Now Batting...Number 5...

Pounding a baseball seems to run in the Drake family. The sports section of today's Joplin Globe had pictures of both Patrick and Brayden.

Patrick hit another home run and had the save in a win over Kickapoo on Wednesday. I'll have to find out this weekend if he taunted anyone in the process. Article

Not to be out-done by his younger brother, Brayden (the oldest of my wife's brothers) went out and got himself named Missouri Valley Player of the Week (for the second time this season). Article

Brayden batted .588 for the week and hit home runs in 4 straight games (all road wins including one at Columbia and 3 over Creighton). He is batting .402 for the season.

Brayden set the Missouri State University career record for doubles earlier in the season and added 2 to that total over the weekend. BD is also climbing his way into the top-10 in several other MSU career batting categories as he closes his senior campaign.

One of the things I have always appreciated about Brayden is that he understands the small things of the game. As a high school senior I saw him hit a ball 430 feet to center field (only in Carthage does that land in the park) to give his team the lead in the first inning and the out pitch a guy who has recently been up with the Dodgers. How did that happen? He understood the game and knew how to get batters out. Baseball is a game where being successful usually requires both having ability and doing the small things right, consistently.

This weekend Brayden has a shot at capturing a MVC title with Indiana State coming to Springfield. MSU enters the 3-game set 1 game back of ISU. The following weekend MSU will travel to Wichita for the MVC tournament and hopefully to capture an NCAA regional bid.