"Fear the Beard"

Our first loss came with heavy price. Of course, it’s upsetting to lose any game, especially on a win streak, but the most painful consequence of our loss yesterday was the loss of our facial hair. Coach Jarvis usually requires us to be clean-shaven during the season, but we were able to convince him to agree to a deal where as long as we keep winning, we don’t have to shave. Our season started on February 19, and entering this weekend, we had yet to lose our first game. As you can imagine, our beards were coming in pretty strong. Our motto this season, created by Tyler Graskewicz, quickly became “Fear the Beard.” There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the key to our winning streak was the facial hair. Unfortunately, our winning streak came to an end in the second game of our double header this past Saturday.

Our season has gotten off to a hot and cold start. Despite playing in brutally cold temperatures, our team has played well together and started off 10-0. We have successfully established a home-field advantage at the vaunted Shelby Bottoms. We were initially disappointed to find out our home games would be at Shelby Park this year instead of Greer Stadium, home of the Nashville Sounds. Shelby has treated us well so far (just ask Derek Hamblen, who had two hits yesterday that bounced completely over the head of the fielder), so we can’t complain. The only negatives include one day where the flag was raised upside down and another where the flag was non-existent.

With spring break this week, we will watch all of our friends leave Nashville to go home or on vacation, while we stay here to play baseball and have the whole campus to ourselves. Our next game is Tuesday afternoon at 1:00 P.M. at Shelby Park against Middle Tennessee State. In my career, we are 0-6 against MTSU but always play them close. Then, we get to head to Jacksonville, Florida for the latter part of Spring Break to begin our conference season against the Dolphins of Jacksonville. Come join us on Tuesday as we start anew playing for our facial hair.

- #5 SR Brendan Frazier, INF