Notes from Coach Henson meeting...

Just finished meeting with Coach Henson...

-The Regular Season All-Region Team and Player/Pitcher of the year honors were selected at the coach's meeting. Team members will be released this weekend by the NCCAA. I can only tell you that you will want to keep an eye out for the final list, it will include some names you are familiar with.


-No changes in the Lineup this weekend...we will see the same starting 9 as usual.

-Provence,Fulmer, M. Benjamin, Woodring, Willingham make up the post-season rotation.
He indicated that this would be the rotation regardless of what happens.The only adjustment would be moving one of the backside guys up in relief if he was in a situation that required this or if he had an opportunity to close the regional out earlier by using one of them.

-We discussed Adam Taylor's injured calf...he is good to go.
The only other banged up player is Mark Benjamin who was unable to make the trip.

-We talked about the differences with the NAIA rules in effect
Noticable differences will relate to substitutions, pitching changes, and baserunning.
I will take some time during the broadcast tomorrow to deal with the specifics.

--NGU will play on Field #4 tomorrow on the Cardinals side of the Spring training facility.
They will take batting practice and infield on Field #2 beginning at 10:40.

--Pitching Matchup for Game 1:
      NGU- Drew Provence (7-1 / 3.39/ 48K/13BB/ 1 CG/ 61 IP)
      PBA- Logan Thomas  (2-3/ 4.08/ 62K/20BB/ 1 CG/  79.1 IP)

-Coach Henson and I took about 10 minutes to preview the regional field. I plan on having this audio for use during the broadcast tomorrow. The plan will be to play it on air at 11:40 AM just before we go on live at 11:50 for the Noon start. So the start time of Pregame tomorrow on the webcast will be 11:40 AM. The webcast can be found at www.ngcrusaders.com
I will also be updating via Twitter throughout the game.

-Had a chance to spend an hour or so hanging out with some of the guys at the team hotel. They seem excited yet focused.  My impression was that they know exactly what is at stake, yet plan on having a great time and enjoying the moment this week. There are some impressive student-athletes on this team. All in all, I would say they are good to go, maybe even a little antsy to play, after all they have been in their longest layoff of the year.

Not much waiting remains...Baseball soon!