A
few weeks ago, former USC pitcher Lee Gronkiewicz hoped to use an
exhibition game against the Columbia Blowfish as a chance to take
another shot at professional baseball.
Instead, Gronkiewicz was
named the new coach of the Blowfish on Thursday and earned his first
win in Friday night’s 5-0 exhibition victory against the USC Alumni.
“There’s
a lot to it. A lot more than I thought,” Gronkiewicz said. “I was on
the phone this morning with (USC) coach (Ray) Tanner going over stuff
with him because I didn’t know what to do. So I went to the best and
coach Tanner is the best.”
After dropping a 3-2 decision to
Florence the night before, the Blowfish returned to Capital City
Stadium for Gronkiewicz’s home debut and the third installment of their
annual Fourth of July exhibition against the USC Alumni.
Of the
19 players on the Alumni roster, 11 played with Gronkiewicz during his
time with the Gamecocks. The familiar faces caused some mixed emotions.
“Those
are my friends. Those aren’t just Gamecocks,” Gronkiewicz said. “I
wanted to put on the Carolina jersey today. But fortunately I had
different arrangements where I had to come out with the Blowfish. But
if I wasn’t with the Blowfish I would have been over there pitching
with Carolina.”
The Blowfish scored two runs in each of the first two innings off Gamecocks starter Blake Taylor and jumped out to a 4-0 lead.
Columbia
added another run in the fourth on Catlin Carter’s RBI triple to cap
the scoring. Carter and No. 8 hitter Jim Rider combined to go 5-for-8
and were responsible for plating three of the team’s five runs.
With
the “Gamefish” cup series tied up at one game apiece, the Blowfish have
now claimed two wins in a row after taking last year’s game 4-1. The
Gamecocks took the inaugural game 8-5 in 2007.
Alumni team
“owner” Trey Dyson was happy his old teammate earned the victory, even
if it did come at the expense of his own team.
“Gronk is a great
friend of mine. He’s what I was telling people earlier, the word
perseverance is Lee Gronkiewicz,” Dyson said. “He wants to get into
coaching. Hopefully this will be a good start for him. I’m really happy
for him and want to see him do well, and I know he will.”
Following
the win, the Blowfish players gave their new skipper a traditional
Gatorade bath. It was a cool welcome to a new chapter in his baseball
career.
“I’m loving it so far,” Gronkiewicz said. “I didn’t think
I’d be a manager to tell you the truth. I’d always expected to be a
pitching coach. I look forward to it.”
