In addition to game day coverage, CU Sports Information Assistant Richard RoBards, a Tiger travel companion, will keep fans updated from the NAIA Baseball National Tournament Opening Round with his diary log.

Thursday, May 20

If sport teaches life's lessons then the Campbellsville University baseball team's homework for Wednesday night was: Learn how to shorten your memory.

As painful as a 6-4 loss can be, the team was decidedly upbeat - assimilating a personality trait of their coach. Although not happy with a loss, Beauford Sanders was content with the way his players competed and the fact that they were in the game against No.-2-ranked Cumberland University until the last at-bat in a 10-inning game.

As Sanders ambled to the mound after two runs were scored off starter Jared Lunardi in the top of the 10th, there was no head hanging on the part of the mentor. What does he do when he gets to the mound and asks for the ball from his prized hurler  - he gives him a big bear hug. Yeah, right in front of God and the sprinkling of fans that dotted the Silver Cross Field bleachers, he grabs Lunardi, looks him the eye and (I can't read lips from 70 yards away) tells him something to the effect ... "great job".

There was a turtle dove standing on a backstop wire at that very moment and I'm pretty sure the bird's head turned in disbelief. It's that show of respect - coach to players and players to coach - that is the thumbprint of the Tiger baseball program. Gosh, who wouldn't want to play for Beauford Sanders?

I told him I thought I might have a year of eligibility left. He said he'd get back to me.

As the coach sat on a chest of drawers in the SID's motel room after the game, there was no "woe is me" speech. You'd might have thought his team had just won a conference championship. Sure, the numbers on the scoreboard were disappointing - but his team competed and he knew that is all a coach can really ask.

The Tigers' character is turning heads, even on a turtle dove.

"Wouldn't you just like to capture that in a bottle and sprinkle it all around," Sanders said about his team's effort. "It was a great game."

I don't say all this because, at dinner (and for the benefit of any other CU coaches reading this), Sanders picked up the meal tab for the SID staff. And, in his defense, he did tell us later not to expect that kind of treatment all the time.

And we won't. But Chris Megginson and I have come to expect A-1 effort from the coaching staff and the players. They may not always be the most talented nine on he diamond, but nobody puts any more effort into the game than they do.

Any parent would be proud to know that their son is under the watchful eye and guidance of Beauford Sanders and his assistants. The guys are asked to "be different from most of society" and be courteous and show good manners, not only when in public but all the time.

The impression the team makes while wearing the Campbellsville University name on its jerseys and hats has not been lost on the waitresses and management of the eating establishments, the motel staff and most of all Ray the Bus Driver.

Ray pulled me off to the side last night (I thought he was going to scold me because he hadn't gotten as much mention in my diary as he did on the Jackson, Tenn. trip) to tell me that he somehow had lost/misplaced nearly $500 in cash. Exasperated in his individual search and by the fact that the money was missing, Ray's financial world had been turned upside down. Tiger Baseball to the rescue.

Pointing over my left shoulder, Ray asked me if Beauford had given me anything for my blog. Ray said: "That big one (player) with the red shirt on found it on the steps in the motel and turned it in to the coaching staff."

Ray didn't actually say it, but I'm thinking he was thinking that that was the "different" Beauford Sanders was talking about when he gave his "Remember Where You Come From" speech on Day 1.

The Tigers have a tough row to hoe in front of them. They're going to have to win two games on Day 5 to force an if-necessary game on Day 6 against that same No.-2-ranked team that holds all the tournament trump cards right now.

But Campbellsville has the muscle memory of 2009 to fall back on. That's when the Tigers came out of the consolation bracket to win their first trip trip to the NAIA World Series.

Win or lose, the players can expect this from their coach: Commitment to giving it all he's got, mother earth values and TEAM. And I can almost assure you that there is going to be a big bear hug for each one of them too.

Forget about yesterday, Tigers, and play just like coach said: one bat, one pitch and one fielding opportunity at a time.


All entries of this diary, as well as tournament updates and live stats, can be found here

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