We are in Columbus, Indiana, for a 48-hour window 🪟 to play a 3 – game set against Indiana University – Columbus with two games today and one on Saturday before heading back to Beckley, West Virginia late tomorrow night.
Staying behind in order to handle things at both Cavalier Park and Tommy Thompson Field meant missing my ride over with the team. Hence, the Middle of the Night drive last night.
Arrived at the team hotel 🏨 at 8:30 a.m., knowing that our 35-member traveling party would need to eat six times across the two days being that it will be late on Saturday night when we pull back into campus.
Meal #1 – make sure that everyone has their breakfast voucher at Hilton Garden Inn, easy enough by comparison. At 10:00 the team departs for the ball park, making it time to go to the market.
Meal #2 – The between games, food consists of water 💧, power aide, protein bars, apples 🍎, oranges 🍊 and bananas 🍌. You load all of that up and head to the Diamond 💎.
Meal #3 – This one won’t take place until 7 to 8 pm and is the one that requires the most work. You have to find a restaurant that is willing to take 35 people when you can’t give them a certain time. Tonight, the answer will be your neighborhood Applebee’s. Jason was a treat to deal with and I told him that I would give him 3 updates throughout the day.
The time is now 2 : 11, and we are heading into the top of the 7th inning down 6-2….. I see 👀 a shot at a 45-minute nap so I will pick this back up shortly.
2:59 pm – The Crimson Pride got to our bullpen in a big way in the bottom of the seventh, so game 1 is over early. It’s time to update the folks at the restaurant. It’s still a guessing game at this point, but at least it’s now an educated guess.
It’s time to look forward to meals 4, 5 & 6 tomorrow. Breakfast once again will be vouchers at the Hotel 🏨 with one difference in that our group will be checking out of the rooms before heading over to the park.
#5 will trigger a second trip to the grocery store to restock the goods. It is easier the second time around because if you use the same store, you know where everything is. Did not know that there were 7 different types of apples before today.
The sixth meal is quite possibly the toughest one. Here in a bit, a list will be created with three sub shops, and one will be chosen from it. Then, three menu items will be offered, and the players choose their dinner 🍽 from there. Getting the list to the chosen shop with a pick-up time in mind. The goal is for me to get the order picked up and brought to the park around the time the single game ends.
After the team meeting, the players will take their food and load up for the drive 🚗 home.
The weekend should end around 11pm when the players head back to their dorms after the final weekend road series of the season.
81°, 1st Pitch – 3: 40 p.m
4:24
5:06 – trailing 2-1, top of fifth in 7 inning game.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 