March 2, 2015

 

Cabin Fever

By Rob Galligan and Anthony Papio

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

 

Maryland juniors Rob Galligan and Anthony Papio will contribute a journal to CollegeBaseballInsider.com for the 2015 season. Galligan has made 14 appearances out of the bullpen over his first two seasons and lists Muhammad Ali as his sports hero. Papio started 53 games in 2014, hitting .271 with nine doubles, two homers and 29 RBI and lists Pat Tillman as his sports hero.

 

Due to weather, the Terps had to move the home series against Appalachian State to the Perfect Game facility in Emerson, Georgia. We had to drive to Georgia because of the last-minute change.

 

Before we left for Georgia, Coach [John] Szefc warned us that the weekend was going to be chaotic and to dig deep to find a way to persevere. When we left College Park at 6 a.m. on Thursday, this chaos started with the snowstorm we drove in for half of the trip until somewhere in South Carolina. Fortunately, most of us were able to sleep for a few hours during the first half of the trip. Of course, the bus ride down wasn’t terrible because we were extremely anxious to get out of the snow and have the opportunity to play baseball in better weather. The second half of our bus trip down to Georgia, we watched movies and played some games to keep us occupied. With that being said, our competitive nature caused friendly games like “The Name Game,” “Password,” and “Mafia” to get out of control and become screaming matches.

 

As we were getting off of the bus at the hotel in Georgia, Mike Shawaryn turns around in a panic and says “Hey Rob, I think I forgot my glove.” I started laughing, but he didn’t break a smile. I quickly realized he wasn’t kidding because he usually laughs at his own jokes. For those of you who do not know who Mike Shawaryn is, Mike is our Friday night starter this year and went 11-2 last year during his Freshman All-American season. Mike’s nickname is the “unicorn” because Mike is just a freak athlete and rarely makes mistakes. Mike is also very superstitious and has his routine, so he does everything the same leading up to his start. Let’s just say Mike was extremely rattled and wasn’t happy when he started to think about mentally preparing to start without his own glove. After making numerous phone calls, Ron Ohlinger (Maryland Equipment Manager) and Taylor Stiles’ parents saved the day! Ron got his glove from the locker room and gave it to Taylor Stiles’ parents, who were flying down to Georgia the next day.

 

The practice wasn’t our typical Thursday night practice. The weather prohibited us from going outside, and a local high school was nice enough to open its doors to allow us to hit and stretch in an indoor hitting facility. Many college and professional players know that stretching can always be strenuous after bus rides, but I’ve never heard so many moans and groans during that stretch.

 

The next day, we were scheduled to play the first game at 1 p.m., but when we got to the complex at 10 a.m., the field was covered in snow. As a result, we turned around and went straight back to the hotel to kill time for our 2.5 hour delay. Once we got back to the field at 1 p.m. for our 3:30 p.m. start, Coach [Jim] Belanger (Maryland Pitching Coach) reminded us that we were the home team and had to supply the baseballs for the weekend. I don’t know how other teams do it, but at UMD, the pitching staff gets together before BP to rub up baseballs. With that being said, Coach Belanger also told us that there was no dirt or mud to use, so we had to go behind the fence to rub up five dozen baseballs every day with something like a gravel or clay, but who knows and/or cares what to call it … it got the job done.

 

During the weekend, we won 4-2 on Friday, lost 9-7 on Saturday, and won 8-2 on Sunday. Sunday’s game was a big test for us, and we are happy that we were on the winning side of it, because it would’ve been a brutal bus ride home if we lost that game. But not to worry, it still was. We were not able to find a place to shower after the game, so we had to change on the bus and smother ourselves with deodorant and cologne. After another 11.5-hour bus trip, we finally got back to College Park at 2:45 a.m. this morning. We were all like zombies trying to clean the bus and unpack our bags.

 

The Terps are now at 7-2 on the season. This week, our game at Delaware got moved to Wednesday (3/4) and we will head down to North Carolina to take on UNC Wilmington for a three-game series at Brooks Field. We are looking forward to some more bus rides and continue our non-conference schedule until Big Ten play starts.

 

P.S. For those of you who may have been wondering, Shawaryn struck out 12, allowing two hits, one run, and no walks over seven innings pitched.

 

Go Terps!

 

Rob Galligan & Anthony Papio