"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

Spring Sports Underway

With the new year and spring just around the corner, several Belmont Bruins spring sports are finally starting their seasons. Check back periodically for updates from our Softball, Baseball, Golf and Tennis teams throughout the spring!

Welcome to 2010!

The Curb Event Center has been busy this week, already hosting 2 out of the 3 double headers scheduled within 6 days. What a way to come back from the winter break having 3 games practically back-to-back-to-back. Both the men and women’s teams did not start off the New Year how I’m sure they would have liked, both coming up with losses to Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday.

Both teams came back in the second double header with something to prove. The Belmont teams were victorious over the Hatters from Stetson with Amber Rockwell and Ian Clark having big games for the women and men respectively. Rockwell knocked down 6 three-pointers to lead the team with 18 points while freshman Ian Clark had a career high night posting 31 points.

Both Bruins teams will be back in action Thursday afternoon as they take on USC Upstate at 2:00 and 4:15.

Heading into the Holidays....

Our Women’s basketball team is off to a great start this season with a 6-3 record. We had a shaky night against Tennesse Tech’s Golden Eagles last Saturday night. The Lady Bruins had a good first half and felt we could finish the game with a win. Our team was not shooting as well as we would like to and just fell short of winning the game by 3 points. The Lady Bruins have great chemistry this year but were having a lack of focus as well as communication and not playing quite to our potential throughout the game. Our team has so much potential to have a great season, so coming off of a loss right before our Christmas break will just give us time to get focused and regroup to finish off our season strong. Preparing for conference games is going to be our next field of importance. We are really planning on making it to the NCAA tournament this year so our focus is going to have to be stronger than ever when we return to Belmont for the remaining games coming up.

- Haley Nelson, SO #44