BlueJacket Weekly Player Blog

2011 Players.

6/7/11

Hey BlueJackets fans welcome to the 2011 season. My name is Cole Thompson and I just finished my sophomore year at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. I grew up in Plano, Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas. I am a right-handed pitcher for the BlueJackets this summer and I will be writing a weekly blog to give y’all an inside look into the preparation and work a summer collegiate player puts in each day.   I drove up to Bremerton from Dallas, which was a ridiculously long drive. I arrived in Bremerton a week ago, just in time for our first practice. It was a light practice because we only had 11 players in town. The tricky thing about summer baseball is that your teammates are coming in from all over the country. As a result, it takes a little bit for your whole roster to get in town and settle down. At Tuesday’s practice we took batting practice and the pitchers played some long toss. It was a nice time to get to know some of the guys and meet my new teammates.   On Wednesday and Thursday we had exhibition games against local collegiate teams that play in the Puget Sound Collegiate League. These games were “warm-up” games to prepare us for the teams we will play in the West Coast League. We won the first game 10-0, and the second game 7-6. It was a great start to the year. Some highlights include a 4-inning shutout relief appearance by Collin Feldtman, and home runs from Jonathan Barton and Cole Norton.   On Friday morning we left Bremerton en route to Wenatchee, Washington for our first West Coast League series. I really liked the location of Wenatchee because it is a small town situated in the valley near the Cascade Mountains. It was a beautiful backdrop, as well as a great baseball atmosphere. Friday’s attendance was 1,319, and we really fed off that atmosphere as a team. Richie Mascheri started for us and threw a solid 5 innings, while earning the win. From there, he handed the ball to Collin Feldtman who threw the final 4 innings to put the game on lock down for us. At the plate, Cole Norton and Mitch Bluman led the attack as they both went 3 for 5. We won 9-1, and it was a great start to our West Coast League season.   Saturday morning we woke up and went to Gold’s Gym in Wenatchee to get an early work out in. From there, we went to the field around noon to get some early work in. At early work, the hitters hit in the cage or work on defense, while the pitchers work on fielding bunts, pitching mechanics, etc. Saturday’s game did not go our way, as we failed to overcome a few defensive miscues as we fell to the AppleSox 4-3. Cole Norton led the offense again going 2 for 4.   On Sunday morning we headed out early and hit the gym again. After our workout, we headed out into downtown Wenatchee to spend the day around town before our game. Several of the guys went and found a place to eat, and then most of the team headed over to the movie theater to catch X-Men before we went to the game. Sunday’s game was another tough one, as we could not come through in the clutch on the mound or at the plate, as we lost a tough one 7-5. Claude Johnson, Matt Forgatch, and Austin OSuch had multi-hit games for us. Monday was an off day, so Matt Cartwright, Thomas Lundborg, Claude Johnson, Jon Glidewell, and myself took the ferry over to Seattle to explore the city. It was a pretty neat trip, as we had the chance to see Pike’s Place Market and the Space Needle.   Today we open up a 3 game home series with the Cowlitz Black Bears. It is our first home series of the year so be sure to come out and support us! Until next week, go BlueJackets.   Cole Thompson #27

6/17/11

Welcome back to my second blog of the summer. It has been a busy week and a half of baseball for the Bluejackets, but it has been a great experience. When I last talked to y’all, we were heading into our first home series of the year with the Cowlitz Black Bears. We managed to sweep the 3 game series from Cowlitz by using solid pitching, timely hitting, and stellar defense. From there, we continued our hot streak and swept a 4 game series against our rival, the Bellingham Bells. However, we stumbled a little bit this past series, as we were only able to take 1 out of 3 games from the Kelowna Falcons.   We play way too many games for me to go in-depth on each game, but I will give y’all an overview of the week and highlight players that have performed exceptionally well as of late.   On the mound, Richie Mascheri has really paced our pitching staff. He has 3 wins so far in this young season while maintaining a 1.9 ERA through 19 innings. Richie is really looked at as a team leader because he is the only “returner” to the Bluejackets. We also received a stellar start in Bellingham from newcomer Blake Golding. Golding, a rising senior at Utah, went 8 innings without allowing an earned run. Matt Cartwright has really been solid for us out of the pen, as he has filled our closer role.   At the plate, Austin O’Such has been the pace setter so far as he is hitting at a .378 clip through 37 at-bats. Cole Norton is right behind him hitting .333 so far. Claude Johnson provided a serious dose of power in Bellingham as he hit two home runs in our Sunday game. Mitch Bluman has really swung the bat well also, including a bases clearing double last night in the bottom of the 8th against Kelowna to put the game on ice.   Defensively, Chris Murphy and Evan Potter have made several spectacular plays in the infield. It makes it a lot easier to pitch when guys are making great plays behind you.   Be sure to come out to the Kitsap Fairgrounds this weekend as we take on division foe Bend this weekend! Cole Thompson #27