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USF Summer Baseball Blog No. 18 - Doug Murray
July 13, 2009
Junior right-hander Doug Murray is currently playing for the New England Collegiate Baseball League in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Hey everyone, this is Doug Murray writing from New Bedford, Massachusetts, home of the Bay Sox. I am going to be a senior next year at USF. This is my second summer away from home playing collegiate baseball. Last year I was in Battle Creek, Michigan playing for the Bombers with Sean Burns and Connor Bernatz in the Northwoods league. I flew out to New Bedford May 29th and was greeted by my host parents at the airport. My host parents Jim and Kristen Lancaster have been great; they treat me better than I could have ever wished for. I get to come home to good food, a family that loves baseball, and my new brother and sister, Kyle (7) and Katheryn (5). Katheryn is a fun little girl that was shy at first but has opened up to me and will finally say hi and goodnight. Kyle is the little brother I never had, we play wii, wiffle ball, nerf wars, baseball in the house, basketball, and we watch more baseball than I have watched in my entire life. He flips through games and watches for big name players or his fantasy players, while Kristen, the mom, tells him to leave it on the Red Sox games.
The league I play in is the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). We travel all over New England, four hour bus ride max. Alex Kalogrides and I have been doing pretty well in the bullpen and we have seen a lot of Travis Higgs, who plays for the Manchester Silkworms. So far he is one for three off of me. The Bay Sox management has been great to us as well, we get good meals and they give us everything we need to perform and have fun. I recently had a once in a lifetime experience. The NECBL set up a game against team USA. I got to throw one inning, although I didn't do so well, and it was a great experience facing a bunch of great hitters.
New England is a great place, besides the rain. We had rain every other day, but with all the off days I have got some time to travel around. My parents came out for a three week vacation so I spent some time with them in New York and Connecticut. I also got some tickets from my host parents to a Red Sox game and it happened to be for the day that my girlfriend flew out. My host parents know me so well they got the tickets for when the A's were in town, so we wore our A's jersey and saw eight other A's fans at the game. I am having a great time out here and I wish it would never end. I hope everyone is having a great summer. And staff, AEOP.
