The Odds & Ends Page, in particular the part about freshmen, has been updated. Kyle Warner will be happy, as I've capped his and Aaron Thibault's careers and cleaned up the bios of the freshmen who came before and after (Sean Burns) them.

I've also begun thinking about putting together a page on the site with directions to local high schools as a tool for parents - wouldn't it be easier for them to hop on the site during the afternoon of a ballgame and get quick directions than to have to plan stuff out the night before or during the day? I thought so, so that'll be among my next projects. Still have the page of players who played varsity baseball in college in my head - among them being Justin Bissonnette '00, Cason Carey '01, Tom Dicesare '95, Addie Dion '00, Andrew Folley '01, Kevin Grabowski '88, John Hill '94 and Drew Sumner '03. That's where I'll start, and if anyone knows of others I didn't mention (and has proof!), I'll gladly mention them and the years they played at a particular school.

I'm unsure whether the team had a break-up dinner, or whether the Scott Benoit Memorial Award was handed out, or whether the David Saddlemire Scholarship was handed out. Once I find that out, I'll post something. I also do know that Sean Burns earned All-Metro League honors, and I send him my congratulations.

I've been working to move some information from HTML documents to Word docs, which will make it much easier for me to update. Those will hopefully be up shortly, along with a new record book. It will allow me to consolidate about 18 HTML pages into one document, and I'll post it ASAP and then update it for 2006 when I have all of the 2006 info.

Also, Justin Bissonnette '00 e-mailed me with some stories from his playing days, and it was the first batch of stories I'd received since 2002. I've added his memories to the "Pictures & Stories" page, locatable through the "Miscellaneous Pages" link. I'm afraid that this Web site will always be quirky and tough to navigate, but I'm working on it. I hope everyone is well this summer. From North Attleboro, Mass., I wish one and all a happy (and safe!) July 4th.

Let us consider quickly why, as it turns out, it's an advantage that you guys are on the road for the playoffs, beginning with tomorrow's game at CVU. The Lakers have posted a 4-3 road record thus far, their first winning road mark since 2000 (can someone say Division I runner-up?), just their seventh ever to this point, and what could end up being only the second time the Lakers have a winning record on the road during a season in which they have a losing record overall. Let's continue this digging ... CHS's average of scoring 2.75 runs at home is the lowest since 1997 and the third lowest in program history, but the Lakers' 7.71 runs on the road in the best since 2001, and only five CHS teams have posted a higher number. Colchester's pitching has not been as stellar at home as on the road, where the Lakers have averaged allowing 5.0 runs, the best since 1998. The 7.25 runs allowed at home, on the other hand, is the highest for a full home season since 2001. Oh yeah, and five of CHS's last seven wins over CVU have come away from the friendly confines of Colchester High School. That and the Lakers are 7-3 all time when scoring at least four runs at CVU's home field.

Here's something that proves the Northern teams' prowess thus far this year: Teams from the North hold down the top five seeds in the Division I Tournament for the first time that I can remember. I don't have accurate records on 2002 and 2001, but I know Brattleboro was No. 2 in 2000. And, in looking at the Essex HS baseball page and the past D-I champs on the VPA site (find past champs here), it's quite possible that's the first time since 1995 that the top five seeds have been Northern teams. But, not to completely overshadow the South, which is the only team in the state to defeat top-seeded and 15-1 South Burlington this spring? Rutland, which is the ninth seed. By the way, SBHS is 64-10 over the last four seasons. Scary.

Alright, here's a little insight on the playoffs. First off, I'm going to talk about "index rating", and the following information is necessary to know: A team gets five points for a road win over a team of the same division, four points for a home win over a team of the same division or for a road win over a team from a lower division, and three points for a home win over a team from a lower division. For everyone's information, the only teams we play from a lower division are Milton High School and Mount Abraham Union High School. Those two are Division II teams, and everyone else on our schedule are from Division I (CHS is also Division I). With all of this being taken into account, take all of those points, add them up and then divide by the number of games a team played during the regular season, and there's your index rating.

CHS's index rating right now is 1.87, as those four road wins over Division I teams have been very important. In wondering which playoff seed we might end up with, let's consider some of the past years. Last year, our index rating was 1.56 and we were seeded 15th, while in each 2004 (0.88) and 2003 (1.25) we drew seeds lower than 16th, which would knock us out of playoff contention these days. The best comparison I can come up with is 2002, when we went 7-9 during the regular season and had a 1.94 index rating, which helped us get an 11th seed. But, just to prove that the competitive balance shifts each year, we had a 2.19 index rating in 2001 ... and only drew the 13th seed. My guess is that you guys will be somewhere between 12 and 14. Again, that's an estimated guess, and I can't guarantee anything. I'll post more as the picks are made, but with the amount of games played today and that are slated for Monday and Tuesday, things could change quickly around Division I, especially among the Metro League teams.

I've been keeping up with the team the best I can - I have the box scores for the first six games - and I found out that those losses at Middlebury and North Country were the first consecutive one-run losses to come on the road since May 1 and 3, 1990. The North Country game was an anomaly in itself - for many reasons, I'm told - because it went to 10 innings. On only two other occasions has CHS played at least 10 innings. The most recent was a 7-6 win over Winooski at Centennial Field on May 25, 1996, and the other was on May 26, 1992, when the Lakers downed Rice in 11 innings at CHS. You can read about that game here. The Lakers had been involved in only nine other one-run games in which at least 17 totals runs were scored before Thursday's contest.

Let's look ahead to the week upcoming, as I had intended to do this last weekend for this past week, too:

• Milton at Colchester on Tuesday, 4:30 p.m.: CHS is looking for its first win over the Yellowjackets at CHS since 1996, but the last time the Lakers knocked off Milton during a game in which they played the home team was on May 20, 2002, when CHS plated seven first-inning runs during a 7-0 win over MHS on Doubleday Field at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

• Colchester at MMU on Thursday, 4:30 p.m. Obviously CHS looks to avenge an 11-0 loss to the Cougars earlier in the season, the worst shutout loss to Mount Mansfield since May 16, 1978 (13-0), and tied for the Lakers' second-worst shutout loss at home. While MMU has won the majority of the last 11 meetings, nine of those games have been decided by four runs or fewer. Also, keep this in mind: With MMU having missed so many games due to the teacher's strike, the Cougars will be playing make-up and regularly-scheduled games this week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and then also the following Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Not to mention today's game needing to be made up, which might necessitate a five-game slate this week to go along with next week's five scheduled contests. For what it's worth, I'm really happy to see them back on the field. As some of you guys can attest to, teacher's strikes are an uncomfortable time, but having sports put on hold during that time and possibly completely wiped out for an entire season is an unsavory thought, especially when it's all you know in the springtime and after you've been preparing for months.

• Mount Abraham at Colchester on Saturday, 11 a.m.: Mount Abe is having a great year - tied for third in the 16-team Metro League - but CHS has won 15 of 21 meetings dating back to 1980. Oddly enough, since 1996 the Lakers are 1-4 against the Eagles at CHS. In 29 all-time meetings, CHS is 15-14.
  
  

But as it turns out, Joe was the eighth current player to smack his first varsity hit during Colchester's first seven games. In order, here are the previous seven: Bryan Johnson, Ryan Miller (in his first plate appearance, as well), Kris Cauchon, Tyler Bouffard, Andrew Newton, Scott St. Onge and Jeremy Bigelow.

I wanted to write something longer, but this might end up being a tad shorter than I had hoped. Hopefully some of you guys will get a kick out of some of this stuff. First off, it was great seeing everyone at BHS on Friday - it was nice seeing a win, but it was nicer catching up with everyone and seeing how lives are going. The team seems in good spirits, and it was a treat to see everyone playing so well. I hope the momentum carries down the stretch. That and Kris Cauchon called me "Sir". Words can't describe that feeling. Mostly of feeling old. Time for some random notes.

• I'm proud to say that when I guessed back in December what the opening day starting lineup would be (I've done that each of the last six years or so), I got the leadoff (Tyler), cleanup (sticky britches) and the number-nine batter (Kris) correct. The last one was just a lucky guess, the first two were pretty obvious. In comparing last year with this year, I notice Goldy and Sean switched spots. Kris gave the Lakers their fourth straight opening day lineup with at least one sophomore, and their 17th in the last 18 seasons. Mickey was also the first DH in a starting lineup since my senior year of 1999.
• Ryan Miller is wearing No. 9, which automatically endears him to me. Check the uniform numbers page if you don't understand. (Somehow I also got that number as a freshman when Saddie got our names put on the back of our unis. Got it without asking - I was a freshman, I was a bit too intimidated to ask for the number, but I got it anyway.) Kris is the first sophomore to wear 12 since 1987, when Steve Combs '89 wore it. I know of at least 23 players to wear No. 14, and Little Newtie is the seventh since 2003. However, hopefully he will be the first full-time inhabitant of that uniform since Travis Clairmont '02 in 1999 - it was our give-it-to-the-one-day-JV-call-up uniform for a couple years, hence the ridiculous number of players wearing it during that time. Joe Malley is the first player since Jeff Earl '86 in 1985-86 to wear No. 17 in consecutive seasons. Scott St. Onge is looking to become the first player since 1994 to wear No. 18 for an entire season. Coach Flynn is the first person to wear 20 since Tom Klingbiel in 1997. And to cap this all, Thibs is on his fifth uniform number as a varsity ballplayer, with Nos. 4, 6, 9 and 26 preceding his donning 16. First off, that must be a program record, and I doubt that anyone has worn three different numbers ending in the same digit. If anyone wants to look that up, I'll mention you on the site. (I'm looking in your direction, Warner...)
• The 15-1 win over BHS brings about many notes. It was the 200th regular-season win in program history, but it also bumped CHS's record to 2-10 at BHS, including 2-9 against BHS when playing there. (We lost, 3-1, to St. J while playing a game at BHS in 2002 as, for all intents and purposes, we didn't have a home field that year.) Ah, but the two wins at BHS? Well, you know about 15-1, in which (and I have to check this again once I get the stats from Coach Phillips) we had about 16 hits through the first five innings. The school record is 20. I don't know that any of you were born when it happened in 1988. Friday's win was only the 24th time in 513 games in program history that CHS plated at least 15 runs, and only the 10th win by 14-plus runs! (I just looked that up – I didn't realize that. It's a tad scary.) It was our most runs since scoring 17 on May 10, 2001, and was the fifth-largest road win that came on the road. (We beat Vergennes, 16-1, in 2000 as the home team at CHS.) So the other win at BHS? May 1, 1999, Colchester 20, Burlington 2. Five innings. It was my first varsity start, I played second base and grounded out to short twice. Also made my only varsity error. Luke Laroche '00, the current JV coach whom I know you all know, hit a three-run homer, tied a school record with six RBI, and got the win. Not a bad day's work.
• More random game notes: CHS is 1-12 all time at home against Essex ... we're 1-12 when opening the season on the road ... 2-17 all time at South Burlington ... CHS's win over Missisquoi was its first in April since 2003 and the Lakers' first over the Thunderbirds since 2002 ... why was I so intrigued that Goldy was three-quarters of the way to the cycle after only three at bats on Friday? Check the Odds & Ends page (click here) ... after only two players in the program's first 30 years appeared at least once in four different seasons, Kyle became the third against CVU and Thibs became the fourth against Spaulding ... Goldy is the 17th player to appear in three opening day lineups, and the seventh to appear at three different positions (RF, CF, 2B) ... Andrew's brother, Taylor '04, also appeared in a pair of starting lineups ... only 61 times in program history have the Lakers limited opponents to one or zero runs. They did it against Spaulding and Burlington on consecutive days (SHS 0, BHS 1) ... Lance tied a program record with his second career shutout during the win over Spaulding in just his seventh start. He's sure to start more, but the other four he's tied with each started at least eight: Nate Brubaker '93 and Peter Rogers '93 each started eight games on the mound, Kenny Boucher '95 17, and Travis Clairmont '02 19.

So that's pretty much it for now. I hope to pop on tomorrow or so and mention the upcoming week, and also that stretch we have since we last beat Harwood. Something like not since 1982, and well over 10,000 days. Take care, all. Good luck this week.

As far as the frequency with which I'll be doing these updates, well, that is still sort of up in the air. In the past I had also kept the Metro League standings, but this year things will be more difficult. I'm the assistant sports information director at Wheaton (Mass.) College, which has been something I've really enjoyed. With a full slate of sports in the spring - baseball, softball, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, men's tennis, men's and women's outdoor track and field - we have a lineup of great sports teams, many of which compete at an elite level. So that's where the majority of my time is spent, but I don't plan on ignoring the CHS baseball program. Updates just might be a little less frequent than in the past.

Along those lines, I'm aware that some pages haven't been updated in a while, and they will be during the spring at some point. I'm trying to get back up to speed with the site and how I organize some things.

I hope all's well back in Colchester! Hopefully the weather up there is as nice as down here (60-plus for the last couple of days!). Good luck to the Lakers, and enjoy the springtime.