Throughout the course of the 2012 season, MVNU junior pitcher Justin Brown will write a weekly blog about what is happening with the baseball team.

"Three Trips in a Row" (posted on May 9, 2012)

What a week! That is about all you can say to speak of the events last week. For a few days, five teams met to decide who would represent the conference at the next level, and it was surely decided. The Cougars are heading back to the NAIA Opening Round! For the third straight season, the Cougars are conference tournament champions. I remember months ago writing the very first blog post, speaking about the youth that our team possessed, and that the expectations of others were probably that we would not fare as well this season. However, we don't take seasons off here at MVNU. Coach Veale, Coach Laslo, and Coach Matheney do a great job making whatever team we put out there competitive.

Tomorrow we embark on the next phase of the journey. We are headed to the NAIA Opening Round regional site at Indiana Wesleyan. Our bracket has some familiar faces as we have played all but one team in the last two seasons. We first face Doane College out of Nebraska. Last season in Florida, we played two one-run games against them. Another team is Point Park University. Last season, we beat Point Park in the finals of the American Mideast Conference tournament. Taylor University, who we beat twice last week in the Mid-Central College Conference Tournament, also joins us. The last team is the defending national champions in Concordia University out of California. At high-noon on Thursday, we will lock horns with Doane to begin the 2012 NAIA Opening Round. These are fun games and we look forward to hopefully posting our best NAIA tournament yet.

At this point in the season, I would like to introduce two of the five seniors who have led this squad to the successful season that we have had so far - Kyle Barr and Josh Roberts.

Kyle Barr

Kyle is a starting pitcher for the Cougars. He is closing out one of the best careers of all the pitchers in MVNU's history. Kyle is our own version of “The Freak” Tim Lincecum. He is 5-11 and 160 lbs, yet he is able to throw the baseball at 90 miles per hour. Kyle is one of the best competitors that I have ever played with. He loves to pitch in the big games against the best competition. One of the things about Kyle that not too many people outside of our team knows is that on the bill of his baseball hat he has a small pink breast cancer ribbon. This ribbon honors his mother who has been battling breast cancer throughout this school year. Kyle has shared this struggle with us on the team, and it has been awesome to see him go out and fight on the baseball field, while his mother encourages us all as she fights a fight of her own.

Kyle Barr	Josh Roberts

 
Josh Roberts

Josh is a senior first baseman who has been contributing for the Cougars for the last three seasons full time. While Josh contributes in the batter's box and first base, some of the major contributions he makes comes in his leadership. Josh is an amazing leader. His influence on the team has brought us to where we are today; it is as simple as that. One of the defining moments of his career in my opinion occurred at Saint Francis the last week of the season. Josh went down with an injury that has kept him out ever since. Why do I think this is his defining moment? It is because of the way that Josh carried himself the rest of that day and the rest of this season. While Josh was not only in pain but also incredibly frustrated by the injury, he still was an amazing vocal leader and encourager the rest of the way. He has still been the amazing leader that he is even as he has faced some major frustration for how things have happened. While I will certainly remember some of the great games he has had at the plate or in the field, what I will remember Josh Roberts the most for is not what he did between the lines of the field, but rather his amazing character and leadership abilities that will carry with him well after he is done playing baseball.

Be sure to follow us on the radio (WNZR 90.9 FM or online at http://www.wnzr.fm/studio/sports.php on WNZR 1) tomorrow and the rest of the week during all of our games. Hope you are ready for some more intense Cougar baseball games. Let's prolong the journey a little more!
 
With you on the Journey,

JB

Matthew 11:28 

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