Bullpen Banter: From North of the Border
Jun 13, 2014 | Baseball
Sam Murphy is a sophomore left-handed pitcher for the Omaha baseball team. A broadcast journalism major from Lake Worth, Fla., Sam will write posts throughout the season for his blog, "Bullpen Banter," available exclusively on OMavs.com.
From North of the border…
I can't believe another baseball season has flown by already. I guess time does really fly when you're having fun…and doing well for that matter.
We wrapped up the 2014 campaign on top – again. Grabbing back-to-back Summit League regular-season championships in our first two seasons as members of the conference is no small task; of the five other schools transitioning to Division I right now, the closest one of those teams has come to being top in their conference is within two games. In 2013 – our first year as members of the Summit – we finished the season six games ahead of second-place South Dakota State, and this year we made it a little interesting and finished just three games ahead of the Jackrabbits.
What's been accomplished at Omaha in the past couple of years has a lot to do with the hard work of our coaching staff and their efforts, but I don't think any of this could have been done without the group of seniors we had this year.
The seven seniors on the roster this season were the core of our team. Each one of them brought a unique style of leadership and poise to the ballfield each and every day. It was a solid group of men that have been at UNO since day one; this was the last group that played for UNO back when we were Division II and still had the opportunity to finish their careers as Division I athletes. Knowing they had no chance to play in any kind of postseason, this group of seniors really made sure the rest of the team had the same goal as they did, and that was to repeat as champs!
Now it's summer…for everyone except college baseball players! We don't have the luxury of taking the summer off; to stay fresh we need to play as much and as often as we can. For some of us, that means traveling to British Columbia, Canada (like me) to play all summer. Others have been sent to leagues in Alaska, Virginia, Minnesota, Colorado, Missouri and Ohio to play. Regardless of where we end up, baseball will consume our summers.
It's quite the process during summer ball; we stay with host families and play for coaches we don't know and teammates we've only read about. It's always a fun experience!
This will be the last time you hear from me until I get back to Omaha in the fall. Hopefully everybody has an enjoyable summer filled with good times. I'll talk you again in August!
As always, if you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it – you can shoot me a tweet @SamMurphy_17. Thanks for reading.
God Bless and Go Mavs,
Sam
Check out previous entries from "Bullpen Banter" below:
#1 -- Let's Get Started (Feb. 7)
#2 -- A Delayed Start (Feb. 16)
#3 -- A Week in Florida (March 3)
#4 -- A Weekend in the Valley of the Sun
#5 -- Spring Break Edition
#6 -- Forging On to Fargo
#7 -- Putting UNO on the Map
From North of the border…
I can't believe another baseball season has flown by already. I guess time does really fly when you're having fun…and doing well for that matter.
We wrapped up the 2014 campaign on top – again. Grabbing back-to-back Summit League regular-season championships in our first two seasons as members of the conference is no small task; of the five other schools transitioning to Division I right now, the closest one of those teams has come to being top in their conference is within two games. In 2013 – our first year as members of the Summit – we finished the season six games ahead of second-place South Dakota State, and this year we made it a little interesting and finished just three games ahead of the Jackrabbits.
What's been accomplished at Omaha in the past couple of years has a lot to do with the hard work of our coaching staff and their efforts, but I don't think any of this could have been done without the group of seniors we had this year.
The seven seniors on the roster this season were the core of our team. Each one of them brought a unique style of leadership and poise to the ballfield each and every day. It was a solid group of men that have been at UNO since day one; this was the last group that played for UNO back when we were Division II and still had the opportunity to finish their careers as Division I athletes. Knowing they had no chance to play in any kind of postseason, this group of seniors really made sure the rest of the team had the same goal as they did, and that was to repeat as champs!
Now it's summer…for everyone except college baseball players! We don't have the luxury of taking the summer off; to stay fresh we need to play as much and as often as we can. For some of us, that means traveling to British Columbia, Canada (like me) to play all summer. Others have been sent to leagues in Alaska, Virginia, Minnesota, Colorado, Missouri and Ohio to play. Regardless of where we end up, baseball will consume our summers.
It's quite the process during summer ball; we stay with host families and play for coaches we don't know and teammates we've only read about. It's always a fun experience!
This will be the last time you hear from me until I get back to Omaha in the fall. Hopefully everybody has an enjoyable summer filled with good times. I'll talk you again in August!
As always, if you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it – you can shoot me a tweet @SamMurphy_17. Thanks for reading.
God Bless and Go Mavs,
Sam
Check out previous entries from "Bullpen Banter" below:
#1 -- Let's Get Started (Feb. 7)
#2 -- A Delayed Start (Feb. 16)
#3 -- A Week in Florida (March 3)
#4 -- A Weekend in the Valley of the Sun
#5 -- Spring Break Edition
#6 -- Forging On to Fargo
#7 -- Putting UNO on the Map
Players Mentioned
LHP/INF
/ BaseballWednesday, August 26
Wednesday, August 26
Friday, August 21
Tuesday, April 21
