Towson Tigers Game 18 Video

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Towson TigersI really want to step up the quality of my photos and video. I am blessed with many things, and one of those is a photographer mother-in-law. I had already considered asking to borrow a bigger camera, but after yesterday’s game got the spousal thumb of approval, I might recruit the artist instead of the supplies. Maybe I can disguise a photo shoot as a family outing. It takes a village to write a blog.

In the meantime, here are some videos I took of the Towson vs. Marist game on Sunday, March 18, 2018. The quality isn’t great, but it’s baseball. ¡Qué vida!

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Towson Tigers Weekend 5 Recap

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Towson Tigers

I turned 44 years old yesterday and I took my family to the ballpark. My wife was, I think, largely dubious of the idea, but as the weather warmed up more than expected and we settled into our lawn chairs, it was very nice. Schuerholz Park is family friendly, especially along the right field foul line, where the big grass hill is perfect for letting little ones run after bubbles and foul balls and tire themselves out. It affords a wide view of the game, too, which was a positive for the first eight innings. Ultimately, Marist scored three runs in the top of the ninth, packing their third straight victory into the charter bus back to Poughkeepsie.

It stinks whenever the team you’re cheering for loses, but it never seems as bad in person. There’s something thrilling about being at a live game that makes it hard to be sad. I always feel acutely lucky to be there.
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Towson Tigers Game 16 Recap

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Towson TigersThe first thing my wife said to me when I woke up this morning was, “Why didn’t you start writing about UMBC basketball?!” Congratulations to the Retrievers on their historic win last night, the first time a #16 seed has beaten a #1 in the NCAA Men’s Tournament.

I may very well have written something about it, if it had been on my radar. Ever since things like jobs and kids and second jobs and sure, let’s have another kid, have become the more important parts of my life, things like college basketball have fallen by the wayside. These days I generally have no idea who the best teams in that world are, much less the 16 seeds, even when they’re right down the road from me. But huge underdogs coming out on top are sort of my thing, as you might have noticed from the name of this website. So let the UMBC Retrievers serve as an example and inspiration to us all. Miracles can happen. Underdogs can prevail. Even losers can win.

So, anyway, Towson lost to Marist yesterday…

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Towson Tigers Weekend 5 Preview

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Towson TigersTowson split their weekday games and now take on the Marist College Red Foxes for three contests at Schuerholz Park. Marist is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, NY, overlooking the Hudson River, and it sounds just lovely. You may or may not have ever heard of Marist, but you’ve definitely heard of Poughkeepsie, because HOLY CRAP is Poughkeepsie mentioned in pop culture a lot. There is a whole website dedicated to Poughkeepsie in pop culture, complete with Twitter account and YouTube channel. Famous Poughkeepsians include authors, athletes, politicians, scientists (cough drops and baby formula were invented there), famous hippies, at least one serial killer, and B-movie legend Ed Wood.

Ed Wood

I choose to believe every Marist baseball player looks like this.

Oh, yeah, baseball…

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Towson Tigers Game 15 Recap – Woof

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Towson TigersIt’s almost impossible to write about a game like this without falling into a pile of cliches. It’s all playing not lose this, and not wanting it enough that, and why won’t that @&*%ing fat lady sing already. But the reality is this.

You lose the games you are supposed to lose.

Towson entered the ninth inning up 4-1 and lost 6-4 by giving up five unearned runs. That’s a funny stat, unearned runs. They imply, sometimes correctly, that a team scored them undeservedly. But the team giving them up, the Towson Tigers, earned every one, littering the box score with three errors, two walks, and one hit in that fateful frame.

It is okay to be angry, to use anger as a powerful motivator to improve. Well, it’s okay for the players to be angry, for the coaches, for the whole team to be angry. They can actually do something about it. For fans (and random bloggers) being angry about a game like this just…pointless. All there is to do is shake your head, let out a little air, and remember the best cliché of them all.

Baseball is gonna baseball.

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Game 15 Preview. Fetch Me A Win! (Updated)

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Towson Tigers

Towson looks to make it two in a row with a home match-up versus the Retrievers of University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Despite the location specific name, UMBC has a solid program under head coach Bob Mumma (who is also their all-time home run record holder), winning the America East championship and making the NCAA Tournament last year. 2018, however, has been a different story.

UMBC is 2-9  on the season. They are another incredibly young team, featuring 19 freshmen and sophomores, and have struggled in all phases of the game. The Retrievers are hitting only .176 as a team, while allowing an opponents batting average nearly a hundred points higher (.271), and have committed 17 errors in 11 games. Still, it’s not a team that Towson wants to take lightly. They have scored five or more runs four times and have walked 16 times in their last three games. Of course, they have also struck out 23 times in their last two contests. So, uh, throw strikes, Tigers.

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Towson Tigers Game 14 Recap

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Now that’s how you get over a bad loss.

Towson traveled to Delaware State today and stomped on the Hornets, 12-2. It was a good day for Tigers pitchers Bo Plagge, Mason Anderson, and Alex Parker. Each went three innings and walked only one. Parker was particularly effective, striking out four in his three innings, while Anderson pitched the middle third of the game and earned the win. Plagge gave up one run in the first and third innings, but got one back with his second home run of the season.

Richard Miller had a huge game, as every Tigers batter, except the catchers, had at least one hit. Miller drilled his third homer on the year, going 4-5 with five RBI and two runs scored and missing the cycle by only a double.

As advertised, Delaware State had defensive issues, committing six errors, though those only led to two unearned runs. Today was mostly about the Towson offense.

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Game 14 Preview, What Would Delaware? (Updated)

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Towson TigersTowson takes a bus ride to Dover to take on the Delaware State Hornets in a 3 P.M. game today. Delaware is known as “The First State” due to being the first state to ratify the Constitution. As far as I can tell, the main reason Delaware ratified first was as a big middle finger to Pennsylvania. And so was born the American way.

Delaware also ranks first in people driving past the state borders and thinking, “That was Delaware?!” Unless you like convenience stores and somewhat not vast expanses of some fields and a couple of houses over yonder and, oh wow, that’s a big Royal Farms, there just isn’t a lot that stands out about the Blue Hen State. Don’t look up why it’s called the Blue Hen State. It’s depressing.

Oh, shoot, I’m supposed to be writing about baseball.

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Towson Tigers Weekend 4 Recap

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Towson Tigers

I find that one of the best ways to get over stress or bad news – really anything that brings me down – is to get busy. Work helps me focus, plus each little thing checked off my mental to-do list shoots a little dopamine into my brain. Success builds on success, achievements begin to snowball, and suddenly I find my steps are full of pep. Then, when I’m feeling good, I often find myself ready to tackle whatever it was that brought me down in the first place. I call it the “Karate Kid” effect:

  1. Get yourself stomped by a bunch of bullies.
  2. Go wash some cars, paint a fence, sand a floor.
  3. Kick some Cobra Kai butt and win the Under-18 All-Valley Karate Tournament
  4. Rinse and repeat.

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Towson Tigers Game 13 Recap

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Dylan Steele

Towson TigersIt’s amazing how two games, both one run defeats, can feel so different. Yesterday Towson stormed back with five runs in the final three innings and though they were unable to complete the comeback, it felt like they could have if only they had one more inning. But today the Tigers led 7-0 after five, only to watch victory slip through their fingers like a fist full of water, losing to the Ohio Bobcats 9-8. There were no moral victories to take from this one.

It especially hurts because Towson now turns to a segment of their schedule that, on paper, looks soft. A win today could have could have propelled them into that stretch with some nice momentum. Now, instead of feeling like they’d finally pushed that boulder to the top of the hill, that rock has rolled firmly back on top of them. Or to put it in a more eloquent, if less metaphorical, way, losing sucks. And the part that sucks the worst is that, after a certain point, it’s hard to stop doing it. Now is the time for short memories.

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