It’s that time of year again. The cold is finally starting to let up, midterms are quickly approaching, and baseball season is in full swing. And what girl doesn’t love a bunch of guys baseball pants? Any baseball-loving ‘Nole can tell you that there’s no better place to be than Howser stadium in the Spring.
For those of you who don’t know, here’s a little history about FSU baseball: They are in the ACC conference, division 1 (of course). They have won 20 conference championships, have appeared in 21 college World Series tournaments, and have had the most World Series appearances with out ever actually winning one. Maybe lucky ‘13 will be our year!
The Recap:
On March 1st the ‘Noles played Villanova, a Big East team from Philadelphia. The game started off a little slow, but after the third inning it started to pick up. Senior Scott Sitz started off pitching, and did not give up a single run…oops did that give away the ending? Well since its already spoiled the noles won 7-0, a pretty close game considering the difference in ranking. Villanova had an alright game at the plate but looked very unprepared in the field. Early on, the third baseman overthrew to first base allowing one runner to advance and the batter to be safe at first. As far as the FSU ‘Noles they had a similar problem, the bats were there but the team wasn’t playing like a unit, which led to some minor fielding errors.
FSU Baseball Fun Facts:
Why “O Canada” Is Sung In the Fifth Inning: Here’s something most of you probably didn’t know: in the bottom of the fifth inning (the second half) a group known as The Animals of Section B get up and join together in a hearty rendition of the Canadian National Anthem. “Why?” you ask. Apparently in 1988, during the Winter Olympics, Florida State University was playing Gramling State University. The score was tied at 2-2 in the 5th inning and one of the Animals began to hum the Canadian National Anthem. The team suddenly began to hit better and score runs. Soon, all of the Animals were humming it and the team ended up scoring 8 runs that inning alone! Ever since then it has been a tradition to sing “O Canada” in the 5th inning for good luck.
Why is “Sweet Caroline” Played at the top of the 8th? Another interesting tradition is the playing of Neil Diamond’s song, “Sweet Caroline,” at the top of the 8th inning. Unfortunately there seems to be no clear reason why this is done, the general consensus is that it’s the tradition and should be honored. Baseball players are oddly superstitious and tradition is not to be messed with.
FSU’s Team Makeup:
FSU has a very young team this year but what they lack in years they make up for in talent. The team has a favorable majority of left-handed hitters, which is advantageous because most pitchers are right handed. They also have a talented closing pitcher, left-handed senior Bryant Holtmann who entered the game in the 7th inning to close. The real highlight of the game, as I am told he usually is, was Junior Marcus Davis (plays out field and first base). Davis went three for three (got on base every time he got up to bat)! Also one of the batters fowled the ball out and hit the Villanova bench coach in the dugout. He didn’t get hurt and thought it was pretty funny, especially since it happened again on the next pitch. You’d think they’d fence those things in right? This win is a promising start for another season of FSU baseball, and who knows? Maybe we will even get that long awaited World Series win this year.