EDITOR’S NOTE: St. Bede’s Ryan Soliman and Brennen Hirst, along with the help of Stuart McGunnigal and Calen Cass, chronicled the Bruins spring trip to Tennessee to play baseball last week for the BCR/Shaw Media. Along with baseball, the Bruins visited Graceland, the site of the MLK’s assassination in Memphis on the 56th anniversary and Pyramid Bass Pro Shops.

MONDAY, APRIL 1: We left around 9:30 a.m. after Coach Booker announced roommate planning for the trip and also conversed information revolving around their upcoming opponents. At around 1 p.m. we checked in at our hotel and later headed to their 4:30 p.m. contest located at Southwestern Illinois College (in Belleville). They faced off against Gateway Legacy Christian Academy (Florissant, MO.) Unfortunately, the Bruins would fall to the Lions in an extra innings thriller (9-innings) by a score of 5-2. Following the conclusion of the game, we dined at Tavern on Main that night for team dinner.

TUESDAY, APRIL 2: We checked out of the hotel and hit the road at 9 a.m. After checking into the next hotel at around 12:30 p.m., a great lunch was delivered to the hotel from Gus’ (World Famous) Fried Chicken. Tuesday’s game would be a JV/Varsity doubleheader against the Dyersburg (Tenn.) High School Trojans at their place. The JV led off the night at 4:30 with a five-inning, 4-2 loss. The varsity would end up losing 3-0 after a complete game 6-hit performance from Dyersburg’s Jake Stanley. The team dinner that night would be Alvino’s Pizza, which was ready at the hotel after the game.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3: This was unanimously the best day of the trip. After departing our second hotel at 8:30 a.m., we went over to USA Stadium (Millington, Tenn) to check the historic field out for a half hour before the game would be played on it later that night. Next, we took a virtual tour of St. Jude Children’s Hospital and looked around it while on the way to the next destination, which would be the Pyramid Bass Pro Shops. We arrived at around 11 a.m. and spent their time (and roughly $3,600) at Bass Pro for three and a half hours while eating lunch there at the Fish Bowl. We left around 2:30 p.m. to check into the next and final hotel. After relaxing at the hotel, we went back to USA Stadium to play our next game against the Strayhorn High School Mustangs. Your Bruins would come out victorious with a five-innings victory in which they crushed Strayhorn 16-2. The team dinner that was player funded, because we independently went to the Chipotle that was a block away.

THURSDAY, APRIL 4: This was an early morning, with the team leaving early in the morning at 7 a.m. to go to Graceland and pay our respects to the late “King of Rock,” Elvis Presley. After 30-45 minutes there, we left to see the Lorraine Motel to honor Martin Luther King Jr., but it was too early to go into the museum. The Memphis sightseeing tour was rounded out with them visiting FedEx Forum. For lunch, the players could go to any nearby food place, but had to pay for themselves. St. Bede’s fifth and final game during the trip was at 4:30 p.m. against First Assembly Christian School (FACS) at their place. They would go on to lose 14-6 in the seventh, giving the Bruins a 1-3 varsity record on the trip, bumping their season record up to 9-4). The last team dinner of the trip would be at Corky’s BBQ, courtesy of the Knoblauch family.

FRIDAY, APRIL 5: The trip sadly ended when we left the hotel at 8:05 a.m. to hit the road home. The trip would end up taking a total of seven hours to arrive home. We arrived back at St. Bede Academy at 4:30 p.m, rounding off their trip and giving all involved great experiences and friendships that will last a lifetime.

Players/coaches reflections

When asked what their favorite part of the trip was, this is how the Bruins responded:

Brennen Hirst (Fr.) - “The rides from place to place and the dinners were the best parts because of the team bonding. Also staying at the hotel with my friends was a fun time.”

Brody Burris (Fr.) - “Bass Pro was probably the best part because of the size of the Pyramid and all the stuff they offered there.”

Carson Riva (So) - “I’d say my favorite part was the fields we got to play on, like SWIC, Dyersburg, and Cordova (FACS). They were great fields that were really well taken care of and made everyone feel like they were playing at a higher level.”

Aiden Mullane (Jr) - “Meeting all different types of people on the field during the games, and all of their personalities being completely different from the last game.”

Nathan Husser (Sr) - “My favorite part was playing at SWIC. Catching a decent game and coming into pitch in extra innings in front of all of the college guys, and everyone being pumped the whole time.”

Seth Ferrari (Sr) - “The best part of the trip was probably getting to play in USA Stadium and hanging with the guys for a week.”

Coach Garet Dinges - “I’d say that the MLK visit was my favorite part because it was the anniversary of the event, it was a spur of the moment decision to go, and it was all the players’ decisions.”