Football wound down. We tolerated basketball for two weeks. Now we have the ping of ball off bat. Today was the opening day of the college baseball season.
Auburn opens their season with a four game homestand against Maine. Why Maine? Because the coach from Maine would rather be in the South in February. And he was handsomely rewarded today. Just a gorgeous evening for the game, even if we forgot the peanuts:
A good game too. There are so many new players even veteran fans were diving for rosters. Even still, there were plenty of things to remind us all of seasons past in this close game. We had random bunts. There was an error at shortstop. We had fun with the good-natured heckling of the opposing left fielder.
And there we were, in the bottom of the 9th, in a tie game. Someone started the heckling chant version of the slow clap for the freshman left fielder. (Who had put together a nice game for himself.) To lead off the inning was Auburn’s new third baseman, Damek Tomscha, a junior college transfer brought in to add some defense at the corner. He took a hanging fastball and put it somewhere the pitcher hadn’t anticipated:
Earlier another one of the new players saved a home run:
And the bullpen looked sharp, too. Baseball season is here.
Oh, look, one of those sunset photos made it on the nice new AUSunset Tumblr. Follow her.
Tomorrow: Intolerably colder, but more baseball and one other important sport.
