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KALB'S KORNER

Senior pitcher Dan Kalbfliesh blogs about his experience at the NCAA Northeast Regional.

Wednesday, May 14 - Day 1

Our road to the NCAA regional’s began at 7 a.m. with a tour bus and an egg sandwich, 6 hours later we were enjoying our first team lunch before our brief practice on the field.  The nice weather and the knowledge of our season being extended made this a pristine day.  Our day concluded with a large team dinner at Olive Garden as we retired back to the hotel to rest for our upcoming contest tomorrow.  Six teams may enter but only one gets to punch their ticket to the World Series.  Tomorrow we enter the Northeast Regional as 27 baseball players that have formed a team and have grown into a family ready to accomplish one goal.   

Thursday, May 15 - Day 2

Day two began with an early breakfast and a slight rain delay. As we dressed in our greys and blues a calm seriousness settled over the bus ride as the realization of the task ahead set in. As the game began an unbridled sense of emoiton and excited sweep through the team that yes, the playoffs had begun. After taking a four nothing lead the day looked to be ours, but Bryant would not go quitely into the night as they stormed back to take the lead. Battletested as we are at this point in the season, we held our composure and fought back to eventually win the game. It was hard not to notice between all the exictement of the game the backstreet boys karoke event in left field. After the game Anthony , the bus driver, informed us that, yes infact he would be wearing a t-shirt that would state "seek and destroy" to honor the team. Our day concluded with a fest of all fests at the Longhorn steakhouse and a great song of "fried chicken, country hog, happy birthday hot dogs" song to our fearless trainer, Vinny Orobello, who got his days exercise in, running out to the first base line for his pre game introduction.

Friday, May 16 - Day 3

Day three of our regional stay began late as our scheduled game time was not until 6 p.m. We ate a late lunch and retired back to the hotel until it was time to leave for the field. We heard the news on the way to the field that the first team of the tournement, C.W. Post had been eliminated. We entered the complex to watch as Franklin Pierce eliminate another team, Southern Conn., the six team playing field has now been trimmed to four. Our game began with slight rain conditions, but the elements did not effect our lefty flame thrower Chris Piotrowski as he delievered two scoreless innings, but the game was held at the top of the third due to the rainy conditions. In the first inning the Dowling attack scored one run on zero hits. After the game was held both teams assisted the field crew in covering the field before we retired to our bus to watch a movie, Transformers. After a lengthy rain delay it was finally confirmed that the game would be moved to 3 p.m. On our return trip to the hotel we stoped and acquired pizza and subs for a late night dinner. Hopefully tomorrow will bring clear skys and continuation of the Golden Lions subperb play.

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