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- The ETBU Library
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- Mopping up the Water
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- Coach Jackson Vaughan
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- Brittany Woods, Coach Greg Herman
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- Sami Keim
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- Claire Velaski
Wednesday began with a dark and nasty thunderstorm that dropped buckets of rain on the City of Marshall and surrounding “ArkLaTex” area (that’s short for Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas). It looked for a while like the heavy rain would cause serious disruption to the NCAA West Region tournament’s practice schedule.
As it was, the storm only proved to be a minor speedbump. After taking a quick tour of the brick-laden East Texas Baptist University campus, the Wildcats went to the game field, where more than a dozen workers were busy pushing the excess water off the tarp that covered the infield. With the ground as hard as it is here, the moisture tends to puddle on the surface.
While the field prep was underway, the ‘Cats headed to the school’s old gym, where they practice hitting drills for an hour. Then it was out to the practice field to work on fielding technique.
An all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta and salad bar meal at nearby Guccis was on the dinner menu. The girls stocked up on plenty of carbs and should be able to unleash that energy on their first opponent Thursday. We still don’t know if that will be Redlands or Texas-Tyler, but it matters little as Linfield will have to face them both eventually anyway.
The club is in excellent all-around health with no pressing injury concerns. That’s not always been the case for this program in regional play. A good sign, surely.
The pre-tournament meeting was convened back on the ETBU campus inside the posh football office headquarters. Pretty snazzy for Division III.
Then it was back to the hotel for final comments from Jackson Vaughan, who reminded his troops to set their attitudes toward positive no matter what develops this week.
Weather for the next couple of days is expected to be hot and humid with temps approaching 90. Hope the Wildcats get to wear their cooler white uniforms, rather than the set of blacks.
