Bears Take Game 1

This will be a short write up, but something has to be said about last night's performance by the Bears. With the mercury dropping, and facing an All-American, I went to last night's game expecting to see offensive struggles. When Darryn Sheppard took the first pitch off the wall to straight away center, I perked up, and the rest of the night was very telling.

As I wrote before the series, Casey Bloomquist is a "Dude". A true Friday night guy with good stuff. We didn't see balls flying all around the park, but we did see a few really good things.

Do Your Job

What impressed me most, I think, was the approach the Bears took to the plate. Almost to a man, we saw good approaches most of the game. Moving runners, working the count, getting bunts down, sac flies, you name it, our guys did their job. The Bears were also very efficient scoring 8 runs on 7 hits. The Bears took advantage of at least 2 dropped 3rd strikes to reach base, and both batters scored. They ran the bases aggressively while making good decisions. In short, they played the game the right way.

Stand Outs

Darryn Sheppard looks like a true lead off guy. He was aggressive yet disciplined. His first at bat was nice, but I think my favorite at bat of the night was (I believe his 2nd AB) when he started off 0-2 and worked the count back and drew a walk.

Cameron Miller; what can you say about this kid? After redshirting last season, he gets thrown into the first game of 2015 because our main two guys were injured. All he did was go 2 for 3 and play a solid game behind the plate even throwing out a runner. Not to mention he used all-time, yet unheralded, great Fat Pat music for a walk-up song.

Logan Brown did exactly what one would expect. He got his bunt down early to advance Sheppard in the first. Then, he came up with a huge triple late in the game to put the Bears out of reach for the rest of the night late.

Duncan Wendel, while 0-4, was truly outstanding in the field flashing leather and making diving plays to prevent Cal Poly from getting things going. It was a great defensive night for him.

Drew Tolson did a good job and the pen worked in and out of jams the whole night but were all-in-all pretty solid.

Final Thoughts

To wrap up, I got the feeling that I was watching a Bears team who had heard a whole lot about how they were not expected to be very good this year. If they grind out at bats all season like they did last night, we can expect them to be a very tough out for anyone. Next, if we can get our weekend arms healthy, this season may be a lot more fun than many who follow the program might have expected.

It was obviously only one game, but you have to feel good about the way 2015 started. Today Ryan Smith will take the bump today. If it were not for Valentine's day, I would head back over. Last night was that much fun. Baylor Ballpark should be fun today.