The Ferris State Bulldogs softball team, ranked seventh in the nation, gets to start its Michigan bound season as they look to continue their successful start. With weather permitting, the Bulldogs will see their first competitive action since the 14th of March where they participated in the Florida Rebel Spring Games in Kissimmee, Fla.

“Cornerstone is a good opponent from the NAIA to start our season off against and GVSU is a big rival for us who has a good staff, depth and pitching,” said Ferris State head coach Keri Becker. “Our offense stumbled late in Florida but I feel we’ve corrected the problem and look to our pitching and defensive strength.”

The Bulldogs travel down to Grand Rapids on Thursday, March 26 to face the Golden Eagles of Cornerstone University of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference. The single game tilt takes place at 3:30 p.m. The Golden Eagles are currently 3-9 as they finish their non-conference season.

Ferris State has outscored Cornerstone 34-4 in the last four meetings that have all ended in Bulldog victories in the last three seasons. Last season, pitcher Kayle Stevenson earned the victory in the first contest of the double header.

Stevenson struck out eight and walked one in her shutout victory. Center fielder Rachel Wade and left fielder Colleen Roney added two rbi’s a piece in the contest.

In the second contest, pitcher Rhea Flores picked up the victory as she struck out five in the 13-2 mercy victory. Wade and Roney added key RBI’s in this contest also as catcher Rachel Mueller added two of her own.

“Grand Valley will be our first game since Florida and we will be ready to play,” said Ferris State second baseman Amanda Harrington. “I have confidence in our team to succeed this season with our strong bats throughout the line up and look to come out starting with a win against GV.”

Ferris State will return home for the first time all season as they open their GLIAC season with the Grand Valley State Lakers.

The Lakers are already into their GLIAC season and have participated in the NTC Spring Games in Clermont, Fla and Urbana Blue Knight Invitational in Urbana, Ohio.

The Lakers, who are 18-5 overall and on a 12 game winning streak will go head to head with the Bulldogs in a double header on Sunday, March 29 with the first double header game starting at 12 p.m.

Grand Valley State has outscored Ferris State 22-12 in the last three years as the Lakers have gone 4-3. The Bulldogs, however, swept Grand Valley State last season in their only two meetings.

Picher Sarah Mueller picked up the victory in the first contest as she struck out two in the 2-1 win. Mueller helped herself as she and catcher Krystle Bailey picked up the two RBI’s for Ferris State.

The second game of the swept double header turned into a pitchers battle as Holly Bruntjens worked seven innings while striking out two and allowing three hits in the 1-0 shutout win. Bruntjens helped her cause as she was able to ground the ball to the second baseman bringing home the Bulldogs only run of the contest.

Come out and support the seventh ranked team in the nation as they host rival Grand Valley State University on Sunday, March 29 with the first game of the double header starting at 12 p.m. at the Ferris State softball field.

Eric Lilleboe and the Ferris State men’s golf team have very high hopes for the spring 2009 season.

A two time state champion at Lansing Catholic Central high school, Lilleboe started golfing when he was only 11-yearsold. The 21-year-old Okemos, Mich. native is a junior in the Professional Golf Management program. Lilleboe said that with only his dad’s help, he began hitting at the driving range and his interest in the game quickly developed.

The most intense moment in his golfing career came just last year at Super Regionals in Findlay, Ohio. Lilleboe said that Ferris finished first and posted a really good number. The winds started to pick up and the team watched as the other teams started slipping. Unfortunately, he and the team missed qualifying for nationals by just two strokes. “It’s not a good feeling, but you can’t win them all,” said Lilleboe.

The Bulldogs have high hopes for the spring season. “We have really high expectations this year. This is definitely the most talented team we have had as long as I have been here,” said Lilleboe.

Ferris has to qualify for Super Regionals this year, but Lilleboe said that will not be a problem. Super Regionals will be played at the Meadows at GVSU; a course that they are very familiar with. The team’s ultimate goal is a top five finish at nationals.

Improving on putting and bunker play is the biggest challenge for Lilleboe. “It just comes down to making maybe a couple more 12 to 15 footers a round,” said Lilleboe. He knows what his weakest points are and has worked hard during the offseason to improve them. He plays, or at least practices, every single day to keep up his level of play. “It’s really easy to lose your game. If I take two days off in the summer I feel like it’s the first day of spring,” said Lilleboe.

Golf is a team sport and second year coach Mike Mignano has focused on the team concept this year. “We’re a team,” said Lilleboe, “our coach is really putting that into our head.” Coach Mignano, who graduated from the PGM program in 2006, has pushed the team to realize their capabilities. “He is a lot more intense than out last coach, which is good because we have a lot of talent and I think it’s going to take a little bit of hard work and pushing from our coach to realize our talent,” said Lilleboe.

The golf team worked out three days a week at 6:30 a.m. during the offseason to prepare for the spring season. “Our coach worked us out really hard this winter,” said Lilleboe. The Bulldogs hit into nets and practiced putting on carpets in the rubber room in the sports complex the other two days a week. Lilleboe also said that Mignano has also helped the team with the mental aspect of the game as well.

The first contest for the Bulldogs this spring is Saturday at the Ashland Invitational, hosted by Ashland University. The men look to build on their strong fall season where they had two second place finishes and one third place finish.

It was cold (40 degrees Fahrenheit) and cloudy when we decided to go hiking up Mt. Si, a mountain about 60 miles west of Seattle.

What was 40 in the city, quickly turned colder on the mountain, and what was once cloudy, turned into a hail/snow mix.

What could have been an excellent hike turned into a challenge as snow, ice and hail made the climb more difficult than the trail was.

The hike began easily enough, up a gradual incline, and using tree roots as steps. As we got higher, the trail became icier, and the snow became deeper, and we were met with falling snow and maybe some hail as well.

The view of the mountain covered in evergreen trees, and the snow covered woods looked like something Thomas Kincade would have painted…minus the church. And so we climbed, bundled against the cold, we peeled off layers and unzipped coats to try to stay cool.

We slipped and slided our way up the hill, making calculated steps to keep from slipping down the path, or off the mountain.

The first person was given plenty of room, to prevent a chain reaction of falling bodies down the mountain.

It was discovered Nike’s are not the all terrain footwear, and spikes would have proven very helpful on the climb up, but especially on the way down.

We had climbed about two miles, and had another two to go, when I twisted and fell fairly hard onto the frozen ground. I was slow to get up, and we decided that it was time to head down.

Now, we were slipping and sliding on the way up, and watched people try their hardest to stay on their feet as they were heading down. I’m not sure why we thought heading down was going to be easier, maybe by this time we were delusional.

So, we turned back. The view from Mt. Si is supposed to be stunning, the Seattle skyline with the Olympic Mountains and the ocean behind it. But with the low cloud cover and the snow I was told we wouldn’t be able to see it.

We could barely see more than 50 yards out, so it wasn’t a huge disappointment of turning around.

One, two, three steps, Boom! I was on my butt. Using my snowboard skills I got to my feet and went down again, this time twisting my knee. Excellent, two miles up on a mountain with a twisted knee.

And so the descent went, each step carefully calculated to keep from falling. I tried using calculated movements to make it down the steep descent, but it was proven sliding down in a crab walk was much more effective.

Hey, once you’re down, you’re not going to fall much lower. My fiancé was using the “spaz approach” to make it down. Running down the mountain, bouncing from tree to tree to slow down and then stop.

It was a little scary hearing him come from behind and unsure what tree he was going for. He did not take me out, we made it to flatter land, and after several tucks and slides, and crab walks we were back to the beginning.

We both agreed that the hike to the top was going to have to wait until the weather was better, and that spikes and hiking sticks are not something to laugh at, but something of necessity.

“I didn’t want to hang up my cleats when I got to college, there is no way I can just stop,” said Jordan “Coop”Cooper.

A member of the club baseball team, fans have seen him take the field playing either pitcher or middle infielder sporting the jersey numbered 26, which digits totals eight. The number Coop has traditionally worn throughout his many years in little league, travel and high school.

Coop got his start playing baseball when his parents signed him up at age five and it was during those years that Coop fell in love with the sport.

“When I was younger I was pretty good at it, and I got asked to play travel baseball and it is pretty competitive,” Coop said.

He attended Portage Northern High School where he won most improved player his senior year and was academic all conference.

It was during high school that Coop experienced his best baseball memory.

“My junior year of high school we were in the regionals, and I scored the tying run to go into extra innings. I scored the run going from second base to home,” said Coop.

Coop also grew up a Yankee’s fan and still idolizes some of the players.

“Ever since I can remember, that is who I cheer for. I like Mariano Rivera; he is really good closer, and that is what I do,” Coop said.

“It would be cool to have a division one baseball team, they used to have one, but then they had to balance it out and they had to get rid of men’s baseball. I am not getting too upset, I am still playing baseball, competitively,” Coop said.

Coop visited Florida with this year’s club team. There, the club baseball team went 3-2 in its tournament play.

“The guys are good; we had a lot of fun down in Florida. It was sunny and I met lots of people,” Coop said. The men’s baseball team is currently 3-2, as the tournament in Florida was its first real game play. The next game will be this weekend against Northwood as long as the weather holds.

“We look pretty solid, we should be able to take any team this year, as long as we just go out there and have fun,” Coop said.

Coop likes Florida so much that he is planning on attending Lake Sumter Community College, in Leesburg, Florida next year, where he will also play baseball and continue his other passion, pharmacy.

It is this other passion that Coop might actually decide to hang up his cleats for.

“I will go into pharmacy and then I won’t have time to play baseball anymore,” said Coop simply.

One minute left to play, one minute left to play, and CBS shifts me from the stressful, high intense Spartans against Trojans basketball game to the Marquette/Missouri game.

Why, why? CBS, why would you shift the entire Midwest region to watch a meaningless game of Marquette/Missouri, and if that is not bad enough, the announcers tell us the outcome of the Michigan State game, then had the audacity to “shift back,” and show the replay of the final seconds.

CBS, I hate you.

I hate how you over extended yourself with all the games, and I spend more time watching announcers talk about a game, that they have no clue how it is played, then games.

When I’m not being forced to watch guys with horrible comb overs try to sound basketball smart I am sent all over the country to watch parts of games.

I don’t care how Austin Peay is playing, I am fine seeing the score in the upper left. I am not fine being shifted from one game to the other.

I am also not fine with being shifted back to the original game and missing a play, because CBS does not have the ability to keep the games straight.

I really hate how I am forced to watch games and teams in the closest region, instead of teams I want to see.

I wanted to watch the Washington/Purdue game. Apparently, CBS would rather me watch LSU and North Carolina. How are either of those teams in my region?

I am also not a fan of the CBS announcers. I don’t like announcers to begin with, but I swear CBS finds the absolute worst.

I think the smartest comment a CBS announcer made during the entire tournament was: “The crowd is very into the game,” and yes, the crowd was loud and was cheering.

The fact the announcers who just met the teams that morning are talking about the players like they coached them all the way through AAU.

I’m sorry Mr. Announcer, but you know absolutely nothing about Michigan Basketball. And if you did, you would know the “Fab Five” was paid to play, and had their seasons vacated.

And if you followed Michigan basketball you would know that the team had some struggles but was on the bubble several times in the last 11 seasons. So please don’t act like you know something when you do not.

I hate you CBS, so please give the “Big Dance” to ESPN, and you can take the irrelevant NIT, at least then if you screw it up, no one cares.