Another Full Day in Appleton
APPLETON, Wis. – Day two of the Shenandoah University appearance at the 2010 NCAA Baseball Championships featured a pair of practices and two players earning first team All-America honors.
Juniors Kevin Brashears and Greg Van Sickler, who were both named as D3baseball.com first team All-Americans on Tuesday, added ABCA first team All-America honors in an announcement made Thursday night at the annual baseball championships banquet.
The day, the team's first full day in Wisconsin, began with a 9:30 a.m. breakfast in the lobby of the Paper Valley Radisson. Following the buffet style breakfast that the Hornets attended with fellow participants Johns Hopkins and Illinois Wesleyan and some free time, SU ventured over to Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium for an afternoon BBQ and the start of official activities.
After eating brats and burgers and purchasing some finals apparel, Shenandoah took to the field just past 12:30 for its team picture.
Last season, SU wore its red tops for the picture and its blue tops for the opening game. This year, coach Kevin Anderson elected to reverse the two and took to the field Thursday afternoon in the blue tops for the pictures.
The Hornets are 14-2 in the red jerseys this season and 4-3 when wearing blue.
In addition to the team shot, event photographers took candid and staged shots of the junior and senior classes.
The squad had a 30-minute break following pictures and took to the field at 2:45 for a 50-minute session that was restricted to defensive drills.
This practice was totally devoted to infield and outfield practice with as many as seven people hitting fungoes during the session.
Another long break, 50 minutes, ensued as the team moved from the game field to the local American Legion Field for batting practice.
Junior Mike Smith highlighted BP by hitting three balls into the local Ford dealership located just beyond the rightfield fence. Smith also hit a ball off the top of the scoreboard.
This practice, which was the final one of the day in the tournament, gave the team about one hour to shower and change before the start of the banquet.
The banquet started promptly at 7:30 and in addition to the meal, featured a video presentation on each of the teams and their respective journeys to Appleton.
The event concluded with the announcement of the ABCA All-America team; this is the first time in school history that Shenandoah has had a pair of first team ABCA All-Americans.
Day two Photo Gallery
