Ridgewater's Fall Ball is in Full Swing

Overall, the fall ball practices have been going well. It is always a challenge, especially for the freshmen, to get used to being college baseball players and the schedule that comes along with it. A lot of these guys are playing multiple sports in high school so it's a bit of a transition for them to get used to being full-time college baseball players. Even for the sophomores, they have been playing or practicing baseball now since last January, so it's been 9 straight months for either playing or practice for these guys which can be a bit draining for them, but they have been great. In regard to the focus of these practices, the fall is such an important time to introduce our systems and philosophies because once fall ball is over, we won't be back on an actual field until we are down in Florida playing games so this portion of our season is crucial for our athletes.  We are out there really grinding away every single day so that we can be as prepared as possible come next spring. This is also a very important evaluation time for our coaching staff. We won't see our players on a field again until we are playing games, so we are constantly constructing practice around evaluation of our players, so we know what we need to work on in the upcoming offseason. 

Yeah, this past weekend we hosted our first alumni game. We have been talking about doing an alumni game ever since last spring and it turned out to be an awesome day. It is so much fun for me to see some of my former players coming back and sharing their experiences with the current players. We were able to play a 9-inning game that ended in a 7-7 tie and then we had food for everyone that was in attendance, so it was a great day for the Ridgewater Baseball Family. Looking ahead to Family Day, this is something we started last year, and we got a tremendous turnout from family and friends of our players, so we wanted to continue that this year. Family Day kicks off our annual Red/Black World Series that we have every year, and it's just another day for our players to compete and for our families to get acclimated to each other. Really looking forward to it! 

 Outside of our alumni game and Family Day, we have a couple other dates where we will be scrimmaging other teams from around the Midwest. On October 5th , we will be traveling to Century College to participate in the JUCO Fall Showcase, we will be playing Vermillion CC and Marshalltown CC (IA), and this gives our players a chance to compete against other teams, but it also allows for 4-year coaches to come and see our players in action. Also, we will be scrimmaging  NCAA D-2 Southwest Minnesota State University in the middle of October. I know Coach Ische down at SMSU really well and last year we set up a scrimmage, and it went really well so I am glad that we will be doing it again this year. 

After our 6-7 week fall ball season ends, the players will typically get a week off, and then we start up our offseason training and throwing programs. We will lift multiple times a week, pitchers will throw 3 times a week, we have velocity/bullpen for pitchers, and position players have individual workouts as well. We do this all the way until holiday break, and once everyone gets back from holiday break, we can start official spring practice. This is a good group of players, and I am looking forward to seeing them progress as the year moves along.