There is nothing better than the feeling a transplanted Bostonian living in New York City feels when his beloved Bosox come to town and make the Yankees look like a corn field after the locusts arrive. You know the feeling. It’s like when the Reds used to dismantle the Dodgers in the 70’s when Tommy Lasorda and company hosted the Big Red Machine in LA. You know what it is like living in Cincinnati when the basketball Flyers come to town and, er, well, bad example. You know where I am going with this. It is always fun watching your favorite team win, but there is nothing like having them win where you live against a team that you could do without.

You see, I live in Columbus, Ohio. I have lived here for 27 years. During that time, I have seen stores completely deserted whenever the Buckeyes play football. I have seen grown men on the cover of the Columbus Dispatch crying like they had lost their first born after a loss to Michigan. If I have seen one of those ridiculous OSU flags on somebody’s SUV, I have seen a million of them. If you don’t wear scarlet and gray to work every Friday during football season, you are viewed as an outsider and will probably be passed over when the next promotion becomes available.

I very often wear a “Dayton Flyers” golf shirt when I am out. I have often been asked, “Who are they? Is that a professional team? What sport do they play?” When I tell them that they are the University of Dayton, they follow up with, “What division are they, two or three?” Some are serious. Some do it just to show the supposed superiority that they all feel. It gets frustrating, but I carry on.

It is rare that I have an opportunity to gloat. We will never play OSU in football and for good reason. For some unknown reason, other than the fact that OSU is afraid to get beaten, we do not even see each other on the basketball court. We have each gone through a couple of coaches since both OSU and UD have found themselves on the same basketball court.

The same cannot be said for the two universities and their baseball teams. UD and OSU will play each other on an annual basis during the middle of the conference season in a mid-week game. Weekends are usually reserved for the more important conference games. It is during the week that teams play close neighbors so no overnight travel will be necessary. It is also during these games that head coaches tend to use pitchers that they are looking to see some improved performance.

Tony Vittorio decided to go with Jake Hanson, a crafty senior lefthander that had seen most of his action out of the bullpen. The first inning gave every indication that this was going to be a high scoring affair with laser shots all over the field. Unfortunately for the Flyers, the Buckeyes were standing in the right spots while the Flyers were not. Hanson got out of trouble with a line drive double play after the first two had gotten on and UD only trailed 1-0 after one.

That jumped to 3-0 after Christian Snavely took Hanson out to the deepest part of the park in the third. It looked like the rout was on and all of my brilliant plans had been wasted. Several weeks ago, I decided to take my 8-year-old baseball team to see this monumental contest and teach them the finer points of baseball. They got an opportunity to listen to UD assistant head coach Todd Linklater talk about the three “E’s” before the game, Effort, Energy and Execution. They were all ears as Linklater told them how important it is to hustle and giving it all that you have. Sometimes the better athlete loses because he is out hustled. I did not realize it at the time, but what he said to the boys would have real meaning later in the evening.

OSU came into the game rated the 25th best team in the country. This is a team that annually laces up its shoes at the beginning of the season fully expecting to be playing in the NCAA Tournament when the end of the regular season rolls around. This is a team that would probably win 7 out of every 10 games with the Flyers. But this was not going to be their night.

UD came back with two runs of their own in the fourth and put together a nice rally in the eighth to take a 4-3 lead. Sam Fisher had come on in relief of Hanson in the fifth and shut down the powerful Buckeye offense. It looked like all of that was going to come to an end when the lead off hitter in the bottom of the eighth lofted a fly to right that Chad Liter lost in the lights for a double. Two batters later the bases are loaded and it looked like the dream was about to turn into a nightmare. With that, Doug Dendinger grounded hard to Aaron Reesh at third, who quickly turned it into a quick 5-2-3 double play. Fisher then got Lance Rolston on strikes to end the potential uprising.

The game wasn’t over, but it might as well have been. The Buckeyes’ blew a golden opportunity and Fisher and Reesh were not going to let them have another chance. With two out and the tying run on first, Reesh raced toward the stands near the third base bag and stretched as far as his 6′ 1″ would allow him to gather in the pop foul to end the game. The nearly 200 UD fans in the stands let out a collective cheer that the Arena crowd would have been proud of.

As I sat there in the stands, I couldn’t help but think about what Linklater had told my 8-year-olds before the game about how hustle can help the smaller, slower, less skilled athlete win. You would have to be blind to not see the advantages that OSU has on the lesser lights in the state. Bill Davis Stadium is a beautiful baseball field that most minor league teams would love to call home. As you look past left field, the view is owned by the newly constructed soccer/track stadium. Center field is owned by the indoor football practice facility. Beyond right field is the home of the Jack Nicklaus Hall of Fame.

It is truly the world of the haves and the have-nots. Yet, even the have-nots can be the David of David and Goliath fame and slay the giant with a little bit of Effort, Energy and Execution.