Note: This journal is being kept by Concordia head coach Bucky Burgau in the attempt to help Cobber baseball fans to get a closer look at the spring trip to Florida.

March 3

This will be my last journal entry for 2007.

We had good long day at the ballpark. We dropped a couple of tough games but again saw enough good things to lead us to think that 2007 will be a good year.

Again, we got good starting pitching. Both Kevin Engebretson and Adam Johnson pitched well. We failed again out of the bullpen but once we start throwing the ball over the plate with those guys, and they start to better understand their roles in the staff - that part of our team will improve.

Kyle Johnson had an incredible day ar the plate. A home run, two doubles, two singles and six RBI's. Ryan Emter also played well both at the plate and in center field.

Tomorrow we get up early to go to the Twins game and then head for home at 5:20 p.m.

It was a good trip. We learned a great deal about our team. Our young players got their feet wet and some will really have to contribute for us to have a good MIAC run.

Bucky

March 2

Today we tangled with a nationally-ranked team and went toe-to-toe with them. We lost to #16 Augustana 18-13, but the final score is not indicative of how the game went.

We had a lot of good things happen. Scott Schumacher pitched five strong innings today against a very good hitting team. He has shown us that he and Kevin Engebretson will headline our starting staff.

We also stroked the ball around pretty well today on offense. Zach Johnson continues to impress offensively. Zach had only one hit today (grand slam) but hit the ball hard the two other times he was up and also added two walks. Erick Sykora had a single and triple. Scott Halupcsok had two hits. Jake Krause had three hits and a base on balls with four runs scored. Kyle Johnson played well both defensively and offensively.

The team and I would like to tip our hat to freshman pitcher Matt Green. He had to stay out and pitch much longer than he should have today. Sometimes in baseball a pitcher has to take one for the team so you can keep your staff reasonably fresh for the next day. Matt did that for us today. He gives our team a chance to compete and win tomorrow.

We have a tough day in store for us tomorrow. We play two nine-inning games. It is our last day of games on this Florida trip. We are seeing signs of our team coming together.

A sad day for college baseball today when a bus carrying Bluffton University's team crashed and killed four players, the bus driver and his wife. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their team, families and friends.

Bucky

March 1

It was a badly needed off day today. After five straight days of baseball we needed to rest the arms, bodies and minds.

Coach Reese and "Slick" Miller took some of the guys to the beach. Many of the players went with their parents to the beach. Penny and I went to Lakeland to watch Chris Coste and the Phillies.

We arrived in Lakeland about noon after a two-hour drive. Game time was 1:05, and after getting lost for almost an hour, we got to our seats right before the first pitch.

It is a sign of a good marriage if it survives an hour of being lost in a strange city. What really made me mad was when Penny wouldn't get out of the car to ask directions even after I threatened to take her meal money away for the day!!

Eventually we made our way to Tigertown and had a great day at the park.

We have a early game tomorrow, 9 a.m. The guys will have to get up early and get their playing shoes on. We play another good team tomorrow in Augustana (Ill.)

We will start at the beginning with our pitching staff as Scott Schumacher is going on the mound for us. We hope to finish off the trip by playing good competitive baseball for the final three days.

We are not sure we want to come home with all the weather back there.

Bucky

February 28

It was one of those days where you have to tip your hat to the opponent. York is just better than us right now.

They have played more games, been practicing longer and a lot of those practices were outside. York is a very good hitting team. That, coupled with us not throwing the ball over the plate, led to an extremely long day. We lost 15-3.

Eight walks along with two hit batters and a good hitting team led to a lopsided score. Also, when so many balls are being thrown by your pitcher, your infielders can have a tendancy to sit back and not be ready and, as a result, not make plays they normally do.

There are some positives that we will be able to take away from today's game. First, we are playing the game. The physical act of playing the game, and doing baseball stuff, will help us get better even if we do lose a game here or there. Second, we are finding more out about our team as far as roles are concerned. Third, sometimes from a coaching standpoint you can learn a ton about your team when you are losing bad. So not every thing is as bad as it may seem.

Freshman Adam Johnson had another impressive outing on the mound. He threw a 1-2-3 ninth with control of all of his pitches. Zach Johnson continues to get his hits. He has also shown an ability to go catch the ball in the outfield. A concern of the coaching staff is the health of Chris Klabo's shoulder. He is coming off of shoulder surgery and the first throw he made last Sunday hurt, so we chosen not to play him. If it feels better on Friday we will DH him to get his bat in the line up. We desperately need his bat. He can hit it over people's heads. We need that extra base pop in the line up. More important we hope for Chris's sake he can play. He is a senior and we would like to see him go out on a good note.

We have a day off tomorrow. Some of the guys are going off with their families and the rest are going to the beach with Coach Reese and wing man "Slick" Miller. Penny (Bucky's wife) and I are going to go to Lakeland to watch Chris Coste play.

Bucky

February 27

As exciting as yesterday was - today was equally a downer. We played poor in almost all parts of the game and lost to Hanover 8-6.

It isn't often you can outhit a team 12-7 and lose. But as we all know you have to perform in all parts of the game. The physical mistakes were not as bad as the mental. Just poor decisions on not backing up bases, to throwing to the wrong base, walking poor hitters to getting called out on strikes with men on base.

However, in all of that bad there were several bright spots. Michael Hinde, Erick Sykora, and Ryan Emter all had two hits on the day. Matt Youngquist had three hits and a couple of stolen bases. Also, we did see a bit of flash from our pitchers.

We know that this is a young team and a work in progress. At the same time we feel we can win a lot of games with this team and need to improve on a daily basis. With that in mind we are enjoying good baseball weather and being on a baseball field.

Again this year we have a lot of family and friends that have made the trip south to see us play. It is fun for our team to have the fan following we have.

Tomorrow we will start with Anthony Stern on the mound as he has earned a starting nod. Our bullpen is good and healthy and ready to go.

Bucky

February 26

It was a great day for baseball and a great day for Cobber baseball!

We put our first win of 2007 in the books and had a glimpse of the future of the program. First, we beat Johnson and Wales 6-4. We trailed early, but the guys battled back and we were able to set up our pitching for the game, and it worked to perfection. We also turned a couple of key double plays, which a good baseball team needs to do. The double plays were good to see as we have a new look in the middle of the infield. Erick Sykora moves from second to short and Matt Youngquist moves from the outfield into second. Erick is now playing his more natural position, while Matt has been all over the field for us in an effort to get his bat in the line up. We think given time together they will develop into a good keystone combo.

Zach Johnson continues to impress with the bat. He is making good contact and finding the holes. He played leftfield today as we DH'ed Chris Klabo because of his shoulder problem. Freshman Jake Krause was impressive on offense today. He had a double, triple, two runs scored and two stolen bases. He is also adapting well to his new position at third base.

Kevin Engebretson gave us a solid six innings as a starter and was his steady self. We then turned it over to the Heart-O-Lakes connection for the final three innings. Matt Green (D-G-F) served as the set-up guy, pitching two solid innings and gave up only one unearned run. He then gave the ball to Adam Johnson (Pelican Rapids) who closed it out for his first collegiate save. All three Cobber pitchers threw strikes and kept themselves out of major trouble.

It is good to see all of our freshman getting their feet wet and contributing.

Bucky

February 25

The first game of the year is officially in the books. It was a typical first game of the year as we made some typical first-game mistakes.  Almost all of the mistakes were mental and certainly fixable.  We ended up losing to a solid Franklin College (Ind.) team 5-3, with both teams having a chance to pull out the win.

We out hit Franklin 8-6, but let them off the hook with some defensive mental lapses that allowed five runs. They really didn't pound the ball all over the park, but instead played enough "small ball" that led to a few of our mental mistakes. 

We were pleased with all of the pitching.  Scott Schumacher pitched well even though he gave up five runs in 3.1 innings of work. Both Chris Fellows and Anthony Stern did great jobs out of the bullpen.

With the exception of a couple of throwing errors we played real well in the field. I am relieved to know that this Cobber team again will once again have a solid foundation of good defense.  The left side of the infield was great with Erick Sykora at shortstop and freshman Jake Krause at third.

Senior outfielder Brian Knoblauch also got into the act on the defensive side. He made a diving play on a line drive in right that robbed the batter of an extra-base hit.

At the plate, Scott Halupzsok and Sykora had two hits apiece to lead the team and hit the ball solid all day. Matt Youngquist also had a good day at the plate in his first action of the season.

For the first five days of the trip we will be playing one, nine-inning game a day instead of seven-inning doubleheaders. One nine-inning game a day is nice as we are not used to the heat and we can manage our   bullpen on a day-to-day basis. With so many new pitchers on the staff, everything is new for a lot of the players. How the bullpen is used, how to warm up and not use up all your bullets is all new to the new guys and a learning experience. 

Tomorrow we have another nine-inning game against Johnson and Wales. We have a lot of family here and more on their way. It is a great week for family and baseball. We hope to improve our baseball team more tomorrow.

Bucky 

February 24

The first leg of the baseball spring trip to Florida has gone as planned! 

It is always a big worry for me prior to the trip wondering if everything will go as planned. Fortunately, all the travel that we had to do from the school down to the airport (we left at 4 a.m. and had to drive to the Twin Cities to catch our flight) and then getting all the players checked through the gate and onto the airplane went very smoothly. We also didn't have any problems once we got to Florida with our rental vans or finding our way to the condominiums where we will be staying for the whole trip. It is a huge weight off of my shoulders when things go well and we can start to worry about playing the games. 

We are staying in condos this year. They are unbelievably nice.  All the teams stay here so it will be fun to meet the other baseball people off the field. 

Finally, we got to the diamond and were able to practice outside. There is nothing like stepping on the ball field for the first time in the year. It erases all those months of sitting in the office and the weeks of inside practice.

We had a normal two-hour workout and then scrimmaged for one hour. We threw all the pitchers in the scrimmage that are not penciled in to see action tomorrow.

We have a 26-man travel party this year. There are 23 players and three staff on the trip. Besides myself, there are two new faces on the trip with the team. Mike Reese is our new assistant coach this season. He will handle the pitching staff this year - among other duties.  Mike is a 27-year high school baseball veteran from the state of Kentucky.  He is a baseball guy through-and-through and has already had a great impact on the program. Jeff Miller is along to help us coach on the trip (Jeff was just recently named as the head coach of the Moorhead Blues). He is a good friend and will help out a lot.

This season is shaping up to be very interesting. We will put a veteran team on the field but will have to work with a young pitching staff. We look forward to putting those two parts of the game together and having something special on the field.

It's nice to finally be talking baseball again!