took full advantage of tomorrow's giveaway at the tournament, free sunglasses. We have an off day tomorrow and plan on getting a good practice in during the afternoon before taking in another day of great baseball as the other side of bracket gets underwa





Practice #4 (Sunday May 26)

It was a pretty relaxing day for everyone, since the boys didn't have any games today as the other side of the bracket got underway. I think most of the crew took advantage of that to sleep in a little before heading out to the baseball complex just after noon for our 1:30 p.m. practice. While the boys were getting some defensive work and batting practice in, the support staff took advantage of another gorgeous day here in Cary to watch some great baseball and a few of the coaches were scouting the rest of the week's competition. Josh Threlkeld was behind the plate for every pitch of the day charting hitters and getting a scouting report on the pitchers.

After practice, the boys came over to watch the rest of the games and most of them opened their wallets at the USA Baseball Team Store to purchase some souveniors from the trip. I don't know about everyone, but Cory Poppitz and I sure got a little sun burnt as we try to fight that signature farmer's tan. We took advantage of the down time to explore some more of the local restaurants as there are plenty of great places to eat all over town. It should be another low key night in the hotel as we get ready to get back on the diamond tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET against Franklin Pierce!