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.
What's up? It's been awhile since the last post...my apologies. Time just gets away from you when you're having fun! I'm sitting on an airplane right now, bored to pieces, so I thought I might as well write this post to you guys from my cramped, 33D window seat on our flight home from Atlanta.
What a Trip
A 10-day business trip/mini vacation to sunny Florida during the heart of the Nebraska winter? Yes, please!
We set off to Florida with high expectations; we truly believed we could go 8-0 at the Snowbird Classic. Unfortunately, we didn't start out so hot. We grabbed early leads in our first three games and just couldn't hold on -– we had three consecutive mid-game meltdowns that doomed us. Starting the season 0-3 for the second year in a row was tough pill to swallow, especially knowing we were competitive and had plenty of chances where we could capitalize in our first three contests.
The Mavs finally got into the win column again St. Bonaventure -– when you're playing a team whose nickname is the "Bonnies," you just have to put it to them. Kidding! But seriously, can somebody tell me what a "Bonnie" is?
Then we stumbled late in our first game against Chicago State and lost a tough one in 11 innings. But maybe that's what we needed, because since then things have started to click and we're on a three-game win streak now.
Off Days
When you're in Florida for 10 days, you pray that there's going to be a beach trip at some point. And lucky for us, we scored two off days during the week.
For our first off day, we had a beach day. It was a legitimate beach day too. The coaches took us to Siesta Beach, which is annually voted the No. 1 beach in the U.S. It lived up to the hype, with the cool, white sand and crystal-clear water of the Gulf to make for one heck of a day at the beach for these pale Nebraskan ballplayers. We spent a good four to five hours roasting/baking/frying in the sun. By the next day, some of the guys looked like lobsters -- they were that red. Apparently they missed the memo that sunscreen was advised.
Major League Baseball opened Spring Training while we were in town, and we were lucky enough to be there in person when they did. The whole team went to see the Phillies' spring training opener against the Toronto Blue Jays in Clearwater, Fla. It was a great experience for us, as many of the guys had never been to a spring training game.
Homaha!
The temperature in Omaha is about 80 degrees lower than it was where we were just this past weekend. It's good to be back though; after missing a full week of school, I'm sure I have a lot of catching up to do academically.
I've had some requests from my teammates (Tyler Hamer, Anthony "The Violator" Falcone and others) about wanting to be on "Bullpen Banter." So in the coming posts look for the inside scoop on some of my fellow Mavericks.
Next up: Grand Canyon University. The 'Lopes are a transitioning school like we are -– it'll be a "battle of the ineligibles," as neither school can compete in postseason play. We're off to the Valley of the Sun on Thursday for four-game series in Phoenix. I can't wait to be warm again!
As always, if you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it – you can shoot me a tweet @SamMurphy_17. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back with you soon.
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)
