Club Baseball World Series Report No. 2: Loss Sets Up Rematch With Arizona

Ed. Note: Tripper Henson from the Virginia Tech club baseball team agreed to give us some first-hand posts from the team's trip to the National Club Baseball Association World Series in Fort Myers, Fla.

The last two days have been pretty busy for us here in Fort Myers, Fla., even with an off day on Saturday. Last night, Ian Smith participated in the Demarini Longball Challenge and put up a great fight. There's no doubt he was the best pound-for-pound hitter that night (5'9" 175 lbs) and he barely missed home runs by a few feet. Ian finished fifth because of tie-breakers with one home run, but his performance was worthy of a better finish.

Today at 3 p.m. the Hokies faced off against Colorado State. CSU is almost everyone's favorite and have won multiple World Series in recent years. The school does not compete at the Division 1 level and still has a few players remaining from the varsity team that was removed a few years ago.

We played them tough, giving them their first tournament scare in recent memory. Some costly baserunning mistakes and mental errors defensively prevented us from taking an early lead. We found ourselves behind 4-3 entering the bottom of the 7th inning. This was after leaving multiple runners on base throughout the game.

The bottom of the seventh proved to be a rough inning for the Hokies and the Rams finished the frame with a 12-3 lead. It started with two men on and a ball hit deep to left-center. It appeared the ball hit off the top of the wall and bounced back into play, but the umpire ruled it hit the scoreboard post and was a home run. After that the flood gates opened, and four more runs crossing in the eighth to make a final score of 16-3 Colorado State.

The game was much closer than the final score indicated. With a few plays going different ways we could have pulled the upset. We will play Arizona at 7 p.m. Monday night to earn a chance at revenge against CSU on Tuesday. As always, the game can be followed on www.ClubBaseball.org.