By Sebastian Grignano
Being a collegiate baseball player at this point in time, during a pandemic, has been the farthest thing from easy. It has been a roller coaster ride from the second we started practicing two weeks into school. We have dealt with positive COVID cases, trying to stay socially distanced as much as possible, only allowing ten people in locker rooms at a time, and remaining six feet apart during practice.
We recently got to the point where it was finally time to play our first game of the season and the day before we were informed by our coach that we were going to be shut down for ten days due to the University having too many cases. This was truly something that put us down, we were so excited to get back onto the field, with our family that we have built through so much hard work and it was pulled right from under us.
I was able to ask a few of my teammates how they felt about the season being so unpredictable and being shut down for ten days right before our first contest. Junior pitcher, Kyle Roberts, said, “ I wasn’t thrilled about it, it left a lot of question marks in my mind as of when we were going to play or restart, and it really goes to show how different this year is for all athletes and many uncontrollable factors that we have to deal with.”
I was also able to speak to our first baseman or designated hitter, Ben Harrison, on this matter and he said, “ Obviously this is very unfortunate, this season has come with setbacks and we just have to continue to push through and hope we are able to play as many games as possible despite the adversity.”
From a personal standpoint as a senior who already had one season cancelled, it’s been constantly frustrating to deal with the protocols and the everlasting possibility of our season being cancelled due to COVID. We are all constantly scared that if one hiccup happens with the virus on campus, or within our team, that we will be shut down, after the previous ten day stoppage we know that the season is on thin ice and our hearts drop everytime our coach says he has to talk to us in an abrupt manner. It is a very uneasy feeling and will certainly be a hard pill to swallow if worse comes to worse and the season gets cancelled in attempts to keep everyone healthy.
This is something I never thought I would have to deal with when it comes to the sport I am playing, but it is certainly in full swing. I hope that our team and the university as a whole will be able to overcome this virus so that my friends and I can go out onto the field and play the game we all love to play.
