Proud to call myself a Redhawk alumnus

The 2016 season will go down in the record book for the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks for a multitude of reasons. Another conference championship ring. Another tournament championship. A record-breaking 39 wins. A single season and career record-breaking amount of strikeouts for the infamous Joey Lucchesi. It is truly remarkable what this team did this year and I am forever proud to call myself an alumnus.

This past weekend the Redhawks got the chance that so few teams do each year -- play in a regional. Not just any regional, but on one of the best stages in college baseball in the form of Dudy Noble Feld at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi.

Like I mentioned in my online Semoball blog during the weekend and numerous times on my Twitter feed, the atmosphere was incredible. Playing in front of 10,000 people, home crowd or not, is electrifying and it exemplifies just how perfect the game of baseball is. Good baseball is appreciated by a true fan regardless of the color or name on the uniform and the left and right field lounge and their inhabitants are prime example of that. Class act.

As we know, the outcome of the tournament wasn't what we had hoped for, but the games were nonetheless exhilarating. My friends and I got the chance to see great performances from the entire team, and it truly made me proud to see them play on such a stage.

In summing up this tournament and consequently the season, there is honestly no amount of words that can truly describe what a baseball season at Southeast encompasses for the players that are a part of it. I absolutely loved my two years under Coach [Steve] Bieser and Coach [Lance] Rhodes and the group of guys I was incredibly fortunate enough to call teammates will forever be a part of who I am as a person on every level.

What the average fan of SEMO baseball, unfortunately, never gets to experience from the stands is all the little things that make a group of 35 young men become one giant family. This season, I'm sure, was full of those things as well, and that's what makes the end so bitter. Little stupid things like countless hours of card games on the bus, or hackey sack before each game in the bullpen, or the wild environment known as the locker room before batting practice before each game. It was so enjoyable to see this year's installment of Redhawk baseball carry on the tradition of playing at the most excellent level possible in every way possible.

Even in the face of something that is a crucial blow, such as Branden Boggetto going down against Mississippi State in the first game of the regional, this year's team didn't blink. They're family. They have each other's back.

They had each other's back from day one. From grinding through the Omaha Challenge at the end of the fall semester to countless mornings of weights and running. From hours of practice in the September heat or bitter January cold. From the initial meeting of the year to that final, bittersweet huddle at the end of that final game--they had each other's backs and they always will. As fans, we will only remember what we see from the hill at the Cap, but for the lucky members of a team like this year's Redhawks the memories are un-ending; and they were good enough to set some records while making them too.

Baseball is a cruel sport, but that's ultimately why it's the best. Failure is constant even for the very best that play it and it humbles you in every aspect, not just on the diamond. Coach Bieser always talks to the public about how much the Southeast baseball program stresses making more out of its participants than just good players, but it's the truth. Nothing is given in baseball, it's always earned, and it makes you a better person because of it. I was proud to see that my former teammates have carried on that mantra this 2016 season as well.

I'll never forget my first scrimmage at SEMO. I faced Branden Boggetto in the first inning of my first appearance, and on a 3-2 pitch a new satellite joined the atmosphere over the left-field wall at the Cap. I made a ton of memories at SEMO that will be a part of me long from now, but I will never remember anything as vividly as how my now good friend welcomed me to SEMO baseball. It's intangibles like this that make baseball perfect.

I just want to say thanks to everyone who was a part of this 2016 Redhawks baseball team for not only putting on a great show all year, but representing Southeast in a way that makes me proud to call myself an alumnus. To the seniors, you have had excellent careers. All of you. Professional baseball may be in the cards for some of you and I can't wait to see what new hats and/or jerseys I'm going to have to buy. To the other seniors, I look forward to joining you on the hill on a perfect day in April next year to take in a game at the Cap from a different view (even though nothing is better than the one from the dugout). I am so excited to see where this program is headed and I am sure the Redhawks of 2017 are going to be nothing less than thrilling to watch yet again, per usual.

Like the late Yogi Berra so infamously said: "Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too."