Kendall Hazel | Sports Blogger

Hey Beavers,

A lot has happened since my last blog about our Arizona trip. Let me refresh you…

I made fun of my roommate Tanner Truesdell for not hitting any homeruns yet. He must have taken that to heart.

So, first things first: Tanner, I apologize for calling you out for your lack of homeruns. You have certainly made up for it the last few weeks. Tanner has cranked 5 home runs since my last post. The dude mashes. Always has. He paid me back again during practice last week. We had a “scrimmage” and I faced Tanner for the first time this season and he laced my cutter into right field for a single.

“I was sitting breaking ball the entire time,” Truz said. I guess when you live with the same person for four years, he may know your tendencies. Shout out, Truz. Love you… even though Bennett has more bombs than you.

Anyway, baseball has been awesome. Our first conference series started on a high note. We took on Loras at home and got the 4-game sweep—a pretty solid start if you ask me. The pitching was exceptional. The bats were alive. Defense was phenomenal. That is a pretty good recipe for a sweep.

We did everything we could to keep that momentum going into a big series with the Wartburg Knights. We knew it would be a battle every single game. It was. Lange pitched his ass off in the first game, but some timely hitting and sheer luck won it for the Knights. Right after that, Jay Hadaway did the same as Justin. He threw well, but for some reason, Saturday in Waverly was not our day. It didn’t help that some Wartburg fan thought it a good idea to harass our team the entire time (plug for a future post on sportsmanship). We did crush some Pizza Ranch afterwards, so the day wasn’t a total loss. Tanner ordered a buffalo chicken pizza for me because he knew I would want one. What a guy.

The following day, Jake Lewis went out and pitched in a battle. J-Lew then got taken out of the game, and Dalton Mason came in to pitch. Then, suddenly, Truz hit a 3-run bomb to give us a lead and eventually the win. Poor J-Lew. D-Mace snaked another win from him. It’s almost like we don’t want him to get a win… Take the hint Jake. We don’t like you (just kidding). We then went on to lose the next game, however. It sucked. We needed to move on and bounce back against Coe.

We had our annual two game series with the Kohawks. We took them on here in Storm Lake. Yours truly pitched in that first game. Things were going decently well. I felt bad for this kid on Coe, so I let him hit a homerun to put us down 6-2. You know me! Just a friendly guy…

Anyway, our guys showed some serious grit, and we rallied several times to eventually come back and win. Cammy J had been having a rough day, but he remained focus and had a great at bat late in the game to tie up the score with a single. Then, Bam Bam Candor shot a liner to left to seal the victory. It was awesome. Doesn’t matter the situation or the score when it comes to this baseball team—we are going to play hard.

The next game didn’t take much offense because my dude Tyson Valentine pitched arguably the best game of his career. He took down the Kohawks with some masterful pitch locations. Everything was working for him. Damn. My suitemates are good at baseball.

We ended up scoring a lot and winning by way of the 10-run rule (11-1) in part to a 5-run 7th inning. Shout out to Kendall Candor on his first collegiate homerun.

We carried that two game sweep of Coe into the weekend against Central. We took on the Dutch here in Storm Lake, and the weather was finally nice. It was great to see so many people out at the game. I got to catch a first pitch from my dude Dr. Bonagura, and Dr. Miyuki made an appearance on Saturday. It was uber clutch. We ended up winning 3 of 4 against Central. It was a weekend of wind and homeruns. We hit five homeruns during the four game series including two more from Candor and two from Bennett Mann. God bless, Bennett Mann. He hits some of the hardest balls I’ve ever seen and as of late, they go right to defenders. He just trots back into the dugout with a smile on his face that says, “I may be smiling, but *%$^ *@#$ this stupid %$^*&^ baseball %$^*#$.” I’m glad he didn’t get deterred.

His patience paid off. In the 8th inning of our final game, Bennett launched a ball to left center for a grand slam to put us up 15-9. That was insane. I was in the bullpen when it was hit, and right off the bat, the guys and I in the bullpen knew it was gone. We started celebrating before it even landed. College baseball is so much fun.

I wanted to spotlight Michael Zellar. Mike has battled through some serious injuries. Before this season, Michael has come back from ACL tears in both knees, a medial meniscus tear, and a broken metacarpal. Then, in Arizona in our very first game, Mike tore his other meniscus. Mike didn’t play in a game until he got a rehab start in a JV game against Dordt and hit his first ever dinger. Then, just a few days later, Mike started at 3rd base against Central. Over the four game series, he played some great defense and slapped four hits with an RBI. Props to you, Mike and shout out to Lisa and the AT staff.

Well, it finally came. The last time I will ever play a game in Storm Lake has already passed. I won’t get long-winded. It has been an absolute blessing to be a part of this team and represent this school. We went 3-1 against Dubuque (Candor hit another homerun), and we had a great Senior Day. I remember Senior Day from the previous three years. Each time, I never believed it would finally get to me and the other 10 guys that I now call brothers. It came and went like all things in life.

Coach Eddie took a moment to say some really nice things about each of our seniors. After the final game, we took a chance to eat food as a team with all of the parents. We watched a video full of team pictures, and then some pictures of all the seniors from when we were little started popping up on the screen. I don’t know how she dug it up, but my mom found a picture of me from t-ball with a big (nearly toothless) smile on my face. Good work, Jen Haze.

Speaking of parents, our 11 seniors have some damn good ones. The amount of time spent and miles traveled to watch us play baseball (mostly in the freezing cold) is unbelievable. Their selflessness is a lesson from which we can all learn. We owe them everything.

The year is far from over. We are at Luther, and then we are at Simpson. Then it’s tournament time. We have goals. We intend on reaching them.

Go Beavers,
Ken Haze

Photos courtesy of Kendall Hazel and Randy Truesdell