By Gavin Lindahl
Sports Assignment Editor
With snow drifts and skin-numbing wind gusts, the first sport that comes to mind probably is not the one that is debuting this weekend. All the same, the baseball team will play its first game today at 2:30 p.m.
Luckily for the Bonnies, it won’t be played at home.
Instead, the Bonnies made like geese last night and flew south to play in the Russ Matt Invitational in the accurately-named Winter Haven, Florida.
Sophomore catcher Bradley Gresock claims that he and his teammates are ready and anxious to play despite the snow and ice around them.
“The weeks that have been building up have been intense; we have been doing constant work day in, and day out to prepare ourselves,” Gresock said. “It has been hard to focus at some points with constantly being inside, but when we looked at the countdown until game day, it has kept us focused and motivated. After being indoors for so long, it always feels so great to get out in the sunshine and play baseball on fresh grass.”
While being holed up inside to practice and train has not been ideal for the team, their opponents for this weekend, the University of Maine Black Bears, have endured the same punishment being in the North East. However, Maine is coming into this weekend with a slight edge.
“They are in a similar situation as we are in, but they have played seven games up to this point, so they have a few games advantage on us,” Gresock said. “But I believe we have put in a great deal of work that has prepared us for this series.”
Looking at Maine’s results isn’t exactly intimidating, losing all but one of their seven games leading up today. Furthermore, the Black Bears have been outscored 64-38 in that stretch, giving up 10 or more runs in five games.
For Gresock, it all comes back to getting experience through games played.
“We have prepared as best as we can. We will practice outside soon, but we understand what we have to do to compete,” Gresock said. “We will continue to work indoors until we can get outside, but the best practice for conference games is to play as many games as we can. That is why we are trying to improve each game we play [this weekend].”
After going 6-17 in Atlantic 10 play last season, finishing last place in the conference, the only way to go for the team is up. The Bonnies have currently played fewer games than all but one conference team (UMass won’t get started until March 3), so this weekend’s series should allow the team to play some catch up with the rest of the conference.
The Bonnies will play a double-header against Maine tomorrow and once more on Sunday following today’s game. The Bonnies will return home before heading south again to play in the Snowbird Classic starting on March 7.
The Bonnies first conference game will come towards the end of March against George Washington in a weekend series.
