Matt Benedict Student-Athlete Blog

Courtesy of CatamountSports.com

  First off, I would like to thank all of those who attended opening weekend at Childress Field at Hennon Stadium, and also those who were able to attend the "Celebration of Catamount Baseball" Saturday evening.

As some of you may know, I was ill late last week and unable to play over the weekend. Although it was disappointing personally to not be able pitch, I was still able to enjoy watching my teammates perform well during the sweep of Morehead State. I was excited our team got the season off on the right foot, especially for all of the freshmen during their first weekend of collegiate baseball.  Freshman Aaron Attaway hitting a home run in his first career at-bat and Jordan Smith throwing five shut-out innings in his first career start are both very memorable freshmen moments over the weekend.

Junior Ross Heffely's performance over the weekend was also very impressive as he garnered Southern Conference player of the week honors, not surprising to the rest of us however as the "little guy" had been tearing the cover off the ball for the last few weeks of practice.  Overall, we were firing on all cylinders on both sides of the ball for most of the weekend.

Another highlight of the weekend was Saturday night's "Celebration of Catamount Baseball," an opportunity for the program to honor the past, recognize the present and give a peek in to the future. It was great to see all of the Catamount greats in attendance as well as some of my former teammates.

The keynote speaker, former Catamount coaching legend Jack Leggett, was very inspiring and entertaining while giving a great perspective on what it means to be a Catamount. I had the opportunity to share dinner with Dave Steed of Lowe's and his family as all of the players were split amongst the tables at the event. It was nice to be able to interact with and thank someone who was such an important part of the recent renovation of the stadium.

A very special thank you goes out to Director of Baseball Operations Justin Crawley who put tons of time and effort in to planning this event.

So Catamount fans, come on out once again this weekend to watch us take on the Manhattan Jaspers at the friendly confines of Childress Field at Hennon Stadium.