Kendall Hazel | Blogger

Tucson was freaking awesome.

The Tucson trip started off with a couple new scenarios.

1) Coach asked us to wear khaki pants and some sort of nice polo (much to the dismay of some). However, we needed all the positive self-image we could get, because by the end of the trip, we all had horrid tan lines and some of the grubbiest neards (neck beards) I’ve ever witnessed.

2) The softball team traveled on the same bus with us for the first time in my memory, so we all doubled up for the four hour haul to Minneapolis. They may have looked far more comfortable, but sorry ladies, we knocked you out of the park (pun most definitely intended). The khakis and polos straight up worked.

The bus ride was… interesting. Since the softball girls got the back of the bus, we took movie rights. We chose Borat of all movies—a bold choice. We got about half way, and I made an executive decision to change movies to avoid tangible awkward tension for those who opposed the movie (every softball player). We settled on Friday Night Lights, but the girls quickly took over after that and subjected us to the timeless love story of Allie and Noah in The Notebook. There were moans and groans but not from me. Rachel McAdams is and forever will be my celebrity crush. The movie isn’t half bad either.

We finally boarded the plane following Tanner’s questioning by TSA… he left a Wal-Mart receipt in his pocket, and turns out, it posed quite a threat to the people of the airport. We were also able to watch Michigan State lose to Middle Tennessee State, and I forgot all about Tanner’s mishap and focused on how my NCAA champion prediction lost in the first round. Cool. The flight was just fine, and I was proud of the team for only posting a couple of cliché “wing pics” on Snapchat.

We did enjoy some cliché things once we got in Arizona. Our first food stop? In-N-Out Burger. Need I say more? The food only continued to be good from that point forward. We stayed at the Viscount Inn for the fourth year in a row, and for the fourth year in a row, the breakfast bacon was cut from the meat of the most delicious pigs on the planet… maybe universe… word is still out on that one. My cholesterol took a shot by the end of the week. I didn’t check what my levels were, but based on the 60 plus strips of bacon I had in one week… it is probably sky-rocketing.

Let’s talk baseball. We played 8 games so I’ll keep things brief. Here is a synopsis of our games.

Game 1: George Fox
We won 23-4. Justin Lange tossed a gem. Wagenman threw a kid out from center field. That was pretty neat. We hit the ball like crazy. Tanner hit an in-the-park homerun, and then, the far stronger Porter Sartor actually hit a homerun that left the field. Much cooler, Tanner. The rest of the day consisted of hanging by the pool and watching Kendall Candor and his dad shoot water guns at everyone in the pool (even some lady trying to read a magazine).

Game 2: Cal Lutheran
Cam Johnson, thank you. Cammy J hit a big time solo homerun to tie the game in the fifth inning. That was the spark for us to pull off the win, 8-5. We were off to a good start.

Game 3: Carthage
We lost. It sucked. But we did get to witness two ejections. The catcher from Carthage wasn’t a huge fan of the home plate umpire, and apparently, the umpire wasn’t a huge fan of the catcher. The umpire won. He threw him out of the game, and when the Carthage coach came to back up his player, he got the ol’ boot as well. Some tempers flared. Despite the loss, it was good for a laugh. We had bacon again that morning, so the day wasn’t a total loss.

Game 4 & 5: Hamline
We lost the first game, 16-4. Damn, that was a bad taste. We struggled in every facet: pitching, hitting, and fielding. But with this team, we are aware. We know what needs to be fixed, and if we don’t, Coach Eddie lets us know. Oh man, he will let us know. Good thing he did. We fixed each facet. We came storming back with a 17-3 victory. Porter Sartor hit another homerun (out of the park). Bennett Mann and Tanner Truesdell both hit shots off the batter’s eye in center field, and tanner hit two other balls that made it the warning track. For a dude that is a work-horse in the weight room, you’d think he would muscle one out of the park (LOL). Shout out to Dalton Mason for saving my ass. After I got in a bases-loaded jam, I got a comebacker that I decided to throw to Mexico instead of Brandon’s glove. Dalton came in and got a huge double play to end the inning. It was a great win to bounce back from a couple losses. We never looked back.

Game 6: Colby
We got the chance to play in the stadium. It was pretty emotional actually. It is such a beautiful place to play. It was where I got my first ever start as a Beaver freshmen year. It was my last time to play on that field and take in such an amazing baseball environment. So, naturally, I was placed in charge of running the scoreboard up in the press box with Keenan Jones while the rest of the team enjoyed the big league dugout. I screwed up the scoreboard in the 6th inning and had to have a worker fix it for me. Bernie got his first start in forever, and he was throwing hard (dude has battled a nagging elbow injury)—so great to see. My dude Tyson Valentine pitched lights out. Ryan Duncan came in later, and he threw damn well. Wes Onken (Old Faithful) slammed the door shut in the 9th, with a final score of 10-8. Oh, and Bennett Mann hit another homerun. It went a long ways. Where you at, Truz!

Game 7: Carthage (the rematch)
They had our number again. They jumped out to an early lead, but like I said, we are aware. We are resilient. We battled back, and we never gave up. We scored 7 runs in the 8th to tie the score. Then in the 9th, Devon Harms, aka Mr. Clutch, singled with two-outs. Then, as if it was scripted, Neil “Orange Peel” Marshall sent a shot to deep left center. Normally, I would have been worried about Harms scoring from first base, but he was running like he was late for a Batman convention (Harms loves Batman more than his mother). He scored and chaos ensued as we rushed the field. We won, 12-11. We mobbed Neil. It was awesome. What a battle. Baseball is… life.

Game 8: Williams
Williams did to us what we did to Carthage. They just stuck around. They found ways on base, and eventually started to push some runs across. They eventually tied things up late in the game. But once again, Cammy J was the man. He sent a double to right to score a couple runs to reclaim the lead. From there, it took a couple more singles and another appearance from the Sheriff (Wes Onken) to close the door as we won 12-9.

I’m getting a little long-winded, but wow—we had a great week. 6-2 record with so many highlights. We had a ton of parents, family, and friends come down to support us. We easily had the largest fan-base of all the teams there. It was an amazing week in a baseball paradise. The bacon was so good. Did I mention that?

This blog post got a little long. I didn’t even glance at my word count until now. I could write endlessly about this trip, about this team, about our coaches, about our families, about all the fun, about my friends, and about the countless life-long memories. This was my last trip to Tucson, Arizona to play baseball for the Buena Vista University Beavers. I will take this time to thank some people.

Coach Eddie, thank you for bringing me to this team and university (I’ll cool it with the walks).

Coach Sonka, thank you for putting up with the pitchers in the van all week. We are annoying, and we know it. Thank you for selflessly doing laundry several nights.

Coach Paletta, thank you for being both a great teammate my freshmen and sophomore years, but also a great coach these last two years.

Lisa Bengston, thank you for driving vans, healing injuries, doing post-pitching, and relentlessly cheering on the team. You rock.

Buena Vista University, my time left is short, but thank you for the incredible opportunity to represent this school with some of the greatest people I have ever met.

It is time to pursue a conference championship with my brothers.

Until next time Tucson…
Thanks for reading, Beavers

Kendall