Today I have a guest youth ministry blog post at Carl Jones Blog :”If I Were Starting Over in Youth Ministry…” So today’s blog will be a Gamecock blog post.
Last night the Gamecocks finished a great season, but as runners up in the Baseball College World Series to Arizona. It was a heck of a run by this young talented team led by some great upperclass leadership. Many thought after their rough SEC start that they had no chance and that the run of CWS was over as we reloaded with younger talent. But surprisingly, this young group pushed ahead and won the SEC East and almost had the SEC title, but just came up short to LSU.
This year I had the chance to go to eleven regular season games and to one CWS regional game. To see the improvements over the year was amazing. Coach Ray Tanner did a great job of pushing these guys beyond their potential. I don’t want to say they came up short the last two games. They just got beat by the best team in College Baseball and it was a fun run. Back-to-Back National Championships the past two years and then reloading with a great group of freshman and being the runners-up is not a bad thing. I look toward next year, see who we are losing in Michael Roth, Matt Price, and Adam Matthews, but also see the great talent that got great experience and a top recruiting class. I think the next few years we will be back in Omaha and win at least one or two more.
Today I’m having the feeling I did growing up after the MLB World Series was over. I miss baseball! Over the past decade I’ve fallen in love with baseball all over again with college baseball after losing it to the steroid era of baseball in the Major Leagues. College baseball is pure and fun to watch. I love watching the teams dog pile after winning. I love the antics of the bench and bullpen. I love how the college players aren’t about the greed and fame, they are out there for the love of the game. So the countdown to college football in August and college baseball in February has begun!
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