Cal Baptist – No pushover, but it’s the usual business

Cal Baptist – No pushover, but it’s the usual business

By Jo-Ryan Salazar
February 10, 2007

Cal Baptist. Ranked 1st in men’s volleyball in the NAIA. Humph. I will give this for them. They are feisty. Alan Knipe used a 2nd-string lineup, and we were on our toes. Cal Baptist-an NAIA team! I was very impressed by their effort the first game, which we won 30-27. We weren’t going to have an easy one against them. They could sweep Stanford if they could-but they weren’t on their schedule.

Had a little bit easy against the Lancers in the 2nd game. This was going to be another sweep, as expected, but the 3rd game, in typical form, would be elusive at first. I wasn’t crazy when I said the season would be on the line (albeit it was a half-joke). This would count against us if we were to fail tonight. Besides, I wanted to get back to Blair after this.

Eventually, it seemed very apparent that the Lancers would falter again…for the eighth straight time. We would sweep them 3 games to nil.

Off to Blair for me. I was able to watch the last few innings of the game. It went down to the bottom of the ninth. I though, Hmmm, this Texas team should be able to finish things off. Turns out, they wouldn’t. A couple of players hit a pitch plus a walk sent in Bobby McMurray, a JC transfer from Arizona, and Mesa Community College, who drove in two runs on a RBI. The throw to home plate was not in time, and with score tied 6-all, the home fans chanted “Long Beach State! Long Beach State!” and as saw the fans get louder and louder, my eyes panned the atmosphere around me, as if I was Maximum from the movie Gladiator. And my mind said, “Checkmate.” Danny Espinosa, who is my favorite player on this year’s Dirtbags team, drove home the winning run, and I walked out of the park singing EMF’s Unbelievable, possessed by the glory of victory.

It’s not very often we get a win against a team like this. Still early to say, but that loss to the Alumni may have become great motivation for Mike Weathers’ bunch of boys from the Beach.