Day 8: The Tour de America Continues

Well, we are officially over one week in on these things. Thank you so much for sticking around if you are still here. (Editor's note, we hope you are still here)

We can still very much tell that this group of guys has been with each other 24/7 on a bus over the last week. Mafia continues to get more and more hostile. However, it’s so hard to stop playing when it makes the bus rides fly by. 

We got to pass by St. Louis today though, it was cool to see the Arch again. I also got to teach Drey Dirksen about what the Arch is and that it’s actually like a big monument. 

Today we got to wake up a little bit later than scheduled due to our JV scrimmage getting scrapped. The weather here isn’t the greatest, so we had to practice in Quincy’s indoor facility. 

We stopped for lunch right outside Lindenwood University. We had the options of Mod Pizza, Potbelly or Cane’s. I got Mod Pizza, very good. 

The only bad part about practice today was that we had it at 8 at night, oh, and we didn’t really know where to go. 

We rolled up to a parking lot on Quincy’s north campus around 7:55 and walked out to an open gravel lot. After about 5 minutes, we were back on the bus and headed backward, literally, for about a block or two. 

In the end, we did find the indoor turf space and got our work in for the doubleheader tomorrow. 

Once we got back to the hotel, Jacob Ornelles, Spencer Marenco and I went into town to search for some food. We made our way to the nearest Mcdonald's after calling and ensuring that we could walk through the drive-thru since lobbies close at 8 p.m. everywhere now. 

We got our food and made the scenic walk back to the hotel, stopping at a nice little monument park. Now we are watching some World Baseball Classic as we get ready for bed. We get to play baseball tomorrow, very exciting. 

Daily Ornelles Closing Thought: 

“It was a good day today, couldn’t think of a better way to end it than walking a mile to Mcdonald’s and getting a quarter pounder with cheese, fries and a mango pineapple smoothie that made me feel right at home.” 

Day 7: Taking in a game of our own

I’m really sorry that these keep coming in so late so you don’t get to read them until the next day, but we keep having late nights so it’s not really my fault. (Editor's note - we'll publish whenever we get them!)

Today was awesome, we got to wake up and practice at one of the nicest fields in Division I baseball. I got to hang out in the Tennessee bullpen during batting practice and while we have a broken wooden bench to sit on, they have these luxurious chairs that should be in a movie theater sitting underneath heaters. So I hung out there for a while.

We got to do some scrimmage-type stuff on the field and work on situations, then I posted a Tiktok and got on the bus. 

We got back to the hotel later than usual, so of course all of our keys didn’t work. Thankfully, Jacob Ornelles, Jason Axelberg and I decided to not shut our door fully so we had access immediately. 

Once we were all on the bus, we headed to a spot that had Panda, Zaxby’s or Chipotle for lunch. I got only jaywalked like 4 times to get to Chipotle and back for lunch. 

The drive to Nashville consisted of some rather hostile Mafia play, you can really start to tell that 45 guys have been hanging out on the same bus for over a week. 

The Vanderbilt facilities were amazing. The way they utilize their limited space is marvelous and something that everyone should try to embody. They basically connect their baseball, football and basketball facilities for concourse concessions and bathrooms. You have to walk through the basketball court just to get to the outfield bleachers at the baseball stadium, so I got to see that. A good chunk of the guys also got to see a lot more of the football field than I did too. 

The game of course went into extra innings again, so after the 11th inning we decided to start driving since we still had 3 hours to go. Thank the lord for that decision, because Vanderbilt didn’t win the game until two hours later in the 17th inning. 

Also, about ten more guys bought the same Vanderbilt sweatshirt, including myself, so if you see that around campus just know that that’s a baseball player. 

Tomorrow, we finish our trek to Quincy, Illinois. The weather looks fabulous for the next couple of days, so I can’t wait to be bundled up and cheering on the boys again. 

Daily Ornelles Closing Thought: “Umm, hmm, I got nothing, I can’t think of anything. I’d like the readers of this blog to hear that if any of the baseball players say I’m smelly, it’s not because I’m actually smelly, but because my last name is close to smelly. I miss my girlfriend and my parents.” 

Day 6: Taking in a game of our own

Well, we just got to our hotel in Knoxville after an amazing game between Tennessee and Boston College. Boston College upset the No. 3 team in the nation in extra innings after throwing out the potential game-winning run at home to end the ninth inning. 

The crowd was extremely rowdy, and it was easy to see why Tennessee was the villain of the NCAA Baseball world last season. Our guys had no issues cheering against them inside their own hostile environment. We also got to see a ball get hit 477 feet, so that was cool.  

At the game, 10 guys all decided to buy the same sweatshirt, so when you see a guy wearing a black Nike hoodie with VOLS written on it, just know that that’s a baseball player. 

Basically, all we did today was wake up, eat breakfast, get ready for the bus, get on the bus, eat Chick-Fil-A, play Mafia, watch the game then get checked into our hotel for the night. So not entirely the most eventful day. 

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day. We get to practice on Tennessee’s field in the morning and then we get to watch another really good baseball team play at night. 

Day 5: Final Game in Cary, North Carolina

We won! 

Not only that, but our JV team remained the best JV team in the nation and kept our unbeaten streak alive. 

We played very well today. We pitched well, hit well and made plays in the field. I don’t want to  brag, but Adam Diedrich, Caleb Kranz and I also charted the game phenomenally. The game ended 7-2 and moved our record to 11-6 and 3-1 on the road trip so far. 

In case anyone was wondering, Kai Taylor finished in second place again today in three-hit kill in one of the two games we played. Maybe Wednesday will be his day?

After the game, Coach Huber spoke to us about the 2018 team, our team, and told us to look around and take in the field, the atmosphere and the feeling of being at the location of the National Championship. We got together and gave a little bit of heart-to-heart on what we need to do to get back here this June. 

After that, we headed over to another field for the JV game, but not before getting to have at it with some meatball subs, pasta salad and an incredible display of cookies from the Baggs fam. I ate 6 cookies. Not ashamed. Only like 4-5 guys ended up spilling some marinara sauce on their uniforms, which for our team I would say is very good numbers. 

It’s always awesome to see how much our parents go out of their way to feed us in between games. We appreciate it very much and know that it isn’t easy to find a way to feed 50 people, especially on a trip like this. So again, thank you so much. 

After the games, we went back to the hotel, showered and got cleaned up and made our way to Durham for some dinner. Lucky for us, it was trivia night at the local BBQ joint!

Team Hungry Lions consisted of myself, Kai Taylor, Jayson Bertsch, Joshua Koskie, Ryan Clementi, Ashton Michek and Drew Ball. We put on a gutsy performance while taking on some tough opponents. We ended up taking second place to team Old Guys Who Were Actually Alive When the Questions Took Place, consisting of Tim Huber, Clay Collison and Brendan Dye. In third place was the Tongue Punchers, consisting of Sam Young, X Feng, Nelk Banowetz, Drey Dirksen, Jason Axelberg, Nick Kemper and team captain Nate Davis. Rounding out the rear was Team Fink, consisting of Ragan Pinnow, Brooke Bleeker (Happy National Athletic Trainer Month) and team captain Jason Fink. 

The old people stayed behind while the players all headed back to the hotel for what turned out to be the best 30-minute bus ride of my career at Augustana. We decided to play a 28-man game of Mafia with everyone on the bus. It was chaos, but it was heaven. Kai connected to the busses aux and we sang karaoke while the Mafia picked down the Townies one by one. 

It was a great way to end the night and the weekend in North Carolina. Tomorrow, we will get to pack up and head to Tennessee. Surrounded by these guys, it definitely won’t be the only ten I see. 

Day 4: Took Down a Top-10 Team

Well, we didn’t win both games, but we did get a big ranked win today and were in a competitive game until the end against another talented team.

Obviously, we would’ve liked to have won both, but sometimes you don’t always get what you want. Like a video interview, I couldn’t get one of those today because nobody could replicate the amazing camera presence that Caleb Saari displayed yesterday. 

The team was clearly left speechless by Sam Siegel’s enchanting karaoke concert on the drive home from the field. Even Coach Huber was moved by Sam’s singing. Moved, as in he turned around to laugh. 

We played two games today. Our energy and focus were strides above what it was yesterday. We took it to heart to come to the field ready to play. Even if we showed up to the wrong field originally and had to move. 

Before the games, when pitchers don’t have to do anything yet, we play a game of three-hit kill with the hackysack. The game can be played by as many people as possible, and it starts with a light toss to somebody’s chest. The sack must then get kicked or hit by any body part other than the arm (elbow down) three times, but it must get hit by two separate people. Once the third hit occurs (by a combination of two guys), then someone attempts to catch the sack. Once the sack is caught, it turns into a game of dodgeball, but the sack must be thrown with our opposite arms. 

If Silver Medals in three-hit kill were valuable, Kai Taylor would be the wealthiest person alive. In the last two days, he has managed to finish in second place six times, we have played about 10-12 games in the last two days for context. He hasn’t won yet either. It’s getting kind of sad at this point. 

Okay, back to the games. We pitched well in game one, hit well enough, and played good defense to beat a top-10-ranked team in the nation. Ryan Jares and Ashton Michek combined to throw the whole game, with no earned runs. We won the game 5-1. Those two couldn’t get a video interview done though.

In the second game, I got the start on the mound. I literally couldn’t throw anything other than a fastball for a strike for the first two and a half innings, but I ended up leaving the game in the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead and a runner on second. Oh, and also a 1-2 count on the hitter. 

Coach Huber walked out with a smile on his face knowing that Caleb Kranz was about to throw one curveball and strike the guy out. I called it an alley-oop from the dugout after it happened and literally everyone laughed it was hilarious. He was able to get out of that inning for me with no major damage and kept the game tied all the way to the last inning. We came up just short in the end, but overall, it was a good game for us. 

Tomorrow, we get to play on the field that hosted the 2018 National Champions. Hopefully, we can take a page out of their book and end our trip to Cary with a win. (Click Here to Relive the National Championship)

Jacob Ornelles has been in the hotel weight room for the last three hours now, so unfortunately, today, we do not get a cool Hawaiian quote from him. 

Day 3: Winner, Winner

I love winning so much, not just because it means we are winning on the field but because it makes writing this blog so much easier.

We didn’t play good really at all, and we know that, but it’s so much better to learn from stuff like that when you win versus when you lose. 

We won 5-1 in our first game against D’Youville. We came out very flat from off the bus, didn’t really have any energy, and kind of coasted through our warmups. Thankfully, we can look back on that and change it for tomorrow when we have two pretty big games. 

Caleb Saari threw a gem. Didn’t even have close to his best stuff and was able to go six scoreless with only one hit. We pitched ourselves into a lot of big situations, but fortunately, we were able to get out of them. We hit the ball decently well, but the ball died all around the field today. 

Enough of that, though, we won, it’s over, time for tomorrow. 

Now to what we did before the game. I wish this was more eventful, but it was 95% on the bus, so unfortunately it wasn’t. 

Saari, Ryan Jares and I got picked up by the team at 7 a.m. in Charleston. If the guys weren’t all asleep still, I’m sure we would have walked in to applause and cheers, but instead, we got a couple of looks and a “Welcome” from Coach Huber. 

My rude awakening came when I meandered my way to the back of the bus to reassert myself as a demon in Mafia. Clearly, the group must have made a pact to ensure that I didn’t get to play that much because I died in the first round for about five straight games before they finally let me start playing again. Respect kills for sure. 

Naturally, we played for about 4 hours during the drive before we stopped for some lunch. We stopped in a strip mall that had multiple options, but 35 of us chose Chick-fil-A. It was understood by 34 of us that we weren’t allowed to order any milkshakes. We aren’t boys going to the yard, but one of us *cough cough Clayton Thompson cough cough* decided to do it anyway. A truly horrific act of rebellion. 

Also, Sam Siegel must have gotten impatient that his specially ordered chicken sandwich was coming out after the regularly crafted chicken sandwiches, so he decided to just eat one of those instead. He then acted surprised when the sandwich he actually ordered came out later. 

After lunch, we headed to the hotel and got ready for the game. 

Before ending this one, Jacob Ornelles wanted a few words. We are rooming together again. He wants to say “Ahuihou from the OBX”. That means until we meet again or something along those lines. 

Day 2: Country roads, take me home, to the place, I BELONG. WEST VIRGINIAAAAA

Well, the whole team should be in West Virginia by now. Ryan Jares, Caleb Saari and I are in Charleston, while the rest of the boys are about an hour north in Hurricane. 

(Editor’s Note – Our blogger got a little dramatic today) I almost died today, like twice. I will forever be grateful for the ability to fly on this trip, but my gosh did we get absolutely thrown around by the weather. On our first flight, as we were about to land, like literally close enough to the ground where I (5’9”, 29 inch vertical) could have touched the landing gear, the pilot was coming in way too hot, and we pulled back up into the air for another 10 minutes to redo the landing. 

It felt like I was Dom Toretto the way we were Tokyo Drifting everywhere. Everyone was sweating, and the pilots had to fly over the airport twice because they couldn’t even attempt to land, but we finally touched down after circling the airport for 15 minutes. 

But, after all of that, and an Uber, we made it to our hotel. 

We went out into the parking lot after settling into our room to play some catch. It doesn’t feel like it, but we do still have a game tomorrow. 

For dinner, Saari got to make the decision and we found a Mexican place about a quarter mile from the hotel. Los Agaves is clearly the place to be on a Friday night in Charleston. The three of us shared a queso and chips for the table (of course) and we had some good food before hitting the hay. 

Now to what everyone else did, because I couldn’t be with the team again, I had to bring in another source from the inside to know what their day consisted of. For today, I present to you, Aaron Heger. 

From Aaron:
Day 2 of the Augustana University Vikings Baseball team’s expedition of 20 hours across 1,377 miles of uncharted terrain began in beautiful Peoria, Illinois. The Vikings were off to a hot start as we left only ten minutes late of our expected 8:00 a.m. departure due to a room of guys still not being on the bus. A few phone calls later and the three castaways sprinted their way out onto the bus after waking up at 8:04.

Three hours into the trip, we pulled into a beautiful Indianapolis that was slammed with thunderstorms. Eager to eat our first meal of the day that wasn’t microwaved hotel omelets and apple juice, we arrived at RoundTripper Academy for practice. 

Turns out that we forgot to account for the time change as we enter Indiana, so instead of grabbing food, we showed up slightly late to our practice time. Staying hot.

From there, we had lunch at an outlet of different places and brought our food onto the bus. We sludged through the pouring rain and soon to turn hail from Illinois to West Virginia. Don’t worry though, we only had one tornado warning, that was all of Ohio. 

This news didn’t faze the back of the bus, however, as the screams of accusations following the fourth straight hour of Mafia as it continued to get louder and louder. 

Soon we will be pulling up to Hurricane, West Virginia, for the night which we hope is not foreshadowing further weather patterns and the rest of the trip can remain as steady as a tornado almost hitting us can be. </End Aaron>

I’m so excited to see the rest of the guys tomorrow. I expect the most pleasant of embraces from everyone and smiling faces when they pick us up from our hotel. If they’re reading this, I hope they know I love them all. 

Thanks again for reading all of this, I enjoy typing these.

Day 1 (Kind Of)

Welcome back. The last time we talked, I was a zombie in the Denver Airport after quite a sub-par performance in Hawaii. Since then, we’ve rattled off seven wins in our last eight games. We’ve gone three for four on NSIC Players/Pitchers of the Week, and now we are headed on a very long road trip. 

We embarked on our long journey today at 2:30 p.m., planning to stay in the Peoria area tonight, waking up and heading to Indianapolis for a practice tomorrow, and spending the night about an hour north of Charleston, West Virginia. 

Well… that’s the plan for about 95 percent of the group. 

For Ryan Jares, Caleb Saari and I, we have a flight scheduled tomorrow at 11 a.m. from Sioux Falls to Chicago, then a flight to Charleston from Chicago about an hour and a half after we land in Chicago. The team will pick us up from our hotel in the morning on Saturday as we head to Cary, North Carolina, for our first game.

Everyone on the team acted incredibly mature and rational when they found out about this nifty little addition to our trip. 

I’m typing this as I sit in my apartment living room, watching War Dogs. I just finished a Diet Mountain Dew, and after I get done typing this, I’m going to try and get as many Fortnite wins as humanly possible. Ryan is currently playing Super Mario Bros on his Switch while sitting in the bean bag. 

Because I couldn’t be on the bus, I needed some information on the guys from an inside source. Like Jon Taffer from Bar Rescue or Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars, I needed to bring in an expert, so I chose Big Ticket Matt Brown to make his blogging debut. 

From Matt Brown:

The voyage to Cary has officially started! The guys packed into the bus and settled in for the long journey. The front of the bus is passing the time by watching movies and tv shows. Whereas the back of the bus is engaged in an intense game of Mafia.

Maf, for short, is a great way to find out who on the team you can and can’t trust (Kranz and Mosser). Clayton Thompson has narrated the game for about the last hour, and at this point, I think most people's ears are ringing. 

It’s been a fun ride through the midwestern prairie, and I think the guys are ready for a great string of games this coming week.